With rising temperatures, more potent storms and disruptions to the ocean’s food chain expected, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by climate change.

But John Marra, the Honolulu-based climate services director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the East-West Center, says policymakers need to be engaged in “climate proofing.”

Marra is one of the featured speakers at an international climate change conference being held at the University of Hawaii this week.