Katrina. Harvey. Will we ever listen to the scientists ABOUT what is truly the greatest threat to homeland security?
I am tired of tv commentators tiptoeing around the issue of Climate Change when talking about Harvey. This storm was not simply a “freak of nature”; it reflects a new reality. It’s not a 1000 year storm . . . there’ll be another one like it in a timespan measured in a few years, not a millennium.
This tragedy and other climate change induced disasters have been predicted with eerie accuracy by scientists, After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many people made reference to a National Geographic article by Joel K. Bourne, Jr. from October 2004 which predicted a levee failure in New Orleans during a major hurricane, and the subsequent destruction to life and property.
This wasn't the only prediction which unfortunately came true about New Orleans - many other scientists published similar warnings WELL BEFORE Katrina. But Bourne's article was one of the most stark, because it painted an (at the time) fictional picture which later came true. From Bourne's article describing New Orleans after a catastrophic fictional Category 5 Hurricane, published 11 months before Katrina:
A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, . . . As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it. Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste.
Now, history has repeated itself in terms of prescient scientific journalism. Here is an article
"Boomtown, Flood Town" from December 7, 2016 about the flooding problem in Houston, written
by Neena Satija and Kiah Collier for The Texas Tribune and and Al Shaw for ProPublica, The subhead just about says it all -
written 9 months before Harvey:
When Climate Change Meets Sprawl: Why Houston's 'Once-In-A-Lifetime Floods Keep Happening
Climate change will bring more frequent and fierce rainstorms to cities like Houston. But unchecked development remains a priority in the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for some while increasing flood risks for everyone.
The article details the failings of city planning (planning?) throughout the region, plus the denial of key administrators in the flood district about the science which predicted the growing risk. Their arrogance and stupidity go hand-in-hand.
At what point do we get fed up with the climate change deniers (especially those in Trumpland) and anti regulation zealots, and call them to task for eroding our homeland security as well as jeopardizing our economic well-being? Islamic terrorists didn't kill 50+ people in SE Texas; climate change and lack of zoning did. Spending on entitlements isn't bankrupting the US; spending untold billions on disaster assistance at the expense of education and infrastructure is the greater risk.
We all face a foreboding future if we don’t do something about it.
Those who deny the crisis are unpatriotic traitors to the American Way, plain and simple.