Untitled Document
As bad as Hurricane Katrina was for the entire Gulf Region, the reality
of global warming tells us that planning for future storms must include the likelihood
that even larger, more powerful storms may occur and even become more common.
Sea temperatures are rising and will likely to continue to rise. Sea levels may
rise further over time. Storms that were category one's in the past may become
category two or three storms. We may have to invent new categories for future
storm classification.
Plans to rebuild New Orleans should reflect these emerging realities. Plans
to further develop coastal areas of the entire Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coasts
of North America should reflect these realities. We may see future storm
of 250 miles per hour winds, or even 300 mile per hour winds. We may see gigantic
storms and gigantic storm surges and massive flooding of regions in ways that
could make Hurricane Katrina seem small by comparison.
Global warming is changing the realities of life within a hundred or
more miles of those coasts. We may find that either we will have to quit building
developments and start recovering coastal wetlands, or establish ongoing massive
evacuation plans for entire regions. Can we afford this?
Hurricane Katrina has taught us that failure to implement risk planning protocols
turns a storm into a human disaster of almost limitless potential. The Bush
Administration clearly does not "get it" and still may not. The Bush
Administration believes it is economically unsound to prevent global warming,
but not unsound (apparently) to spend tens of billions of dollars in rebuilding
cities and infrastructure. The very processes of rebuilding place yet more strain
on natural resources, needlessly requiring timber harvest and industrial activities
that yet further global warming impacts.
There is a wise saying: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure". If we had prevented the destruction of New Orleans by
wise prevention, many lives would have been saved and enormous fiscal expense
to a nation already deeply in debt could have been avoided. If we do not get
a handle on our societal impacts to global warming, we will find that we may
not be able to afford all the "cures" whose sources and causes we
could have prevented with some wisdom.
Bush the Elder used to use the word "prudent" when discussing
government planning and action. We need prudent government now more than ever
before, and unfortunately, it is a term totally unfamiliar with Bush the Lesser
and his crowd. Governance without prudence moving forward is a disaster in the
making.
