After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and Super Storm Sandy, most rational nations would have imposed restrictions on coastal building and devoted meaningful portions of the national treasury to fund scientific research to limit future loss of life and economic hardships from such monster storms. And yet, here we are in 2017 facing the current reality: vast swaths of a major economic hub, Houston, lies in ruins from the flooding unleashed by Hurricane Harvey while the entire State of Florida awoke this morning to the chaos unleashed yesterday and overnight by the bizarre 415 mile-wide Hurricane Irma, with a reported 4.5 million homes and businesses currently without power in Florida, a state where temperatures routinely reach into the 90s in September and air conditioning is a necessity, not a luxury.
The leadership in Washington has not reflected that of a rational nation for many years now and, tragically, U. S. citizens, for the most part, have allowed their democracy to become a spectator sport.
We currently have a President who has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, putting at risk international cooperation to combat global warming and sea level rise, two clear contributing factors to the increasing frequency of the so-called 500-year storm. As David Dayen wrote recently at the New Republic:
‘The city [Houston] suffered a ‘500-year flood,’ defined as one with a 0.2 percent chance of occurring in a given year based on past experience, in 2015. It had another 500-year flood in 2016. And it’s experiencing something much bigger than a 500-year flood right now. Maybe it’s time to admit that past performance is no longer any indication of future results.’
This post was published at Wall Street On Parade on September 11, 2017.
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