Hurricane Sandy became a monster storm long feared on the East Coast, crippling transportation, destroying some communities and killing an estimated 100 people. It also became the biggest national news story of the week, bringing up serious issues regarding the climate, politics and preparedness and response. What do you think?
This year's election has been a dizzying assault on the intelligence of the voting public. One of the many fantastic things we have been asked to believe is that fossil fuels are the engine of future prosperity and national security. The candidates are falling over themselves to advocate for more drilling, more mining and more hydraulic fracturing. We are supposed to rally around resource extraction anywhere and everywhere in the name of jobs, jobs, and jobs.
The devastation of Hurricane Sandy might just create those jobs. Rebuilding homes, businesses, transportation systems, water and power utilities and more, will take a massive effort. Jobs designing and building new infrastructure to protect our coastal cities from future weather events may also be created. Is this what the fossil fuel enthusiasts had in mind?
During this campaign season our country experienced massive droughts, two hurricanes and raging fires that burned thousands of acres of forests and hundreds of homes. The environment and climate change never became part of the campaign rhetoric.
Of course, no one can say that Hurricane Sandy is a direct result of global warming. Doesn't that sound like the cigarette industry's assertions that there is no causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer? Maybe all the severe weather events in the last several years are just a coincidence. If you believe that, there is some nice oceanfront property in New Jersey I'd like to sell you.
Mother Nature's perfect storm collided with Human Nature's imperfect fallibility. Still, there's hope for Homo sapiens. By using our evolving brains, we can take steps to lesson the impact of future storms.
First, let's examine the causes of Sandy's strength, three of which are related to global warming: a warmer Gulf Stream, diminishing Arctic ice, rising sea levels, and a colluding high tide. According to Tim Spangler, local meteorologist extraordinaire, the Gulf Stream's warmer than normal temperatures allowed Sandy to gather more energy and moisture from a farther north position than usually occurs this time of year. Moreover, the lack of Arctic ice may have strengthened the high over the North Atlantic, preventing Sandy from swinging easterly and dissipating farther out in the Atlantic. Sandy's more westerly position allowed her to cozy up to hulking, western, cold fronts, producing high winds and heavy precipitation. Add these factors to a 100-year rise in sea levels and the coincidence of high tide, and we realize that Sandy behaved just as scientists predicted.
We can't blame Sandy's destruction on bad luck. Instead, blame falls on our tendencies to believe "it can't happen to me," to build in fun places rather than safer locations, to ignore warnings from party-pooper authorities, and to prioritize taxes for vote-getting, glamorous projects rather than boring infrastructure. Until we take preventative action, Mother Nature will continue to slam us. Just remember it's not all her fault.
On a larger scale, Hurricane Sandy reminded me of the Colorado blizzard of 2003, which dumped up to seven feet of heavy snow throughout the Rocky Mountains. In Boulder, the storm buried cars, cut electricity for a day, shut down businesses and schools, and left people stranded--short-term prisoners in their own homes. Some roofs collapsed and property damage totaled in the millions. But once the flakes stopped falling, the city went to work plowing streets and restoring power, and Boulderites were soon able to resume their normal lives.
The Northeast communities hit by Sandy, however, will take much longer to recover. Repairs are already estimated at $20 billion, power will not return for weeks in some parts, businesses will forfeit significant revenues, and residents will spend months putting their lives back together. Tragically, the death toll has climbed to over 80--lost lives that can't be replaced. Even though readiness and response time are being touted and the destruction could have been much worse, Sandy's havoc is depressing and long lasting, no matter how optimistically you frame it.
To be candid, I've been a skeptic of global warming. Lately, though, I've been questioning if the preponderance of 100-year catastrophes in the past decade is merely a blip in the weather patterns of the past 5,000 years -- or symptomatic of true climate change. After witnessing one weather-related disaster after another, I'm increasingly persuaded that ominous environmental transformation is afoot.
Did god create FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency? You might think so, given flack Mitt Romney has received for suggesting that state governments and private organizations are better suited for disaster relief than a federal agency. But FEMA's creation is secular: executive orders by Jimmy Carter in 1978.
Unfortunately, Romney has since retreated from his position. He could have reminded voters of the president's actual constitutional responsibilities. As Gene Healy summarizes in "The Cult of the Presidency," they are to "execute the laws, defend the Constitution, protect the country from foreign attack and domestic insurrection--and little else." Instead, Romney's capitulation reinforces the common infantile view that the president is, in Healy's words, a "father-protector and national nursemaid."
Hence it's no surprise that presidents use FEMA for political advantage. "States politically important to the president in his reelection bid have a significantly higher rate of disaster declaration," explains a Cato Institute policy analysis, "Flirting with Disaster: The Inherent Problems with FEMA."
Romney should have cited hurricane Katrina. As the Washington Post reported, "While state and federal officials have come under harsh criticism for their handling of the storm's aftermath, Wal-Mart is being held up as a model for logistical efficiency and nimble disaster planning, which have allowed it to quickly deliver staples such as water, fuel and toilet paper to thousands of evacuees."
Alas, despite a government program's waste and ineffectiveness, many voters soon consider it indispensable.
Brian T. Schwartz
Tuesday's Daily Camera cartoon, in which "Frankenstorm" welcomed the candidates to "our presidential debate on science and global warming," nailed the haunting lack of any mention of climate change during the three other debates. New York's Governor Cuomo noted with irony that the new normal includes 100-year storms every two years. Nobody's laughing.
The vast majority of America's major cities lie on our coastline, but even Chicago had surfers on Lake Michigan enjoying 25-foot waves. Who cares whether the climate is changing due to human activity? The only question that matters is what humans can do to slow it down or quickly adapt.
The precautionary principle warns that we should do both. Profligate squandering of liquid carbon fuels and thoughtless burning of polluting coal presents much more risk of harm to our children and our children's children than annual budget deficits and government debt. A recovering economy will address budgetary selfishness, but there is no Plan B for our planet.
Yes, we should harden our coastline cities to protect human settlements there -- that harm is already upon us. $5B for tidal flood gates are a bargain when compared to the estimated $60 billion in damages inflicted by Hurricane Sandy. Infrastructural investments are a wise use of public funds and they create good jobs. Boulder's CAP tax (2B) is an excellent example of taxes well spent. Making our homes and businesses more energy efficient is a no-brainer. Let's git 'er done!
(The Camera's editorial advisory board members are: Judy Amabile, Anne B. Butterfield, Ed Byrne, Jimmy Calano, Dave Ensign, Clay Evans, Steve Fisher, Spense Havlick, Cinda Kochen, Marc Raizman, and Brian T. Schwartz.)