Food for thought on the Iowa floods
By Brad Johnson
I think Friends of the Earth has a good response:
If we don't have honest discussions about our failures of planning and
the need to respect climate change when we rebuild, we're all in a heap
of trouble.
I hope what I've been writing doesn't sound too much like an “I told
you so.” That would be upsetting. I've been primarily trying to do two
things — sound the alarm and help people understand that we need to
and can mobilize to minimize these kinds of disasters in the future.
Chris, I think, wrote a well-balanced post:
http://bleedingheartland.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1567
Elanor also did a remarkable job trying to sound the warning about the
potential toxicity of the floodwaters, and how because of the Bush
administration, we're unprepared to deal with that, as well.
http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/06/19/underinformed-and-underwater/
The Bush administration has been suppressing this kind of knowledge for
the past eight years. They should be held accountable. For example,
from a report on the climate-extreme-weather link released today by
NOAA after years of delay:
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/19/global-boiling-report/
“Some short-term actions taken to lessen the risk from extreme events
can lead to increases in vulnerability to even larger extremes. For
example, moderate flood control measures on a river can stimulate
development in a now “safe” floodplain, only to see those new
structures damaged when a very large flood occurs.”
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