The Cost of Inaction
As civilization faces a warming planet, the likelihood of weather events such as Hurricane Harvey only increases. We must set aside our differences and act against this growing threat.
As I write this, friends and family members along the Gulf Coast are receiving evacuation orders that are either imminent or underway. The threat is too close to comfort, but the threat is real. I was born in Houston, Texas. My earliest memories of the kind of flooding we are seeing today were those of Tropical Storm Allison. I remember witnessing the pain of refugees who survived Hurricane Katrina and the panic induced by Rita just a few months later. I spent a summer at my mom’s house in the dark without electricity in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, and just last year looked in disbelief as April showers brought floods only known during hurricane season. This week’s storm has introduced us to a whole new scale of flooding.
My immediate thoughts and prayers are with my fellow Houstonians and everyone spread along Harvey’s path in Texas and Louisiana. The people who live there are born with Southern grit, and I know their resilience will get them through this. I’m hoping though, that just as much as this strengthens the character and resolve of a people, every Houstonian treats this as a loud and firm wake up call. This storm is something entirely unknown in the collective history of our people, but not entirely unforeseen.
As industrial civilization maintains its consumption of carbon fuels, and these fuels burn heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, more heat energy will accelerate water evaporation over the planet’s seas and oceans, thus affecting precipitation in relation to all the water being held in the atmosphere. Hurricane Harvey is entirely consistent with long-term meteorological trends. Storms such as Harvey that are “catastrophic”, “epic”, and “disastrous” [1] are likely going to be the new norm. The only thing known for certain is that we are venturing into greater and greater unknown territory in this history of human existence. To complicate matters, we have an additional threat — an internal threat being ourselves if we fail to act. Politics is distorting this very real threat and inhibiting our ability to combat these disasters.
In May 2014, the Obama administration released an 841-page National Climate Assessment through the efforts of over 300 authors drawn from a wide array of local, state, tribal, and federal agencies; academia; and private and public contributors. The message was clear: record-setting climatic events were already being observed. Politicians on both sides of the aisle responded in predictable fashion. Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) rebuffed the report as a “political document intended to frighten Americans,” and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticized those who were denying “the reality of climate change” [2]. Texas politics has overwhelmingly favored the camp of deniers. It is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the country [3], and host to the nation’s oil and gas capital. Houston, therefore, is in a difficult place. It is the center of a multi-billion dollar economy of which its current and future ailments are a direct symptom and is engulfed by a political environment that largely rejects the notion that such a link exists. As we speak, reality is raining down on the Lone Star State regardless of its political affiliation.
I write this because I am deeply concerned. Yet I am hopeful in our capacity to act. When the flood waters recede and the reconstruction begins we absolutely cannot forget this learning experience. Houston must adapt to a changing climate and it must ween its economy from a very destructive industrial way of life. These are not easy words to come by. These are words that need to be backed by policy at the local, state, and federal levels and accompanied by citizen participation within and without government. These policies must be implemented consistently albeit gradually. And most importantly, they must be done in a vacuum of political deceit, opportunism, and mudslinging. Houston is not alone, for the challenge is global. Deadly monsoon rains are devastating millions in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. Forest fires are raging in Canada and Eastern Europe. Droughts are exacerbating conflicts in parts of Africa and the Middle East. Our fate as citizens is inextricably bound to the fate of our entire planet. Nothing in history has had a greater potential to unite us all. It does not require an Act of God [4], but rather the combined actions of men and women working together toward a common goal.
We must be sure, however, that we do not stand in our own way. The political bickering in this nation needs to stop, for the costs of inaction are piling up at this very moment.
