9 votes

Our US disaster recovery system must evolve to respond more effectively to climate change

Posted by boxer_dogs_dance
Tags: climate change, usa, disasters.natural, hurricanes.helene, hurricanes.milton, politics, policy.environment, disasters.humanitarian, preparation.disaster, personal histories, opinion, author.sarah labowitz, source.the washington post, paywall
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/18/hurricane-disaster-recovery-helene-milton/

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Title
Opinion | I study disasters and survived them. Here's how we can recover better.
Published
Oct 18 2024
Word count
956 words

2 comments

  1. l_one
    Link
    Helpful tip: while paywall circumvention sites didn't work for me this time, opening a private browsing window and reading the article in that did - I think it was a matter of no cookies in the...

    Helpful tip: while paywall circumvention sites didn't work for me this time, opening a private browsing window and reading the article in that did - I think it was a matter of no cookies in the private browsing window.

    While I agree with the article whole-heartedly, I sadly do not expect we will see these kinds of adaptations (encouragement and support for moving from severely climate affected areas to less affected areas) until we have so much more disaster and suffering, on a scale we haven't seen yet.

    Momentum is our enemy. Political momentum of politicians who will certainly resist any migration exodus that would force them to acknowledge people shouldn't live in their states, or even specific areas of their states. People who see the existing recovery mechanisms of insurance and FEMA that would help them rebuild where they already were and not want change (as a large-scale average, there will of course be individual exceptions who act intelligently).

    If we (collective we) were more rapidly adaptable, this would be less of an issue... but we are modern humanity, with all the social / economic / political issues that comes with that.

    Articles like this a part of the solution. Public education and furthering awareness of the specifics of the problem and the changes we need to make to address them are part of the solution. But, cynically, I am personally sure that real policy change that gives strong financial encouragement to local migration won't happen until there is much more suffering.

    Ultimately treating the root cause of climate change by reducing carbon output needs to be the goal... but we (humanity) have known that for decades... and yet, momentum.

    1 vote