The fate of America’s fourth-largest city holds the world’s attention, but it is hardly alone. In India, Bangladesh and Nepal, at least 1,200 people have died and millions have been left homeless by this year’s monsoon floods. Last month torrential rains caused a mudslide in Sierra Leone that killed over 1,000—though the exact toll will never be known. Around the world, governments are grappling with the threat from floods. This will ultimately be about dealing with climate change. Just as important, is correcting short-sighted government policy and the perverse incentives that make flooding worse.
—-The Economist, How government policy exacerbates hurricanes like Harvey
I’ve read that for each dollar spent on flood mitigation, four dollars is saved on disaster relief — not even taking into consideration the human suffering involved. The trouble is the people making a profit/saving money by ignoring the longterm consequences are usually not the ones paying for the disastrous results.
But one can always hope.
https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-climate-change-for-the-hurricane-harvey-disaster-blame-society-83163
Lots of luck with that, I’m afraid. Although FEMA was a lot more prepared for giving aid this time — they learned from Katrina.
Neither article mentions one of the biggest problems — too many people. Even though the rate of increase seems to be going down, the world now has 7.5 billion people and is projected to grow to over 8 billion by 2025. The number of humanitarian disasters is bound to increase, and there are plenty occurring right now as it is.
“But for those living on the streets, there were no offers of shelter, said Brijesh Arya, the founder of Pehchan, an organisation that supports Mumbai’s homeless families. He said the community kitchens, government help, and shelter provided by churches, temples and some shopkeepers, were reserved for better-off residents.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/mumbai-residents-count-cost-rain-floods
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2017/0901/Poor-state-planning-blamed-for-1-400-killed-in-South-Asia-floods
almost every coastline in America is over developed with huge condominiums and homes and hotels and restaurants and marinas for the wealthy to live and play.
but sand is sand. and the ocean is a powerful adversary who doesn’t care how much money you have or how foolish you are!
Money does count. Taxpayers pay for those people to rebuild and rebuild. The aim is to restore what was there before. Over and over again.
we aspire to look at some thing other than another house, a building…we want the open space – that the sea side provides.
whenever we have big storms here, the cliff-top houses either get more unsteady or they have to be evacuated…
We can relate to that aspiration. Wildfires are the big threat here, but worth the risk.
I’m usually optimistic, but I think the prospect for solving this problem is dismal. As you say, humans are too short-sighted and profit seeking to pay attention.
We probably couldn’t do it perfectly, but presumably every little bit helps. We will have to see. The more disasters the taxpayers end up paying for, the better the chance of changes.
Same flooding issues here too. There have just been major floods in North West Ireland, but I don’t see much discussion about how such floods can be prevented. The general attitude still seems to be, oh well, it’s one of those things, we’ll just have to rebuild. And more houses get built on flood plains and natural drainage areas get covered in concrete.
Who pays for the rebuilding? Doesn’t anyone ever clue in?