Storm Warnings -- A Guest Commentary

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As New Orleans dries out and some semblance of normalcy begins to return for its luckier residents, we are just starting to think about the lessons that will have to be learned.

As New Orleans dries out and some semblance of normalcy begins to return for its luckier residents, we are just starting to think about the lessons that will have to be learned. But it is not too early to see that a series of missteps, mistakes, and human mismanagement of our natural resources, especially water resources and our climate, made things far worse than they would otherwise have been. For skeptics who think that our wealth and economic strength insulate us from our natural world, Hurricane Katrina is an urgent wake-up call.


The seeds of the destruction in New Orleans were planted more than a century ago, when we began to manipulate the mighty Mississippi River. By channeling the river, constructing levees, and building in the floodplains, we ultimately condemned New Orleans to become a sunken, walled city, surrounded by water. As the Dutch learned long ago, living below sea level behind earthen walls requires a level of attention, awareness, and careful management that cannot waver over time.


The mismanagement of the Mississippi River also contributed to the destruction of the Gulf Coast marshes south of the city by depriving them of their sustaining silt, now disappearing into the depths of the Gulf. As the silt was lost, so were the marshes and their rich ecosystems, along with the physical protection they offered in absorbing the power of hurricanes and storm surges. The Dutch have begun to restore marshes and protective floodplains and to limit construction in vulnerable areas. In the coming years, we must rebuild our coastal wetlands as we rebuild our devastated communities. And we must rethink insurance programs that make it possible to build in vulnerable areas.


Simultaneously, our elected state and federal officials misjudged the proper balance between fiscal restraint and the maintenance of the defenses needed to protect our citizens. We cannot let our politicians pretend there is no relationship between cutting taxes and cutting essential services. They are one and the same. By cutting taxes, they dried up funds used maintaining and strengthening levees, setting the stage for those levees to fail. By cutting taxes, they cut emergency service capabilities at all levels. Just two months before the storm, funding for an analysis of how to protect the Gulf Coast from a Category 5 hurricane was shelved due to federal budget cuts.


To compound the problem, one of our key forms of disaster response ”“ local National Guard units ”“ is largely committed in Iraq. Nearly 6,000 Guard troops from Louisiana and Mississippi, about a third of the total from the two states, are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. These troops have the vehicles, communications equipment, and skills most suited for disaster relief. While other states, and the generosity of Americans as a whole, eventually helped to deliver what is needed, the local response was not as large or as effective as it would otherwise have been. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has noted the ripple effect this will have on the entire military and National Guard structure.


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Finally, some of our elected officials continue to believe there is no relationship between human-induced climate change and our well-being, or they assume the impacts will be acceptable. This is simply wrong. Scientific evidence of climate change is undeniable. Some of this evidence suggests that global warming will intensify hurricanes, and we are already witnessing rising sea levels, which over time will greatly increase coastal risks from storms and flooding. Was Katrina ”“ thought to be the strongest hurricane ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico ”“ even slightly more energetic than it would otherwise have been? Perhaps -- we don’t know for sure. Was that little bit of energy enough to make the difference between levees that held versus levees that failed? Perhaps. Again, we cannot be certain. But we know enough now to realize that twentieth century tools for managing our natural resources are inadequate for the twenty-first century and that the kind of disaster we’re now dealing with along the Gulf Coast may await people living in Miami, Washington, California, and indeed, much of the world.


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Based in Oakland, California, the Pacific Institute is an independent, nonpartisan think-tank studying issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security. Information on The Pacific Institute's funders is posted on its website.


Dr. Peter H. Gleick is President of the Pacific Institute, a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the Water Science and Technology Board of the US National Academy of Sciences, and an expert on water and climate issues.


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