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The article says federal government is funding ($40M so far) the program that in part educates people on climate change and rising waters and people are appreci

The article says federal government is funding ($40M so far) the program that in part educates people on climate change and rising waters and people are appreciating the honesty. It also talks about oil and gas exploration as one of the reasons for coastal erosion. Lastly they'll force people and their properties out but still allow commercial development on the property(I guess more oily and gassy things?). I am not sure what to make of it all but at least they're doing something about it.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
“Commercial development would still be allowed, but developers would need to put up bonds to pay for those buildings’ eventual demolition.” This is actually an extremely sound policy Louisiana has put forth for handling a situation they have little control over. I’d expect it to become a model for other coastal states who will be facing similar issues as sea level rises (with exceptions for very wealthy communities, such as Miami Beach, where they can fund hundreds of millions of dollars in preventative measures for the moment).
- bilbo0s 9y ago
  "...preventative measures for the moment..." doesn't sound particularly reassuring when making long term real estate investment decisions. But I suppose people who buy property in Miami Beach don't really care about losing the 10 million they put into that condo or whatever. That's probably a rounding error for those people. And I'm pretty sure there is no critical infrastructure in Miami, so it wouldn't matter to the rest of us anyway. Places like New Orleans, Norfolk, Portland, Houston, New York etc should probably take priority. Those are the places where if they disappeared tomorrow, people in other places in the US would definitely feel a pinch. Not just the US either... if some of those ports disappeared, it would directly affect the nutritional intake of children in other parts of the world.
  - scoggs 9y ago
    After what has happened in recent years with Katrina (even if it's a 100 year storm in an area that gets them yearly), Houston (more familiar with hurricanes but not as clueless as New Jersey) and Sandy (hitting a totally unprepared area in the worst way we've had in my lifetime) I'm surprised there isn't so much more emphasis on prep for future natural disasters. I, obviously, worry that climate change denial and other science denial is preventing the masses from believing that these types of storms won't become more frequent or scarily the norm. I say that it can't hurt to better prepare if not over prepare and I scratch my head wondering why it barely seems like steps are being taken to do so. I can only speak for my local area but New York City and New Jersey were not prepared at all. I was in a pretty good physical location when the storm hit, all things considered, but we were without power for 10 days. Luckily we had a gas station within walking distance and they gave priority to people who walked up with gas cans over cars in the mile long line idling around our neighborhood. There were a bunch of news stories about people stealing generators. Necessities were sold out basically everywhere with little chance of restocking. Things got hairy, for sure. The amount of people who scoffed at warnings were most likely the ones depending on a handy neighbor who was better prepared and better suited to calming down and making the best of the bad situation. I think it was a much needed, although terrible, wake up call for unprepared folks. It was really nice to see so many people band together but the main takeaway I got from it was that I've never seen my area so close to complete breakdown and eventually mass chaos. Why we aren't doing more to prevent that exact type of fallout from something we KNOW is coming? It feels like the definition of insanity to do otherwise. After witnessing it first hand and having no idea what it would be like to live in a hurricane or natural disaster-prone area, having to deal with it yearly, I NEVER want to deal with that again. Since I really have no say in what mother nature does, all I can do is say I NEVER want to be as unprepared for another disaster as I was before. I also realize it's not so simple to pack your entire life up and move to a "more safe" location but there has to be some sort of graph where the cost of paying out insurance, cleaning up the mess, restoring supply chains, and all the other costs that come with a natural disaster equalizes with the cost of preparing as best as possible.
    - clebio 9y ago
      Thank you. Living in a successful metro area as I do, I'm fairly sure that the _entire area_ is one or two failures away from Mad Max-level hysteria. It doesn't take much (a few days without potable water or gasoline, say). And yet, we're balls-to-the-wall consumer capitalism all the way, baby. A bit of planning would make months of difference.

toomuchtodo 9y ago

“Commercial development would still be allowed, but developers would need to put up bonds to pay for those buildings’ eventual demolition.” This is actually an extremely sound policy Louisiana has put forth for handling a situation they have little control over. I’d expect it to become a model for other coastal states who will be facing similar issues as sea level rises (with exceptions for very wealthy communities, such as Miami Beach, where they can fund hundreds of millions of dollars in preventative measures for the moment).

bilbo0s 9y ago
"...preventative measures for the moment..." doesn't sound particularly reassuring when making long term real estate investment decisions. But I suppose people who buy property in Miami Beach don't really care about losing the 10 million they put into that condo or whatever. That's probably a rounding error for those people. And I'm pretty sure there is no critical infrastructure in Miami, so it wouldn't matter to the rest of us anyway. Places like New Orleans, Norfolk, Portland, Houston, New York etc should probably take priority. Those are the places where if they disappeared tomorrow, people in other places in the US would definitely feel a pinch. Not just the US either... if some of those ports disappeared, it would directly affect the nutritional intake of children in other parts of the world.
- scoggs 9y ago
  After what has happened in recent years with Katrina (even if it's a 100 year storm in an area that gets them yearly), Houston (more familiar with hurricanes but not as clueless as New Jersey) and Sandy (hitting a totally unprepared area in the worst way we've had in my lifetime) I'm surprised there isn't so much more emphasis on prep for future natural disasters. I, obviously, worry that climate change denial and other science denial is preventing the masses from believing that these types of storms won't become more frequent or scarily the norm. I say that it can't hurt to better prepare if not over prepare and I scratch my head wondering why it barely seems like steps are being taken to do so. I can only speak for my local area but New York City and New Jersey were not prepared at all. I was in a pretty good physical location when the storm hit, all things considered, but we were without power for 10 days. Luckily we had a gas station within walking distance and they gave priority to people who walked up with gas cans over cars in the mile long line idling around our neighborhood. There were a bunch of news stories about people stealing generators. Necessities were sold out basically everywhere with little chance of restocking. Things got hairy, for sure. The amount of people who scoffed at warnings were most likely the ones depending on a handy neighbor who was better prepared and better suited to calming down and making the best of the bad situation. I think it was a much needed, although terrible, wake up call for unprepared folks. It was really nice to see so many people band together but the main takeaway I got from it was that I've never seen my area so close to complete breakdown and eventually mass chaos. Why we aren't doing more to prevent that exact type of fallout from something we KNOW is coming? It feels like the definition of insanity to do otherwise. After witnessing it first hand and having no idea what it would be like to live in a hurricane or natural disaster-prone area, having to deal with it yearly, I NEVER want to deal with that again. Since I really have no say in what mother nature does, all I can do is say I NEVER want to be as unprepared for another disaster as I was before. I also realize it's not so simple to pack your entire life up and move to a "more safe" location but there has to be some sort of graph where the cost of paying out insurance, cleaning up the mess, restoring supply chains, and all the other costs that come with a natural disaster equalizes with the cost of preparing as best as possible.
  - clebio 9y ago
    Thank you. Living in a successful metro area as I do, I'm fairly sure that the _entire area_ is one or two failures away from Mad Max-level hysteria. It doesn't take much (a few days without potable water or gasoline, say). And yet, we're balls-to-the-wall consumer capitalism all the way, baby. A bit of planning would make months of difference.