The thing about Houston
Aug. 28th, 2017 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterIt is a shame that so many people with so few means are caught (again) in this.
I got to know a lot of people in Texas who simply refuse to criticize the oil and gas industries there, or refuse to engage in dialogue about climate change, because they had family members working in those industries. To me that is the absolute worst sort of behavior. Institutions and industries that cannot even deal with conversation about addressing potential problems leave themselves vulnerable and get "blindsided."
You could also blame the politicians who let the city sprawl across floodplains due to the lack of zoning. You could also blame greedy developers who build on those floodplains in spite of the risks. You could also blame people for continuing to use and rely on outdated calculations for flood risks.
If you live in that part of the country for any period of time, the flood risks quickly make themselves very apparent. I am sure the Villa Maria house has had a couple inches of water in it during this storm. I can understand those strong desires to own one's own home, and how those desires cause people to take certain risks.
I deeply hope that Texans can extract themselves from this particular situation with minimal suffering and loss of life or livelihood. But I also deeply hope that Texans realize this kind of event is highly likely to happen again, and they need to work very hard to address this kind of problem on multiple, deep levels that include full understanding of the impacts of climate change. Katrina wasn't a fluke. This is going to happen again. This is not a time to fuck around.
I got to know a lot of people in Texas who simply refuse to criticize the oil and gas industries there, or refuse to engage in dialogue about climate change, because they had family members working in those industries. To me that is the absolute worst sort of behavior. Institutions and industries that cannot even deal with conversation about addressing potential problems leave themselves vulnerable and get "blindsided."
You could also blame the politicians who let the city sprawl across floodplains due to the lack of zoning. You could also blame greedy developers who build on those floodplains in spite of the risks. You could also blame people for continuing to use and rely on outdated calculations for flood risks.
If you live in that part of the country for any period of time, the flood risks quickly make themselves very apparent. I am sure the Villa Maria house has had a couple inches of water in it during this storm. I can understand those strong desires to own one's own home, and how those desires cause people to take certain risks.
I deeply hope that Texans can extract themselves from this particular situation with minimal suffering and loss of life or livelihood. But I also deeply hope that Texans realize this kind of event is highly likely to happen again, and they need to work very hard to address this kind of problem on multiple, deep levels that include full understanding of the impacts of climate change. Katrina wasn't a fluke. This is going to happen again. This is not a time to fuck around.
