ext_5641 ([identity profile] pickledginger.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] browngirl 2005-10-09 05:51 am (UTC)

It's been a very, very busy year.

Yes, as others have said, some of it probably is related to climate change:
the number of tropical storms and hurricanes, for instance (we've passed Tammy, which has slipped past tropical depression to a mere rainstorm - so I guess it's on to V, W, then the Greek alphabet);
the intensity of those storms;
tornado number and intensity;
flooding;
mudslides;
drought;
wildfire.

The extent of the human contribution to that climate change is something we cannot yet quantify precisely. (I'll not further discuss it here; the topic is one that provides sufficient fodder for whole communities worth of debate!)

Human construction and habitat management have direct and measurable effects, however, on the frequency and intensity of flooding, mudslides, wildfire and drought. We've built dams and drained or filled wetlands; clearcut forests; overgrazed or plowed the hills and prairies; eliminated many of the small fires that might have prevented larger ones; squeezed out or hunted out many of the animals that might have grazed away the underbrush; redirected water to lawns, showers and irrigation projects, drawing down aquifers millenia old; paved over areas that once would have soaked up the rain (a twofer, this worsens both drought and flooding).

Human habitat selection and construction techniques increase the toll, when those disasters and others do occur. I don't think we've done anything to increase the chance of a quake or tsunami, but we have built high-rise buildings in earthquake zones, and major cities on vulnerable coastlines. We have flammible multimillion-dollar houses on steep, unstable hillsides; subdivisions in fire-prone mountain ranges; metropolitan areas on river floodplains and stormy coasts.

Humankind has, increasingly, been putting itself in harm's way.

If current trends continue, do you think the waterfront may again be a place that the houses of the rich overlook, rather than occupy?

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