I first wrote about the idea of a gap between the value we claim for places and assets and what they're actually worth if we price in the risks of climate chaos and ecological collapse — the "brittleness bubble," though I wasn't calling it that then — back in 2002, when I was working on Wild Green Yonder.
If you told me that 22 years later experts would be widely acknowledging the crisis, but the public remained clueless and/or in denial, I wouldn't have believed you.
I really thought we were smarter than this. I really thought that when the rising waters were lapping at our front doors, at least then we'd see emergency-scale efforts to save what we can.
The crisis is here now, though, we're still barely responding — and nowhere are we doing enough.
(I was also optimistic that we'd hold warming to two degrees, but that's another story.)
As Western North Carolina, Valencia, and Catalonia remind us, the President-elect is not in control, collapse is. Halting climate mitigation will just accelerate his loss of power.
i cannot explain to you in words how deeply fucked up and cruel this joke is.
like, i cry every christmas. every birthday. does my daughter know its a holiday? did i get her what she wanted? will i ever know if she knows it's christmas?
go to hell.
"This initiative—which was funded by a millionaire hedge fund owner from CA with ties to the fossil fuel industry—is deceptively framed... I-2117 would ultimately cost the people of our state far more than its backers claim it will save." - @RickSteves
🔗https://t.co/UqaWW7S10P
Dear #waleg,
If the One Seattle Comp Plan update goes through as it stands, please introduce legislation to nuke it from orbit on day 1 of the upcoming session.
Signed,
Seattleites who want to increase affordability, protect the environment, & end residential segregation
BREAKING: In a stunning moment, CNN just fact checked Donald Trump’s claims that FEMA is skimming funds off the top for migrants. It’s no shocker that Trump is lying for his own benefit. Retweet so all Americans see the media hold Trump accountable.
“A startling statistic emerged in Paris last month: during the morning and evening rush hours, on representative main thoroughfares crisscrossing the French capital, there are now more bicycles than cars – almost half as many again, in fact.”
Leadership. https://t.co/iuR1CQ0PqD
If you're understandably upset about climate change this week, a reminder of why it's happening, where oil company profits come from, and that changing the design of our cities is a huge part of the solution
Climate chaos is coming for us.
Some places face bigger risks than others, but no matter where we live, we're gonna struggle to adapt to events like nothing we've seen before.
I'm a climate futurist.
Let me level with you about what this means.
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(Img:OldMarshallJailHotel)
Dave McConville grew up in and around Asheville North Carolina and built a 3-D virtual replica of the flood-prone network of river basins and steep slopes in WNC (western North Carolina) to help drive flood-safer planning. The immense destruction from #HurricaneHelene - which was preceded by hurricane-triggered floods in 2004 and 1916 - has revealed the scope of the challenge remains enormous. Here's our #sustainwhat pop-up chat. Some flood-history context: https://t.co/V97eezWBag 1/2
Some disasters render most reasonable preparations useless. Deluges like these are not really something you can defend against.
Yes, people can move to relatively safer places. But we offer no real support for doing that, and folks have homes, lives and communities they love.