Adapting to Climate Change Won’t Save Louisiana’s Coast
Isle de Jean Charles is now completely surrounded by open water. (Ted Jackson, NOLA.com)
Today I’m wondering what Republicans – and other self-described conservatives – would think of this story.
“A man arrives at the emergency room of the local hospital with blood pouring from a severed artery in his leg. The doctors quickly set up a transfusion to replace the blood. But he tells them not to close the wound.”
Now, obviously the patient is going to die because the hospital will run out of blood. Or, depending on the guy’s insurance, he’ll run out of coverage. Either way, under this treatment scenario, his next stop will be the cemetery.
OK, so why am I asking conservatives about this?
Because that’s the treatment plan they’ve settled on to confront the mortal wounds being inflicted on their communities by global warming. They have begun seeking billions in tax dollars for temporary treatments to “adapt” to warming’s very real symptoms, which they already are experiencing.
These include rising tides causing city flooding; greater destruction from more frequent and larger tropical storms; catastrophic flooding from record rains; fractured infrastructure; failing water supplies; drought, and more frequent and intense fires.
But they don’t want to take steps to reduce or eliminate the cause of their suffering: global warming resulting from human-produced greenhouse gases.
Read the rest of the article at The Times-Picayune.
