QPORIT

We are ALL living on a wild planet.  It obeys natural not human laws. There is a massive amount of energy coming from the sun to animate the seas and the air. Earth’s interior is still hot, and the land is moving, literally, under our feet, powered by the huge energy of gravity. 

As a result, we have hurricanes and tornadoes that roil our air and our oceans, earthquakes and volcanoes that move our land, and by so doing poison the air and raise the sea with tsunamis.

The power of the forces that disturb our Earth exceeds the power of humans.  ALL humans

At this moment in time, we are nowhere near, in our human technology, from overcoming the terrors that natural power can invoke. 

But we can ALL work together to mitigate the harm that nature wields against us.

With one hurricane, Helene, just past, and  another, Milton, about to strike, striking in fact the same region as Helene, this is not a time to play politics, but it is a time for serious politics. Serious politics is the art and science of working together to protect each other.

With rising temperatures fueling more and more violent weather, and raising sea levels, we must, as a world community, while we strive to find technologies and behavior that will help alleviate the causes of rising temperature, we must all devote more resources to mitigating its effects.

Physical engineering,  social engineering, and social planning must work together to recognize vulnerabilities, prevent them as much as possible, and prepare to defend them when they are attacked.

In this country, much more needs to be done. Some simple steps include much more money for FEMA; applying building codes to prevent houses from being built in fire zones; and requiring buildings and all infrastructure to withstand earthquakes and tsunamis, even those of currently almost unimaginable severity.

We need to recognize areas that are vulnerable, and provide escape routes, as well as reducing the risks through engineering and planning.

As just one example, Long Island, in New York State, has not had a bad hurricane in a long time. As we watch the storm blow into Florida, we should be thinking about Long Island. It is long. Many people live there. Even more come there during the hurricane season. There is very little capacity to move people from the East back to New York City. It is very low. A major hurricane, with a major storm surge could completely flood the center of this long island, creating two short islands. A major hurricane that crosses the center of Long Island with little warning, could create one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States.