“Super storm Sandy”; The New Norm?

I guess it was ten years ago when I first saw a story depicting a major hurricane impacting New York City. Last night, that prediction came to pass, as Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coast with devastating force. Much of Atlantic City, NJ was severely damaged, including landmarks that have been a part of that area’s history for more than a century, which now lay in rubble. Much of lower Manhattan was flooded as well, crippling the mass transit systems, and causing hundreds of thousands of power outages. Although everyone saw this coming, days in advance, many thousands have lost everything, and several dozen have lost their lives.
As I watch the news now, the day after, I am also astounded by the damage to my home, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Many people within the global scientific community are conceding to the fact that no matter what the root cause, the sea is warming and rising. This year, for instance, the Northern half of the Atlantic Ocean reached temperatures three degrees higher than ever in recorded history. In light of this fact and many other facts about of the effects of climate change on our daily lives, some are taking heed to warnings from the scientific community, and preparing for more of this weather, most likely for decades to come.
This change in our global weather system is not only responsible for stronger storms in our oceans, but the drought conditions much of our nation, and other world nations are facing. These conditions are not predicted to change for the better for decades at least. While some continue to ignore and mock these scientific predictions, a few are listening to the science, and seeing the proof in their neighborhoods right now, again.
The Governor of New Jersey has vowed to rebuild, and to go one step further, rebuild with a plan for enduring the future catastrophes that are sure to come. I have seen reports where he has pledged to base the plan for reconstruction on not just a one hundred year plan, based on current predictions for sea level rise, and temperature changes, but looking forward with a five hundred year plan. Many may find this approach “cavalier”, or wasteful, however, I have been beating my head against a wall of resistance to change for years now, calling for a similar plan for our coastal plain development and infrastructure. I find his plan to be that of a pioneer, a visionary that believes that the legacy left behind should not be more disasters and financial losses from continuing what I believe to be wasteful practices, such as are currently in place here at home. With only touching on two of the projects under current implementation here in Dare County, NC, one might find more than $2Billion in “wasteful spending”, potentially over the next fifty years. This is yet one more futile cry, to those of you that choose to believe in the predictions, and who do not want our State run by politicians who’s only goals are to think in four year increments, and getting re-elected by pandering to tourism dollars, mostly from our real estate moguls.
In closing, I just want to state that I will continue this fight to re-think the way we develop our area, not only for our continued enjoyment, lifestyle, and safety. But I think it is imperative that we immediately begin to heed these warnings, and implement a hundred year plan, starting with our coastal school boards, to get funds to our teachers and tools to our children. We need to inspire them in math, science, and engineering. We have a choice. We have Congressional candidates who have plans to develop green energy sources, and bring the businesses that will build the solar panels, and wind turbines to Eastern North Carolina. I am backing him, and I hope you should all choose to do so as well. We can not only rebuild our infrastructure more responsibly, but in doing so, create thousands of jobs over the coming decades, and attract companies such as Google and Siemens, among others to our area. We have a choice, in my opinion. We can continue to back those that want to keep up with business as usual, and continue to be ravaged by future storms, or we can demand a responsible approach to changing the very face of North Carolina’s coastal plain. We can, like New York, and New Jersey, serve as a beacon and an example to sea side towns worldwide that will be faced with the same challenges that we are sure to face as a community in the decades to come.