Harvey should sound a loud alarm to low-lying places across globe

While it is humane and essential that we help the residents of Houston recover from the ravages of Hurricane Harvey, it’s also essential to recognize yet another example of radical climate change.

Catastrophic events, such as Harvey, that have ravaged Houston, the Gulf, and many other low-lying areas in the world, should be a loud alarm, that we are not pursuing prudent policies.

Texas has embraced the cancerous “growth” policies that made such a disaster inevitable, encouraging a private car culture, not only dependent on the automobile but on the outmoded technology of internal combustion engines and fossil fuels to fuel their economy.

Houston has ignored, for decades, sound city planning that could have greatly lessened the impact of severe weather, but the city chose to build with few restrictions.

Does this sound familiar to Phoenicians?

It’s easy to mouth sympathetic pieties and chest-thumping brags, but unless we enact policies based on science and empirical observation regarding climate change, the Gulf area will continue to drown, while other parts of the country such as Arizona wither under crippling heat and drought.

Facile responses such as “we will rebuild!” simply lead to the same mistakes with the same old technology, cheered on by the same old opportunists.

— Jeff McMahon, Tempe