Year 3, Month 2, Day 18: Bad Moon Risin’

Inexplicably, the Columbus, Indiana Republic runs an AP article on the Vermont state government’s intelligent approach to climate questions:

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A new report by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources says flooding from Tropical Storm Irene shows the state needs to be better prepared for future flooding.

The state’s “Climate Change Team” says climate change data predicts that Vermont will get more extreme rain events in the future, so “flood resiliency” may be a critical adaptation to climate changes.

The report shows that Vermont’s river communities, which were hit hard by Irene, are vulnerable to intensive flood disasters.

The report begins to count the costs associated with that vulnerability and asks some of the hard questions our state and communities will need to answer in order to build flood resiliency.

As usual, it’s the Republicans who’ve made a mess of everything. Sent February 13:

Even as the federal government remains paralyzed by Republican intransigence in the face of climate change, state and regional agencies are engaged and active. The report from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources is a lesson to other states: don’t swallow the denialist’s assertions without thinking.

For make no mistake, the signs are in the offing. Climatologists predicted a drastic increase in extreme weather events as the greenhouse effect intensified, and the data pouring in from all over the world has shown that the only errors these scientists made were in underestimating the force of the disruption. At this stage of the game, it’s undoubtedly too late to avoid billions of dollars of costly and inconvenient damage to our infrastructure, our agriculture, and our security — but by acting promptly, we may be able to avert the most catastrophic of outcomes. The Green Mountain state is leading by example.

Warren Senders