The following thread was posted on gnusocial:
(1) Posted by: simsa04@simsa04@gnusocial.net
It really annoys me to read that "this-or-that natural catastrophe" is the "consequence of climate change", and then the whole story continues to beat this old horse.
Yes, climate change contributes to weather catastropes, be it wildfires in California or floods in Europe.
But Germany had been warned nine (!) days in advance via satellite data about the flooding. Data didn't just cover the areas of main rivers but of the tributaries as well.
The reason why the flood went so deadly was NOT climate change but, e.g.:
• soil sealing
• a fragmented system of flood warning
• authorities not heeding warnings by the German weather service
• complex or ill-defined responsibilities of local and state authorities
• citizens not educated in how to behave in times of catatrophe.
You cannot blame these failures on climate change, but you sure keep ignoring them and continue to fail in prevention and climate mitigation when you keep hiding them behind chatter of climate change.
(2) Reply from: band @band to [@simsa04]
the best part of that post are the explicit distinctions among infrastructure investment, competent operation, and the facts of climate warming.
(3) Reply from: simsa04@simsa04@gnusocial.net to [@band]
Yes, I look at it from the same perspective as the pandemic. This is a learning situation (not: "opportunity"). It's a test how well infrastructure and administrative chains work in case of disaster, how well humans are prepared and cope, etc.
Most of our infrastructure is decades old, severely underfunded, in bad shape, only shakingly integreated with modern tools of data-gathering, satellites etc. In order to get climate mitigation going, we need to know where we stand and what needs to be refurbished (sadly: most thingss).
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But there have already been good lessons in the flooding (at least in my view):
Only minimal looting but maximum solidarity and voluntary mutual assistance, so no breakdown of civilian order. (Cf https://psmag.com/economics/there-are-no-natural-disasters to see that prepper doom scenarios are unrealistic. But then it's not the end of the world, not in vain, and that means: We can and should prepare.)
The first to respond have been farmers. This is important because of all private citizens in Germany it's them who have heavy machinery (tractors, trailors, front-end loaders) in direct vicinity of settlements.
Most farmers don't have all equipment share in local cooperatives ("Maschinenring"). Strengthen those cooperatives as fall-back for heavy equipment.
Supplement disaster protection with people and groups from sectors who know how to deal with heavy stuff and how to organise quickly (restaurant workers, event roadies, film crews).
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#infrastructure #climate