Creeks Will Rise

"e;It costs much less in lives and property to listen to science and take action now"e; -Michael C. MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs, Climate InstituteGlobal climate change has graduated from a scientific theory to a costly fact of life in the United States. The number of disasters causing damages over a billion dollars has more than doubled in the last five years compared to the previous forty-five years. Last year, there were a record twenty-seven such events, resulting in 568 fatalities and damages of nearly $183 billion. Since 1803, the federal government has helped Americans deal with weather disasters, but governments at all levels have not kept up with the accelerating pace and intensity of these events. Government programs should evolve. America's response to climate change both its causes and impacts must evolve at every level of society. The focus should shift from controlling nature to working with it. Disaster preparation, response, and recovery should shift to disaster avoidance. Policies must confront global warming's principal cause burning fossil fuels and stop encouraging citizens to build and rebuild in dangerous places. In regions where hazards are less predictable, such as tornadoes and heat waves, communities should assume that no area in America is immune to the effects of climate change. Every community must adapt. The Creeks Will Rise: People Coexisting with Floods makes a compelling case that we must begin collaborating with nature. William S. Becker is one of America's pioneers in these approaches. In the 1970s, he proposed the nation's first project to relocate a flood-prone village to higher ground and to rebuild it as a solar community. In the 1990s, while a senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy, he formed teams of experts to help communities rebuild after disasters using sustainable development principles. Today, he advocates that federal disaster programs be reinvented to confront the emerging climate reality. We must collaborate with nature rather than trying to control it.