{"id":1905,"date":"2015-07-07T05:26:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T10:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/growpurpose.com\/charlestongood\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2015-07-05T22:26:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T03:26:59","slug":"some-thoughts-on-resiliency-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/charlestongood\/some-thoughts-on-resiliency-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on Resiliency & Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

This open letter is reprinted with permission from the author.<\/em><\/p>\n

Folks,<\/p>\n

This 9 minute PBS news video, “A Tale of Two Cities,<\/a>” compares efforts by New York and Charleston to prepare for climate change, with a focus on sea level rise.\u00a0 In sharp contrast to aggressive planning and implementation of “resiliency” measures that could allow New York to cope with higher seas, Charleston has yet to acknowledge or confront the challenge.<\/p>\n

As the report notes, Charleston is by no means alone.\u00a0 Many coastal cities have simply ignored the need to identify and begin making the substantial investments needed.\u00a0 In South Carolina, only Beaufort is engaging in a fairly robust conversation about resiliency.<\/p>\n

This attitude, which psychologists call “motivated avoidance,”\u00a0persists in spite of the six-fold increase in dry weather flooding \u2014 described in the video by Chris Carnevale with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy \u2014 and in spite of the fact that the costs of upgrading urban infrastructure are so large that they will only be bearable if we being now.<\/p>\n

The section on Charleston begins around the three minute mark.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/m.youtube.com\/watch?v=52Csw9Hj9Jo<\/a><\/p>\n

A related subject that is receiving some attention, although little action, is the need to upgrade our transportation infrastructure in the face of dramatic increases in population and commerce.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s\u00a0Post and Courier<\/i>\u00a0contains an excellent series of articles \u2014 the local ones by Diane Knich \u2014 exploring the challenge of deciding what steps can be taken to improve mobility and reduce congestion.\u00a0 More challenging is the dilemma of ensuring that additional transportation funds go to solve bona fide problems.\u00a0 For fifty years, South Carolina’s approach to transportation has been almost entirely political.\u00a0 It is the misdirection of billions of tax dollars to projects that do not address state needs, not the lack of funds, that has left South Carolina unable to maintain the existing road system, much less invest in needed new capacity.\u00a0 The link to the lead article is first.<\/p>\n