Comment by ced
8 years ago
> I'd argue that the actual solution to global warming will be more akin to "stepping out of the way": people will evacuate from major cities, major cities will be destroyed,
And the people too poor to evacuate will stick it out in the city hoping for the best, and die in the aftermath of the next catastrophe.
A mass evacuation out of Houston for a hurricane is impossible. I have seen it time and time again - every time they try to evacuate us, a bunch of people just die in the streets, and then there's the risk of a NOLA situation where all the people who are poor to evacuate at every whisper of hurricane die of disease from disgusting floodwaters, or exposure. Or drown.
The population of the Greater Houston area is 5.6 million. Just look at the map https://goo.gl/maps/rU1ZWvfjy9w You can get out via 45, 59/69, i-10, 290, 69NE, or hell even 249. It's quite possibly the most spider-webbed city in the country. You can go to Austin, Dallas, San Antonio.
And every hurricane those freeways are deadlocked, and people are caught by the storm from behind, and old people's oxygen tanks explode on their busses because of texas heat, and that's without a full-blown evacuation ordered. We even run out of gasoline, the Oil City.
I'm not sure what the solution is but yea, evacuation out of Houston is not an option. I just wish there was some way to tackle the "big truck" mentality out here so we can start reducing our contribution to climate change. Our one attempt to build a inner-city metro is a comical failure that people just crash their giant trucks[1] into on a regular basis because they built the damn thing on ground level on main street.
[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq6W45lG1Jg)
I believe they were talking a bout a slow, permanent evacuation of an area likely to get hit by more and bigger floods coupled with rising oceans.
How does that work? There's a reason why all the world's biggest metropolises are on the coast. Were would the people go? There are 20 million people in the Tokyo area.
And its actually not a problem. Rich countries can build flood defenses just fine. The Houston flooding could have easily been prevented if the US cared about infrastructure. After Katrina plans have been submitted. They just need funding.
When the alternative is
> even if they were willing, by the time you got through to someone with the power to stop the trains you'll probably be dead anyway.
But in reality, "we're" not just doing one thing. There are many things going on to solve the problem from multiple levels. While Tokyo is building up flood protections, Australia(n banks) is actively divesting from fossil full projects.