The North Carolina Department of Transportation reports that I-40 and I-26 are impassable in multiple locations and that hundreds of roads in western North Carolina — like this collapsed section of I-40 — remain closed. (Photo: NCDOT)
Tempting as it might be for those who’ve long watched, worried and warned about the increasingly destructive impacts of climate change, the massive – what many are describing as “Biblical” – destruction wrought last week by Hurricane Helene is not a moment for lengthy “I-told-you-so’s.”
No, much as some might want to devote their energy to detailing how and why we’ve known for years that storms like Helene were and are fast becoming the new normal in our warming world, this is not the time for victory laps or settling old debating scores.
What’s needed now is action – forward looking action to tackle the crisis with every tool at our disposal.
And admittedly, it’s a daunting proposition.
When it comes to climate change and the way it’s rapidly remaking our world for the worse – more and more intense severe weather like Helene, rising oceans, species extinction, mass human migration — the temptation to throw up one’s hands in despair or surrender is powerful.
It’s the kind of despair that thousands of North Carolinians are feeling right now as they survey their wrecked homes and communities that will never be the same.
It’s the kind of surrender that one sees and hears in the voices of those who tell us that the solutions to the existential challenges we face are to crank up the air conditioner, and “drill, baby, drill” for still more fossil fuels.
And yet, as scientists have repeatedly and conclusively demonstrated, there are numerous vitally important things humans can and simply must do right away to slow global warming and better prepare for the huge challenges that a fast-warming planet poses.
First, of course, is rapidly ending our addiction to fossil fuels and dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Even if we were to meet the ambitious goals set forth by the Biden-Harris administration and various international bodies – goals that right now we seem unlikely to attain – the severe storms, intense droughts, searing summers, intense wildfires, and frightening weather swings are going to continue to get worse.
And that fact serves only to heighten the urgency of the second obvious imperative: making large new investments in infrastructure and sustainable energy systems.
Even for those who stubbornly cling to the fantasy that pollution-induced climate change isn’t real, Hurricane Helene just reenforced an undeniable message about infrastructure on a planet of more than eight billion people.
In other words, whether you accept the plain truth that climate change is making storms like Helene more frequent and intense or not, you can’t deny that when they happen, the destruction is greatly worsened by the fact that our fast-growing population continues to turn more and more once open and uninhabited land into urban hardscape.
In 1944, North Carolina maintained less than 12,500 miles of hard surfaced roads. Today, that number is well over 100,000 miles. Meanwhile, huge and growing segments of the population reside in suburban environments in which the miles of roads and utilities per household is extremely high. In such a radically transformed environment, handling even moderate storms requires vastly more careful planning and hardened infrastructure.
On Sunday, western North Carolina Congressman Chuck Edwards reported that 360 electric substations had been knocked out of commission by Helene and that “There is a high likelihood that the substations are not reparable, and replacement of the substation equipment will be necessary.”
And, of course, all of this sobering news comes only a few days after another storm — one so modest that it didn’t even claim a name — wreaked havoc on the North Carolina coast.
Fortunately, as noted above, it’s still not too late to act to save much of our state and nation as we know and love them. We have the resources and know-how to transform our energy system, preserve and protect more open space, and make inhabited areas vastly more resilient.
The trick, of course, is that these things will require a concerted, all-hands-on-deck effort — one that involves the public and private sectors working together to plan, to invest big dollars, and to make several important system changes. And that means electing leaders who will both be guided by science and resist the temptation to sacrifice our core public structures on the tax cut altar.
Less than a year ago, the North Carolina Department of Transportation reported that low pay was contributing to a 20% job vacancy rate — hardly the kind of numbers we’ll need to rebuild the west and make the rest of the state adequately resilient.
Next week, the North Carolina General Assembly returns to Raleigh and could, if its leaders mustered even a hint of the political vision and courage, make the necessary appropriations — in storm relief, renewable energy, urban planning and infrastructure — and jumpstart the actions that are so desperately needed. Adequate reserve funds are plentiful, and such legislation could win enormous bipartisan support.
Let’s hope they act ambitiously and that if they don’t, voters will keep in mind that climate change and our ability to withstand it will both be on the ballot this fall.