Last night, Asheville City Council received a report on what the city is doing to address climate change. Scientists define climate as long-term, widespread weather patterns. Politicians define it as any weather event and extrapolate anomalies expeditiously. This year’s extreme rainfall is, therefore, political proof of global warming – er, cooling. Assistant Manager Cathy Ball reported multiple municipalities are preparing strategic plans for climate change. Asheville’s response to public demand to “do something” was predictable. They will search out best practices, solicit public input, perform some analyses, you know. Just off the cuff, in light of how easy it is to predict weather, no less climate change, it seems maintaining a healthy fund balance is a fair strategy. It would be awful to have a nice flood prevention program and get hit by a drought. It would be worse to spend so much on drought, blizzard, flood, forest fire, earthquake, etc. mitigation that the taxed citizens can’t enjoy the average day. Then again, maybe government could start stockpiling food, James Bond vehicles – Hey, isn’t it the churches that usually pull through in natural disasters while government officials fly over the scene for photo ops and bureaucrats consult attorneys and shuffle papers?
by Leslee Kulba
Wild West blogger