Green New Deal? How about Economic Infrastructure New Deal, instead?

Whether one “believes” Climate Change is “real,” or not, is totally a specious argument.

Specious means “superficially plausible, but actually wrong.”

Why is it specious?

Arguing about what causes rain while your roof is leaking is pretty stupid, don’t you think?

And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening.

This map shows federal flood damage claims from 2008 to 2018. Flood risk in many parts of the U.S. is on the rise, in part because climate change is driving more frequent and intense storms, higher seas and extreme rain. Extreme rain in 2013 caused catastrophic flooding in Boulder County, CO, including dangerous flash floods. Similar storms in 2011, 2014 and 2019 flooded much of Holt County, MO. –– Flood Insurance Claims Per 1,000 People, 2010-2018

Some people (Climate Change Science deniers) are arguing about the causes, while the devastation it wreaks continues UNABATED.

Instead, what we NEED TO DO is REBUILD -and- EXPAND our crumbling national Economic Infrastructure to – as much as possible – reduce the influence these events have upon us.

Even BIG INSURANCE companies all agree that the economic losses our nation is suffering CANNOT be sustained without serious lasting damage to our national economy.

The Geneva Association (properly, The “International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics”) is a leading international think tank of the insurance industry, which detects early ideas and emerging debates on political, economic and societal issues concerning the insurance industry.

In November 2018, they published a research paper titled “Global Weather Catastrophes, Trends, Losses, Insurance Costs Source: Managing Physical Climate Risk—Leveraging Innovations in Catastrophe Risk Modelling,” and in it, wrote in part that,

“Over the last three and a half decades, we have observed a trend of rising economic losses from extreme events globally. Between 1980 and 2017, Munich Re’s NatCatSERVICE reported 17,320 disaster loss events. Of those, 91.2% were caused by weather-related extremes (meteorological, hydrological and climatological events), accounting for 49.2% of the total of 1,723,738 lives lost, 79.8% of the total USD 4,615 billion in reported economic losses and 90.1% of total insured losses of USD 1,269 bn.

“In 2017, weather-related extremes accounted for 97% of total reported economic losses and 98.2% of total insured losses. A significant portion of economic losses, particularly in the middle- and high-income countries, were caused by damages to infrastructure.

“Destruction, disruption, interruption in critical infrastructure could lead to cascading effects across sectors and sometimes across borders, causing significant harm to populations’ well-being and hindering socio-economic growth. Over the last three and a half decades, a significant portion of economic losses were related to impacts of weather-related extremes such as inland and coastal floods, windstorms, hurricanes, droughts and heat waves on critical infrastructure.”

NatCatSERVICE is “Natural Catastrophe” Service, a natural disaster and economic modeling program.

You KNOW that Insurance companies seek to minimize their financial losses by any means possible. And when it comes to love of money, they’re A-Number-1. So I think it’s wise to heed what they say about what their research is showing.

Here’s an excellent news story about flash flooding in Old Ellicott City (the historical district of Ellicott City), in Maryland illustrated with time-lapse videos which shows the devastation wreaked in a short period of time.

http://apps.npr.org/ellicott-city/

Rebuilding, repairing, reinforcing and expanding our nation’s Economic Infrastructure will establish a firm foundation upon which we can grow, several generations into the future.

It will reinvigorate, revitalize, and rejuvenate our economy via the Private Sector, limit economic losses, save lives, and demonstrate American ingenuity, and creativity while reestablishing a sense of national pride, and unifying everyone under our common banner as the United States of America.

It’s time to take action.

Help cannot wait.