Arkansas Times columnist Billy Fleming has an op-ed with co-writer Katie Randall for Earth Day in the Houston Chronicle today.
Fleming and Randall argue that climate change is the nation’s single biggest threat to economic growth and national security and that President Trump has failed to act:
Post-Hurricane Maria, much of Puerto Rico still lacks basic services, to say nothing of new investments in protective, coastal infrastructure.
Post-Hurricane Harvey, Houston continues to suffer from a lack of coordination — and a surfeit of tension — between the city and state recovery efforts.
Even post-Hurricane Sandy New York remains without a single major built project in response to that storm. The national system for responding to disaster is broken. The national system for anticipating disaster and adapting our communities to a changing climate is non-existent.
“As climate change quietly became the most pressing societal concern in the United States,” write Fleming and Randall, “the vacuum of leadership amongst elected officials is placing tens of millions of people and trillions in economic value at risk.”