Climate Changed and Waters (un)Settled

Energy and sustainability, Essay, Imminent Urban Commons, Kelly Shannon, No Density, Politics and economics, Urban Paradigms

Climate change, Climate disruption, CO2 emissions, Ecological footprint, Energy, Energy consumption, Environment, Environmental phenomena, Essay, Extreme environments, Gas emissions, Global Awareness, Global warming, Houston, Imminent Commons, Infrastructure, Landscape, Natural ecology, Nature, Planetary urbanizations, Political ecology, Politics, Rethinking Urban Environments, Sea Level Rise, Seoul Biennale 2017, Stormwater Management, Sustainability, Urban Paradigms, Urban policies, Urban political ecology, Urbanism, USA, Water, Water infrastructure, Water level

Previously published in Landezine -- https://landezine.com/climate-changed-waters-unsettled/

During all the media coverage—particularly in the United States—of Hurricanes Harvey (Category 4, 17 August-1 September), Irma (Category 5, 30 August-12 September), Jose (Category 4, 5-22 September) and Maria (Category 5, 16-30 September), the flooding and subsequent trail of destruction in Houston and southeast Texas, South Florida and the Caribbean, there was ceaseless talk of the ‘catastrophic,’ ‘historic’ and ‘unprecedented’ scale of the events. There was virtually no discussion of climate change, ill-conceived urbanization and the racial inequalities embedded within it, threats to human health and natural ecologies, the need to upgrade severely dilapidated infrastructure or even the continuing practices of 21th century colonialism (evident in much of the tourism-dependent Caribbean with Dutch, French, British and American ‘territories’).