By Steve Ulvi
Journal contributor
In modern human lives, our understanding and perspective of longer-term cycles and patterns in nature is woefully deficient. Nature deficit disorder is multigenerational. A herd mentality and first-world arrogance blur the real dangers of profound natural catastrophe and lead to a false sense of security when large numbers of people settle in landscapes of disaster.
We are not particularly wise in researching the geography and weather regimes in considering a home. Yes, there are many who have no real choice due to generational patterns, systemic racism, family ties or limited funds. But most of us have the wherewithal to consider options in choosing affordable places to live.
Perhaps you too have noticed that “natural disasters” of tragic proportion currently come along at about the same frequency as mass shootings in America. More accurately described “natural disasters greatly escalated by too many people living in disaster-prone areas” is breathless headline news, response/cleanup is a growth industry and an exponentially increasing blood and resources cost for taxpayers.
The costs and complexities of age-old natural threats to life and property are snowballing due to the nasty synergy between population overshoot, population growth in dangerous locations and extreme weather events fueled by steadily increasing oceanic and atmospheric heating.
The latest example: the recent, tragic but unsurprising, new chapter of southern California wildfires. Extended drought, extreme “Santa Ana” winds, low relative humidities and flammable vegetation have existed there for hundreds of thousands of years. Now add the sprawl of flammable structures. Just because moderately wealthy individuals flock to upscale scenic locations to assume or ignore the “risk” of repeating events like wildfire does not make it socially reasonable or acceptable.
The astronomical costs to taxpayers, costs of response agencies gearing up, vast resources dumped, all citizens paying more for insurance and metastasizing lawsuits can only be absorbed for so long. These will prove to be socioeconomic “tipping points” that severely escalate the costs in life and business, just as natural tipping points will continue to exacerbate feedback loops with atmospheric warming and average annual temperature rise.
But the good news is that we live in a great place unaffected by the most common slate of destructive natural disasters – wildfire, landslides, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, extreme heat or cold, tornados and floods – despite hand-wringing by nervous nellies. I really appreciate the recent joint communique by local fire officials properly dampening any correlation between increasing wildfire disasters and our wildfire threats.
The bad news is that this “Goldilocks region” and our seemingly idyllic islands are no secret. Small cohorts of people wisely abandoning places of disastrous natural events and immigrating to western Washington (with money) will take one more step to live out here. Or build one of many vacation homes as personal investment with little socioeconomic benefit to us.
But instead of natural disaster threats we cope with a debilitating socioeconomic malaise. We are also in a critical time of national political chaos, federal funding uncertainties, overwhelming growth regionally and highly volatile summer tourism fouling our nest.
I like to think that our local leadership finally understands the drastic housing crisis. Less expensive, less complicated tiny house and enhanced mobile home rural clusters, and planning and expensive infrastructure for our dormant urban growth area will lead to a more sustainable and self-determined future on San Juan Island.
