Budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and the elimination of the Global Change Research Program will drastically reduce the United States’ ability to prepare for future natural disasters.
According to an article published in Ecological Economics, climate change and coastal development are anticipated to increase hurricane damage around the globe. But scientists are having a hard time estimating the magnitude of those increases because of uncertainties about climate change’s role in the formation of hurricanes.
Preparation and awareness are what saves lives in mother nature, and knowledge is power. In the face of record breaking natural disasters, there’s no such thing as “too prepared.”
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget plan for the 2018 fiscal year will cut EPA funding by 31.4 percent and staffing by 25 percent, according to InsideClimate News, a nonpartisan news organization. Less funding means less research, less knowledge and ultimately less power when catastrophic natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey hit.
The GCRP, which is a part of the EPA, is up for elimination in the proposed budget. The GCRP develops scientific information to help policymakers, the public and others respond to climate change.
Without proper and adequate research, data and analysis, lawmakers will struggle to stay ahead of natural disasters; and as we have already learned, the worst thing to be in the face of a mega-storm is unprepared and ignorant.
The main White House proposal called “A New Foundation For American Greatness” boosts spending on public infrastructure, but what good is infrastructure built without proper research on how it will be affected by more record-breaking natural disasters?
The cause of climate change is a multi-faceted issue. Some think humans are fully responsible while others think it’s just the way the earth works.
Whether humans have caused it or not, the fact remains that the intensity, frequency, and duration of North Atlantic hurricanes, as well as the frequency of the strongest hurricanes, have increased substantially since the early 1980s, according to data from the GCRP.
Natural variability, human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gasses and particulate pollution have all been shown to influence sea surface temperatures the report said.
According to NASA, the current warming trend is significant because most of it is has a 95 percent probability to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century. There is low confidence in relative contributions of human and natural causes in the increases according to the GCRP report, but these discrepancies are all the more reason to continue research. Scientists aren’t sure what is causing more intense hurricanes, and with severe budget and staffing cuts, we may never know.
In a time when “record breaking” has become a meteorological cliche, research regarding prevention and preparation should be a priority. Preparation and knowledge in the face of natural disasters is what saves lives.
Breanna Smith is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
