[BRIEF NOTE] New Orleans' Fate
Sep. 14th, 2005 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldJack Shafer's Slate article "Don't Refloat" makes a superficially unobjectionable case for the abandonment of New Orleans, or at least of the majority of the city's territories, on the grounds that the old city was dysfunctional and that without human intervention most of the city would be underwater. I'm only half-convinced by the former--are things really so dysfunctional as to mandate the city's abandonment?--and left entirely cold by the latter. A decidedly populous chunk of the Netherlands would be underwater absent human intervention; I don't see the Dutch evacuating Amsterdam for higher grounds, perhaps in Utrecht, any time soon.
It comes down to whether or not Americans, like the Dutch, are interested in making the investments needed to preserve environmentally vulnerable areas of their country. If they are, fine; if they aren't, fine. Deciding to abandon these vulnerable areas when you've got an environmentally relatively stable continental landmass might even be a legitimate policy decision. I just wish I saw fewer proponents of New Orleans' abandonment talking about the indefensibility of the city's position. It's not, if you're competent.
It comes down to whether or not Americans, like the Dutch, are interested in making the investments needed to preserve environmentally vulnerable areas of their country. If they are, fine; if they aren't, fine. Deciding to abandon these vulnerable areas when you've got an environmentally relatively stable continental landmass might even be a legitimate policy decision. I just wish I saw fewer proponents of New Orleans' abandonment talking about the indefensibility of the city's position. It's not, if you're competent.
