Campaigner Blasts Climate-Denying 'Arsonists' as Maui Fires Kill at Least 36
JULIA CONLEY
The wildfires offer the latest evidence that President Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency, said one progressive economist.
Aug 10, 2023
With weather experts pointing to unusually dry conditions on the Hawaiian island of Maui that primed the area for the wildfires that have killed at least 36 people so far, climate advocates on Thursday said the devastation offers the latest evidence that U.S. President Joe Biden must declare a national climate emergency.
Major General Kenneth Hara, the top defense official in Hawaii, said early Thursday that the wildfires had been contained, but authorities are still assessing widespread damage, displacement, and loss of life following a disaster that sent residents frantically running into the ocean for safety.
The historic town of Lahaina, once the capital of Hawaii, was decimated by the fires on Wednesday, with its oldest building apparently burned to the ground.
Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, told The New York Times that the town had "no preparation, no warning, nothing" as the flames—directly fueled by the 80 mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Dora south of Hawaii and dry vegetation—spread to Lahaina and razed its historic town center in a matter of hours.
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"My island is on fire. My heart is breaking at the utter devastation these wildfires are causing my friends, family, and community," said Ing in a statement. "The extreme wildfires in Lahaina in this summer of climate disasters are yet more proof that we are in a climate emergency and this crisis is killing us. Our leaders in D.C. passed starting measures to tackle climate change—but we need legislation that is as bold and urgent as the scale of the wildfires choking Hawaii and Canada, the heatwaves suffocating Texas, and the extreme flooding drowning Europe."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/maui-wildfires-climate-emergency
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“Broken Window” economic theories are BS, pure and simple.
Sadly, “shifting money” will not be sufficient. Our federal budget is already mired deep in deficits and debt. There’s not a lot of “slop.” You or I might name our favorite agency cuts (“fossil fuel subsidies” anyone?) But the amount of money we need to spend on “natural disasters” is huge, and this is just the beginning.
NOAA: Calculating the Cost of Weather and Climate Disasters
That 2 Trillion figure sounds more like Global military spending:
TRENDS IN WORLD MILITARY EXPENDITURE, 2022
United States 877 …
(In English, “Trillion” has different meanings depending on which country you’re in.)
The Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2022: An Infographic
The difference between “outlays” and “revenues” is the deficit (or, if “revenues” exceed “outlays” the “surplus.”)
Just like our Republican friends, I would like to cut the deficit. We can either raise “revenues” or cut “outlays” or both. Every presidential candidate promises to balance the budget, and to eliminate “waste.” If there's a lot of "slop" in the budget, that should be easy. (Right?) Unfortunately, Joe Biden had a hand in cutting a lot of “waste” when he was Vice President.
As I said, you and I may have departments we would like to see cut. I'm guessing that you would not want to cut social programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security — that sort of thing.) They make up most of the “mandatory spending.” That rules out most of the budget.
You and I might think that the “Defense Budget” seems like a likely source. — About 751 Billion in "Discretionary Spending." — Let’s just pause on that one. If we eliminate all military spending (apart from veteran's benefits which are under mandatory spending) we’d only cut the deficit in half! Interest on the national debt (at roughly 500 Billion) equals about two thirds of the military budget!
I’m not saying we don’t spend a lot on “Defense” I’m saying servicing our national debt is eating us alive, and every year we pile more deficit spending onto the debt, and, yes, I blame most of the debt on George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump, but it doesn’t matter much now who gets the blame. It’s our debt now…
How much money will we need to cover the “Climate Emergency?” OMB tried to estimate that:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ap_21_climate_risk_fy2023.pdf
Identifiable Costs
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) assessments found that the Federal Government could spend between an additional $25 billion to $128 billion annually due to just six climate-related financial risks included in this report—disaster relief, flood insurance, crop insurance, healthcare expenditures, wildland fire suppression spending, and flood risk at Federal facilities – and considering only a limited scope of total potential damages to those programs. …
OK, that's essentially an admission that even the $128 billion high end estimate is low.
Non-“Defense” discretionary spending was “goosed” by COVID-19. For a few years prior, it was running "neck and neck" with the “Defense” budget. Perhaps the amount of “emergency” spending we have spent fighting COVID-19 would cover it, but that’s all deficit spending, and (unlike COVID) we’re not expecting it to be temporary. — When do you anticipate this “emergency” spending will end? (How long will it take us to “fix the climate?”) I think we can only expect the need to increase each year.
I don’t think we can find it by trimming fat from line items.
