Author Archives: Olesiacei

Why Residents of Disaster-Prone Areas Don’t Move

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the Atlantic Cities website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

When disaster strikes the same place twice, distant observers can be left scratching their heads, wondering why residents of high-risk areas return, again and again, to rebuild. Whether it’s the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, the communities along Tornado Alley, or low-lying coastal areas in the Sandy-affected region, it might seem like an easy solution to pick up and move away—to people who don’t actually live in those places.

But the reality is that no word inflames more than “retreat”—as in moving people, even whole towns, away from danger. And altering landscapes to ward off danger from climate change can run afoul of heartfelt and robust interests. Besides their economic investments, people and organizations have all sorts of sunk costs in local communities. “Retreat”—and even more modest alternatives—arouses significant resistance.

Ensuring more resilient communities in the future will require us to find ways to make adaptations more palatable to more people, in part by considering local concerns in the design of resilient infrastructure.

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Why Residents of Disaster-Prone Areas Don’t Move

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New Orleans has a radical new plan for managing floods

New Orleans has a radical new plan for managing floods

Derek Bridges

New Orleans won’t let a little rain kill its buzz.

The Big Easy has a multibillion-dollar new philosophy for dealing with flooding: Let it happen. (At least in some spots.)

New Orleans is a low-lying city built on swampland, and its leaders are finally coming to terms with that hydrological reality. No longer will officials try to drain and pump out every drop of water that falls or flows their way.

Instead, under the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, floodwaters would be corralled into areas that serve as parks during drier times. Rain gardens and bioswales would help the earth suck up more of the rain that falls on it. And water would be funneled into year-round canals and ponds that support wildlife, improve soil quality, and generally pretty up the place.

The plan, which was developed in consultation with Dutch engineers, wouldn’t shelter the city from catastrophic floods if its levees fail — as happened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But it would help turn the region’s heavy rainfall from a hazard into an asset. That’s becoming especially important, with Louisiana enduring America’s fastest rates of sea-level rise and experiencing increasingly intense downpours as the globe warms up.

“We know how to do this. We just forgot,” Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant said at a ceremony as the plan was unveiled on Friday. “We had to be reminded by our friends from the Netherlands.”

The $6.2 billion plan aims to solve two pressing problems. It would help reduce flood damage in a naturally soggy city during a period of climate upheaval. And it would help recharge desiccated soils with moisture, preventing the ground from sinking ever further beneath sea level. From the vision outlined in the plan:

Greater New Orleans has always contended with flooding from rainfall, and now faces new challenges, including changing climate, rising seas, and human-induced sinking of the land.

Last century’s infrastructure enabled widespread urbanization in a wet delta environment, but the principles underlying that infrastructure are no longer adequate to sustain the region.

A new approach to water — the region’s most abundant asset — is the foundation for building a safe, prosperous and beautiful future on the Mississippi River Delta.

Of course, overhauling century-old city infrastructure won’t be easy, and it’s not clear how the needed billions of dollars would be raised. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The sheer ambition of the plan lays bare the difficulty of any swift implementation. For that reason, its chief architect, architect and planner David Waggonner, said it looks long-term, to 2050, for a completion date.

While the numbers are hard to prove, … supporters said they believed the new plan could provide an $11.3 billion economic benefit to the region in terms of rising property values and reduced risk of flooding.

Regardless of how long this takes, it’s sure nice to see N’awlins becoming friends again with the bountiful water that once defined it.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Cities

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New Orleans has a radical new plan for managing floods

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Meet the Man Confronting Iran’s "Chain Murders"

Mother Jones

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Among artists who defy totalitarian regimes, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof is both magnificently and horrifically situated to convey how art can be used to confront oppression.

Since serving a one-year prison sentence in 2010 for attempting to make a film in support of the pro-reform Green movement, the 40-year-old has lived a paradoxical existence. On the one hand, he is a renowned director, the recipient of two top prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and a Hamburg fellowship that allowed him and his family to escape the country. On the other hand, he is “a man whose head is chopped off from his body,” as he put it recently at the 40th Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.

“My body may have been in Hamburg for the last few years,” said Rasoulof, “but my mind and heart—everything I think and want to feel—are in Iran. One thing I’m really afraid of is to be disconnected in that way for a long time. It’s the most fearful prospect I can think of.”

Rasoulof was in Telluride for the US premiere of his clandestinely made “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” his fifth feature. It could easily land him back Tehran’s notorious Evin prison if he were to return home. The film is based on the 1988-1998 Chain Murders, when a series (or chain) of more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens were killed by government operatives for criticizing the Islamic Republic.

Mohammad Rasoulof

“Manuscripts Don’t Burn” is Rasoulof’s most realistic and directly political film so far, a significant departure from more allegorical and metaphorical movies like “Iron Island” (2005) and “The White Meadows” (2009). The story centers on a poet and novelist in Tehran who, in their quest to publish a book about one grizzly incident of the Chain Murders, are terrorized by a fellow intellectual turned state security henchman. The story is also about the working class purveyors of government terror, particularly a blank-faced man named Khosrow, whose day job as a murderer of dissident artists allows him to pay his ailing son’s hospital bills.

Rasoulof explains that the character of Khosrow was inspired by an experience in prison. Rasoulof’s habit is to get up every morning and drink a cool glass of water. That ritual ceased in prison. But one day, he woke and found his burning hot cell intolerable. Rasoulof rang the bell for the guard, asked for water, and was rebuked. When the next guard came on shift, he tried again. Not only did the second guard bring him a glass of water, he did so every time he arrived for work at the prison.

“I came to see that those working as the prison guards and executioners in this system are human, too,” Rasoulof said. “They don’t have horns. They aren’t animals. There must be some reason why they do what they do.”

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Meet the Man Confronting Iran’s "Chain Murders"

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Why Obama’s March on Washington Anniversary Speech Ticked Off Some Black People

Mother Jones

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In May, President Barack Obama gave a commencement address at the historically black Morehouse College—Martin Luther King, Jr.’s alma mater—that was criticized by many black progressives as condescending for its focus on personal responsibility. He told the young graduates that “there’s no longer any room for excuses” and that “whatever hardships you may experience because of your race, they pale in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured—and overcame.” In response, the Atlantic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “Barack Obama is, indeed, the president of ‘all America,’ but he also is singularly the scold of ‘black America.'”

This was hardly the first time Obama had ventured into such territory, and black critics have often complained that when he addresses black audiences, he turns into a presidential Bill Cosby, acknowledging inequality but also unproductively lecturing black people to stop making excuses for the challenges and problems they face. So it was no surprise that Obama’s speech on Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which noted that economic fairness for all remains “our great unfinished business” and which was generally well-received by Obama supporters, reiterated this riff:

And then, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that during the course of 50 years, there were times when some of us, claiming to push for change, lost our way. The anguish of assassinations set off self-defeating riots.

Legitimate grievances against police brutality tipped into excuse-making for criminal behavior. Racial politics could cut both ways as the transformative message of unity and brotherhood was drowned out by the language of recrimination. And what had once been a call for equality of opportunity, the chance for all Americans to work hard and get ahead was too often framed as a mere desire for government support, as if we had no agency in our own liberation, as if poverty was an excuse for not raising your child and the bigotry of others was reason to give up on yourself. All of that history is how progress stalled. That’s how hope was diverted. It’s how our country remained divided.

And there was no surprise that this slice of the speech got under some peoples’ skin. Here are Twitter reactions from several black writers, intellectuals, and activists:

This likely won’t be the last time Obama brings up the controversial theme. It’s clear he’s decided that in order to effectively speak about racial inequality and economic injustice, he has to throw in a dash of tough love.

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Why Obama’s March on Washington Anniversary Speech Ticked Off Some Black People

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Court Slams NSA for "Third Instance in Less Than Three Years" of Substantial Misrepresentation

Mother Jones

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I’m still plowing my way through the declassified FISA court ruling from 2011 that found one of the NSA’s surveillance programs unconstitutional. However, the gist of the opinion is that NSA had misled the court about whether U.S. persons could be caught up in the program’s dragnet, and the court was not happy about it. According to a footnote, it represented “the third instance in less than three years” in which a program had been misrepresented to the court. One of the other two instances is described below. The third one is redacted.

President Obama says he’s eager to have a national conversation about the NSA’s surveillance programs. I assume, then, that he’ll order the declassification of the other two FISA court opinions which found “substantial misrepresentations” by the NSA.

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Court Slams NSA for "Third Instance in Less Than Three Years" of Substantial Misrepresentation

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Tesla Model S rocks safety tests, gets highest possible score

Tesla Model S rocks safety tests, gets highest possible score

The Tesla Model S.

First the Tesla Model S got the highest score of any car Consumer Reports had ever reviewed, blowing testers away with its “innovation,” “world-class performance,” and “impressive attention to detail.” Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has awarded the car its highest rating possible, a five out of five in every category. (Note to luxury sports-car enthusiasts: Grist does not condone reckless driving no matter how high a car’s safety rating or how low its emissions.)

According to Tesla, “approximately one percent of all cars tested by the federal government achieve 5 stars across the board.” More from the company’s press release:

Of all vehicles tested, including every major make and model approved for sale in the United States, the Model S set a new record for the lowest likelihood of injury to occupants. While the Model S is a sedan, it also exceeded the safety score of all SUVs and minivans. This score takes into account the probability of injury from front, side, rear and rollover accidents.

The Model S achieved such a high score in large part because it’s an electric vehicle. The front of the car has only trunk space where a gasoline engine block would normally be, so it has a much longer “crumple zone” — the part of the car that absorbs impact in a head-on collision. And the battery pack’s location beneath the floor gives the car a low center of gravity that substantially lowers its rollover risk.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that the Model S doesn’t have a combustion engine (which carries the risk of, you know, combusting). Tesla says that none of its lithium-ion batteries have caught fire so far (though it admits that’s “statistically unlikely to remain the case long term”).

Aside from its out-of-reach price tag, the Model S is starting to sound like the best car on the market. Matt Yglesias points out that Tesla has more incentive than your typical car company to make that the case:

Because Tesla makes electric cars, anything that happens to the Model S isn’t just a car story. It’s a business story, it’s a politics story, it’s an energy story, it’s an innovation story, it’s an interesting story. …

Any failure they have will be a much bigger deal than a failure at a comparably sized car company would be. But conversely, any time they manage to excel at anything they can guarantee that it’ll get noticed. … “Our sedan is the safest car in the world” sounds boring. But when your sedan is also an all-electric vehicle that’s scored off-the-charts rave reviews in other respects, now you’ve got a nice feather in your cap.

Now, if they ever make a more basic version of the Model S that somehow drops into an accessible price range, I may suddenly find myself interested in car ownership.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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Tesla Model S rocks safety tests, gets highest possible score

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Hassan Rohani is the Iranian Barack Obama

Mother Jones

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Matt Duss and Lawrence Korb write today that we should be restrained about what the election of the “reformist” Hassan Rohani means for the future of U.S.-Iranian relations:

One shouldn’t have any illusions about what the election of Rohani represents. He is a dedicated member of the Iranian regime, and a strong supporter of Iran’s nuclear rights. Negotiations between the Iran and the P5+1 will not suddenly become easy. But the fact that the most moderate choice prevailed in Iran’s presidential election reveals that there is an important debate taking place amongst Iran’s ruling elite over the nature of Iran’s relations with the world. Given the level of distrust that still exists between the U.S. and Iran, there’s little the U.S. can do to empower its favored interlocutors. But, as the past has shown, there’s a lot the U.S. can do to empower those most opposed to conciliation and compromise. Given the high stakes, the U.S. should be as careful as possible to do no harm, as a heightened Congressional debate over the use of force against Iran would almost certainly do.

For obvious reasons, this inspired me to modify Duss and Korb’s paragraph slightly:

One shouldn’t have any illusions about what the election of Barack Obama represents. He’s a dedicated member of the bipartisan mainstream consensus on national security, and a strong supporter of America’s intelligence community. Foreign military interventions will not suddenly be abandoned, nor will intrusive surveillance programs be shut down. But the fact that the most moderate choice prevailed in America’s presidential election reveals that there is an important debate taking place amongst the U.S. ruling elite over the nature of America’s relations with the world.

Hassan Rohani is, more or less, the Barack Obama of Iranian politics: better than the alternatives, but not likely to represent any kind of sharp, fundamental change. Nor should that come as any suprise. People who truly represent sharp, fundamental change are very rarely elected national leaders. Not in America, and not in Iran.

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Hassan Rohani is the Iranian Barack Obama

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Will Your State’s Waiters Give You the Flu?

Mother Jones

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It’s old news that the United States fares quite poorly on the sick leave front: Unlike most developed countries, we have no federal law mandating paid days off for ill workers. Only four cities and one state have passed their own.

So unless you’re dining in San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, or Connecticut, your state’s waiters could very well give you whatever nasty bug they’re nursing while preparing and serving your grub because they don’t have the option to stay home without losing pay.*

To make matters even worse for restaurant workers and diners, a spate of “preemption bills”—which bar localities from makings laws requiring paid sick leave—has been surging through state legislatures with the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council and the National Restaurant Association, one of ALEC’s members. The first of these bills was passed in May 2011 in Wisconsin. Last week, Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida’s version into law, making it the eighth state to preemptively block paid sick leave for its workers (and the 13th to try) in just two years.

Read more about how Disney and Darden Restaurants helped pass preemption legislation in Florida.

In many states, a number of chain restaurants and other establishments have come out in support of these bills, monetarily or otherwise. A few examples:

McDonald’s

Red Lobster (Darden Restaurants)

Olive Garden (Darden Restaurants)
KFC (Yum! Brand)

Pizza Hut (Yum! Brand)
Taco Bell (Yum! Brand)

And likely many more that, like the establishments listed above, are members of the National Restaurant Association. The so-called “other NRA” has done its own fair share of spending on these bills, along with a number of its local affiliates.

Their efforts have been successful. Here’s how the sweep of preemption bills has played out nationwide: (Click on each state for more details.)

Preemption Bills: 2011-2013


Passed

Pending

Failed

So how did this rapid spread come about? Known for writing model legislation and then shopping it around the country, ALEC set to work doing just that with Wisconsin’s preemption bill soon after it passed in 2011. At a meeting of the group’s Labor and Business Regulation subcommittee a few months later, attendees were given a copy (PDF) of the legislation, as well as a map of cities and states with paid sick leave mandates, prepared by the NRA.

The NRA got involved because it considers paid sick leave a threat to its industry, says Saru Jayaraman, codirector of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United: In 2011, the group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to successfully shut down a sick leave measure in Denver. But as more cities have tried to enact rules guaranteeing paid sick leave, bills preempting that possibility state-wide, says Jayaraman, have become the NRA’s faster, cheaper alternative.

“I think they’ve come to the realization that it’s not a sustainable model to pour a million dollars into stopping this,” Jayaraman says. “So they found another way to do it. It’s undemocratic. It’s kind of like the Republican party deciding, ‘We’re not gonna get votes the normal way, so let’s not let people vote.'”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 76 percent of restaurant workers don’t get paid sick days. By Jayaraman’s estimates and her organization’s surveys, it’s actually closer to 90 percent—about 9 million people nationwide.

Soon after the 2011 ALEC meeting, one preemption bill passed in Louisiana in 2012, and soon a few more were introduced. In the last six months, though, their momentum has surged: Since February, six more states have passed these laws, while five others have introduced them.

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Will Your State’s Waiters Give You the Flu?

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Corn on Hardball: What’s Obama’s Next Move On the IRS Scandal?

Mother Jones

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Did President Obama make the right move when he ousted IRS commissioner Steven T. Miller yesterday? DC bureau chief David Corn joins the Huffington Post‘s Howard Fineman to discuss Miller’s resignation on MSNBCs Hardball:

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on Hardball: What’s Obama’s Next Move On the IRS Scandal?

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