No. 22 of 108
July 5, 2025
Twenty-seven died and at least twenty-five children are still missing in the second highest river level rise in Texas recorded history, and the most extensive flood in the central region with six to seven inches falling in a three-hour period. At mid-year, there have been more than 700 tornados. More than a million acres have burned this year, in over 29,000 fires. (Yes, 29,000.) Roughly twenty percent of staff have been cut at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local government officials, the people who have the most day-to-day interaction with FEMA, report that those folx who are still there are not allowed to give even routine information. “We’ve been ghosted”. FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program was terminated in April, and over $800 million previously granted to local communities rescinded. Significant cuts have been made to the National Weather Service, and seventeen percent of the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientific measurements of the atmosphere which provide vital information to weather modeling and severity forecasting (for land use planners and insurers, for example) have been terminated, including the longest regular measurement of carbon dioxide at the observatory on Mauna Loa.
A key attribute of good/great governance is anticipation of the conditions and needs of peoples and places and the other beings we share the earth with. Doing the work to give us good, solid information to anticipate; understanding what we anticipate; making good decisions in advance of that which we anticipate; implementing ahead of what we anticipate will happen if we do not act. This assumes a value, desire, and a muscle for governance. The weather happens whether we take note or not and it is neutral in that it impacts all the people and beings in all of the places. Our relationship with weather is a pretty good measure of our relationship to governance.
No. 22 or 108