written 24 September 2023
published 1 October 2023
Last week, the Mississippi river was so low from dry weather, barge traffic was reduced, raising food prices. Wildfires burn in Louisiana, and baseball sized hail hit parts of Texas. Tropical storm Ophelia cut power and flooded parts of the east coast from the Carolinas to New York.
Ukiah hosted a regional meeting of groups from Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties, to discuss coordinated regional economic development. Our region has chronic needs. Once rich with natural resources, timber, fishing, and agriculture have all peaked and declined. Our population is aging, rising home prices fuel homelessness, every community has empty stores, and much of the resulting economy is based on imported tourism, and exported wine. On top of all that, we experience the increasing burden of the climate crisis.
The climate has fundamental economic impact, which will only increase every year until it is adequately dealt with. When planning a building, real-world factors of where the building will be located must be considered: such as likelihood of flooding, wind hazards, seismic concerns, fire threats, and tsunamis. Economic development faces the same consideration for stable, long term viability.
For example, even though this summer has been relatively free of local mega fires or orange air quality, everyone is feeling the pinch of the fire insurance issue. While high home prices and replacement costs are a factor, the accelerator is the year by year increase of insured buildings burning, sharply increasing claims. California has tried to keep prices affordable by insisting companies can only look at historic loss rates when calculating premiums, a reasonable limitation in times of stable climate. But we are in a time of intense change, where tomorrow is no longer reliably like yesterday. Further, insurance companies insure themselves, and long-term trends have begun to raise their cost of reinsurance. Caught in the middle, the companies are choosing to leave the State, which threatens the real estate market, and the financial system that funds it. New legislative changes help the companies, but not the pressure on the consumers.
It is also important to consider the structural limitations of the economic system itself. In reality, money is worthless. It is only what money can purchase that has value. After hurricane Katrina destroyed the New Orleans area, ice and gasoline were of value. If there was none, it didn't matter how much money one had.
Our economic system expects ever part to produce a profit, or it is underfunded, depending on low-paid workers or unpaid volunteers, despite how essential the service, such as child care or elder care, may be to members of our community.
Furthermore, "profit" is totally dependent on the time frame considered. Short term gains usually incur long term costs, wiping out the entire rational of the transaction. For example, our for-profit health care, the world's most expensive, won't fund preventative care for everyone, despite being cheaper in the long run, so expensive emergency room services are used as the last resort. This lack of far reaching, inclusive perspective, is how we have gotten to our current state of affairs, which is massively profitable to a few, but risks collapse of our entire economic system.
I suggest that rather than focus on "economic" development, we instead prioritize "community" development, a more inclusive concept. Consider what kind of a community would we like to leave for our kids. What services are missing for a vital, livable community? How can we encourage production of these essentials within our region? How can we increase local food resilience?
We could start with the basic goal of leaving a planet still habitable to humans. Working to make those necessary changes will require a long-term project of rebuilding much our current infrastructure, generating worthwhile local jobs, as we change energy forms, and increase the efficiency of our buildings. This will build greater power resilience.
To build the skilled work force needed, job training programs will open meaningful work opportunities, allowing people to stay in the community. As our region takes the lead on this kind of community development, we will inspire other areas, and draw a different kind of tourism here, to experience how it can be done.
Funding such development demands a shift from exclusive fiscal gain to understanding our unity on this planet. The climate crisis is global, demanding a global response. This shift is the most essential work we will ever do.
