My thoughts and prayers are for the people of Houston and surrounding areas who experienced unprecedented rain and flooding this week. I am attempting to sponsor a displaced family and do everything I can to help financially--and otherwise--so that people have a good change to rebuild their lives (donation suggestions are welcome). Here's a good resource on some good places to donate, including Texas Food Bank, Diaper Bank, etc.
I also have been praying hard that current climate-change deniers, particularly those atop our government, take such natural disasters seriously and a as warning of more destruction to come (disproportionately affecting the poor and disadvantaged) if they don't change their actions and tune (read Compassion, context, and solutions: Communicating about climate after Harvey, by Meredith Herr, a high school classmate of mine).
Warm water causes more rain. Higher sea levels cause more flooding. More pavement (instead of wetlands) leads to more flooding. How much more destruction and devastation will it take to get some people to believe in climate change (some fear for Florida and NC next)? Prayers will only do so much to dry up and rebuild these citizens' lives. And while I see a great private "disaster relief" response (and I'm wondering what conservatives, especially those in Texas, feel is the government's appropriate response is now to help those in need, while they think that social spending in general is over-the-top due to "bleeding heart" liberals" trying to help those who should just help themselves), why don't we have better prevention, infrastructure, and planning? Let's see some environmental regulations, zoning, and responsible policy action start, folks!
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