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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
A man carries children after being rescued by members of the Louisiana
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the the Houston Fire Department
after residents were stranded by floodwaters due to Hurricane Harvey.
Rising to the
emergency
We occasionally remind our
Harvey also offers a reminder of
readers to be prepared for emergency what we do in times of emergency.
situations, come what may.
If we are lucky enough to be spared,
In Oregon, we’re often thinking of we help those in need.
Cascadia — an off-coast earthquake
There are ways to donate money,
and resultant tsunami. Or perhaps
food, time — and even your blood
we imagine another devastating
— to those who need help. Please,
Pacific Northwest volcanic eruption. consider it, knowing sometimes it
Or maybe it’s a
could be you on
dam breach, or an
other end of the
If we are lucky the
extended drought,
disaster.
or a wildfire roaring
You can donate
enough to be
down your rural
to the Hurricane
spared, we help Harvey Relief
canyon.
Our advice is
which is
those in need. Fund,
relatively the same:
administered by the
have an emergency
Greater Houston
plan, proactively set aside some food Community Foundation. Or you
and water, batteries and a flashlight,
could donate to the Houston Food
make sure your children and parents Bank.
know what to do if the emergency
The Texas Diaper Bank in San
happens during school, in the middle Antonio is asking for diapers and
of the night, during summer or
wipes, which can be mailed to
winter.
5415 Bandera Road, Suite 504, San
But human nature being what it
Antonio, TX., 78238.
is, we convince ourselves that will
The United Way of Greater
never happen to us. That it will
Houston flood relief fund will be
never happen here. That it will never used to help with immediate needs as
happen in our lifetime.
well as long-term services like minor
Perhaps the people of Houston
home repair. Visit their website to
and coastal Texas and Louisiana
donate or text UWFLOOD to 41444.
felt the same way, but their lives
You can also donate to national
and communities will be forever
organizations that are working in
changed by Hurricane Harvey and its the affected area. The American Red
continued effects.
Cross is accepting donations on its
People have died, homes have
website, or you can text HARVEY
been lost, possessions destroyed,
to 90999 to donate $10. Catholic
infrastructure washed away. And
Charities provides food, clothing,
there is no end in sight — six
shelter and support services to those
straight days of rain have brought
from all religious backgrounds. You
more precipitation to Houston in a
can donate to the Salvation Army by
week than Seattle sees all year. And
calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-
the rain keeps falling, and the rivers
725-2769) or texting STORM to
and reservoirs keep rising.
51555.
So perhaps with this news
AABB, which coordinates a task
jumping off the page, or screaming
force to manage blood collection
into your ears and eyes from radio
efforts during disasters, put out a
and television, it’s a good time to get call on Sunday for blood donations
across the importance of emergency
in the aftermath of Harvey. Most in
planning. Being prepared may
demand: those with type O-positive
save your life, and the lives of your
blood. Contact your local blood
family and loved ones.
center to set up an appointment.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
Harvey, the storm that
humans helped cause
E
and it’s evident this week. Residents
ven before the devastation from
are checking up on neighbors and
Harvey, southeastern Texas
was enduring a year unlike any
saving people they’d never met before.
before.
The stories are inspiring.
The daily surface temperature of
They’re inspiring because they
the Gulf of Mexico last winter never
involve people coming together to
dropped below 73 degrees. You can
protect one another. And how can
probably guess how many previous
people come together to protect one
times that had happened: Zero.
David another from future storms and floods?
This sort of heat has a specific
Leonhardt The answer starts with getting real
effect on storms: Warmer weather
about climate change, which is the
Comment
causes heavier rainfall. Why? When
main reason storms are doing more
the seas warm, more moisture
damage than in the past.
evaporates into the air, and when the air
Obviously, some extreme weather events
warms — which has also
are unrelated to climate
been happening in Texas —
change. But a growing
it can carry more moisture.
number appear to be related,
The severity of Harvey,
including many involving
in other words, is almost
torrential rain, thanks to the
certainly related to climate
warmer seas and air.
change.
“The heaviest rainfall
Yes, I know the sober
events have become heavier
warning that’s issued
and more frequent, and the
whenever an extreme
amount of rain falling on the
weather disaster occurs:
heaviest rain days has also
No individual storm can
increased,” as the National
be definitively blamed on
Climate Assessment, a
climate change. It’s true,
federal report, found.
too. Some version of Harvey
“The mechanism driving
probably would have
these changes,” the report
happened without climate
explained, is hotter air
change, and we’ll never
stemming from “human-
know the hypothetical truth.
caused warming.”
But it’s time to shed some of the fussy
Heavier rain can then interact with higher
over-precision about the relationship between
sea levels to increase flooding, as seems to
climate change and weather. James Hansen,
have happened with Harvey. In Houston’s
the eminent climate researcher, has used the
particular case, a lack of zoning laws has led
term “scientific reticence” to describe this
to an explosion of building, which further
problem. Out of an abundance of academic
worsens flooding. The city added 24 percent
caution — a caution that is in many ways
more pavement between 1996 and 2011,
admirable — scientists (and journalists) have
according to Samuel Brody of Texas A&M,
obscured climate change’s true effects.
and Houston wasn’t exactly light on pavement
We don’t display the same fussiness in
in 1996. Pavement, unlike soil, fails to absorb
other important areas. No individual case
water.
of lung cancer can be definitively linked to
Add up the evidence, and it
smoking, as Heidi Cullen, the chief scientist at overwhelmingly suggests that human activity
Climate Central, notes. Few vehicle accidents
has helped create the ferocity of Harvey. That
can be definitely linked to alcohol, and few
message may be hard to hear — harder to
saved lives can be definitively linked to seat
hear, certainly, than stories of human kindness
belts.
that is now mitigating the storm’s toll. But it’s
Yet smoking, drunken driving and seat-
the truth.
beltless riding each created a public health
Beyond Harvey, the potential damage from
crisis. Once the link became clear and widely
climate change is terrifying. Disease, famine
understood, people changed their behavior and and flooding of biblical proportions are within
prevented a whole lot of suffering.
the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, stories
Climate change is on its way to becoming a of potential misery have not been enough to
far worse public health crisis than any of those stir this country to action. They haven’t led to
other problems. Already, it has aggravated
a Manhattan Project for alternative energy or a
droughts, famines and deadly heat waves. In
national effort to reduce carbon emissions.
the United States, global warming seems to be
So when we are faced with actual misery
contributing to the spread of Lyme disease.
that stems in part from climate change, we
Now we have Harvey. It has brought
should be honest about it.
yet another flood that’s being described as
What’s happening in Texas is
unprecedented. It is terrorizing thousands
heartbreaking, and yet it will be a more
of Texans and submerged large parts of the
frequent part of modern life unless we do
nation’s fourth-largest city, Houston.
something about it. That, ultimately, is the
The immediate priorities, of course, are
most compassionate message about Harvey.
protection and rescue, and many Texans are
■
rising to the moment. Houston has a certain
David Leonhardt is an op-ed columnist for
friendly swagger, a mix of old Texas and new, The New York Times.
Climate change
is on its way to
becoming a far
worse public
health crisis
than smoking,
drunken driving
and seatbeltless
riding.
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must
be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a phone number. Send let-
ters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
Forest collaboratives include wide range of constructive voices
T
he Blue Mountains Forest
Partners is
a nonprofit
organization
that consists of
loggers, ranchers,
contractors,
conservationists,
landowners and
others from Grant
County and across
eastern Oregon
who care about
public lands and
rural communities.
We’ve been
working together
since 2006
to create and
implement a shared vision to
improve the wellbeing of forests
and communities in the Blue
Mountains on the
Malheur National
Forest. We have
worked with the
United States Forest
Service to keep
the last remaining
timber mill (Malheur
Lumber Company)
in Grant and Harney
counties operating,
increase the Forest
Service’s capacity
to restore large
landscapes with the
addition of more than
$4 million in new
federal dollars from
the Collaborative Forest Landscape
Restoration Program, and increased
We insist
that voting
membership
be tied to
respectful,
courteous,
informed
participation.
the timber harvest to 75 million
board feet — more volume than in
recent decades.
These successes have not come
without hard work and controversy.
However, Blue Mountains
Forest Partners believes that by
working collaboratively to achieve
socioeconomic and ecological
outcomes, our federal lands and the
communities that depend on them
will be better off in the long run.
Because passions can run
high when discussing forest
management, the partners insist
that all of our voting members
adhere to a basic code of conduct
for civil dialogue. In today’s
heated political environment, we
take this requirement seriously.
We ask that voting members:
refrain from personal attacks and
counterproductive “backroom
deals;” respect each other in and
outside of meetings; and treat
disagreements as “problems to be
solved” rather than “battles to be
won,” among other commonsense
conditions.
Individuals who demonstrate
their ability to meet these
expectations are welcomed as
voting members; those who
unable or unwilling to adhere to
our civil discourse standards may
still express their perspectives as
nonvoting participants. In this way,
the Partners listen to all voices that
have a stake in the management of
the Malheur National Forest, even
when those voices substantively
disagree.
Mr. George is right that Eastern
Oregon collaborative groups
should welcome all input into
federal forest management (Forest
collaboratives need to welcome
all input, EO, August 25). But the
Partners are also right to insist that
voting membership must be tied to
respectful, courteous, and informed
collaborative participation.
■
Glen Johnston is president
of the Blue Mountains Forest
Partners, and owns and operates
Backlund Logging in John Day.
Susan Jane Brown is vice president
of the Blue Mountains Forest
Partners, and wildlands program
director and staff attorney for
the Western Environmental Law
Center in John Day and Portland.