I see what you are saying and I agree, ideally they should figure out what will likely be safest long term and follow that course. Unfortunately from what I've observed during my lifetime thus far, government tends to focus more on short term quick fixes that are not necessarily the best long term solutions. A good long term solution would likely be more costly and the money has to come from somewhere. A lot of people don't want funding diverted from their own programs and benefits to pay for a solution for someone else and that they feel doesn't directly affect themselves. The politicians don't want to alienate their backers and constituents or they probably won't get re-elected. It's certainly a complicated thing. Michael Carnes <michaelcarnes@earthlink.net> wrote:>So it sounds like it would be a bit unfair to blame everything on the Feds and the Army corps of engineers. To my mind the real question in all of this is how they're going to rebuild the city. It's now pretty clear from climatologists, atmospheric scientists, oceanographers and most every other branch of science that sea levels will be rising--maybe by inches, maybe by feet. It seems to me the height of foolishness just to rebuild with an improved levee system. As horrific as this has been, once it leaves living memory it will lose urgency. Future taxpayers will again reach a point where they're not willing to pay, and the protective system will be underfunded and neglected--just as it was this time. So what's the answer? Do they truck in a few cubic miles of fill and raise the level of the city another 20 feet? Should they purchase a few thousand acres 20 miles inland and build there? Beats the heck out of me, but it's hard to think of a lesser endeavor being successful for more than another hundred years or so. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page