Former NY Army Corps Commander On Post-Sandy Reality: ‘Climate Change Is Real,’

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/23/2032721/former-new-york-army-corps-commander-on-post-sandy-reality-climate-change-is-real-weve-got-to-stop-ignoring-it/

Former NY Army Corps Commander On Post-Sandy Reality: ‘Climate Change Is Real,’ ‘We’ve Got To Stop Ignoring It’

By Brad Johnson, Guest Blogger on May 23, 2013

At a May 16 televised forum on the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, a former top military infrastructure official called on Americans to “stop ignoring” climate change and “realize it’s the new reality.”

At the Sandy town hall organized by public television stations NJTV and WNET, John Boulé, the former commander of the New York District, Army Corps of Engineers, warned New Yorkers to stop ignoring climate change and start preparing for higher sea level rise and more frequent and more powerful storms:

First of all, we’ve got to realize it’s the new reality. Climate change is real. It’s more than sea level rise that’s going to happen over the course of the next 100 years. It’s greater storm intensities, it’s greater storm frequencies. We’ve got to stop ignoring it and start planning and building to reduce the risk to the public. That’s where we are.

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At no point during the two-hour forum did any panelist or reporter discuss the manmade causes of climate change or recommend opposing the threat to civilization posed by the fossil-fuel industry. The words “fossil fuels,” “carbon”, “greenhouse,” “pollution,” and “oil” were never mentioned. Also not mentioned was David Koch, the carbon pollution billionaire and richest man in New York, who was on the board of WNET from 2006 until the day of the forum. At the WNET board meeting on the morning of May 16, Koch’s resignation was accepted.