With a modest splash, two public-interest think tanks this week
released their "Resilient
Coasts Blueprint," a thumbnail sketch of their proposed program
for government and the private sector to come to grips with the
significant, and growing, economic risk associated with development
on the U.S. coastline. Included in the white paper are ideas such
as tougher building codes, smarter land use policies, and support
for a robust private insurance industry for coastal-related
hazards.
Sponsoring the study were Ceres, a "national network of investors,
environmental organizations and other public interest groups
working with companies and investors to address sustainability
challenges such as global climate change," and the Heinz Center, a "nonprofit,
nonpartisan institution dedicated to improving the scientific and
economic foundation for environmental policy through multisectoral
collaboration."
The term "resilient coasts" has become something of a
catch-phrase, or "meme," in recent years. Another PDF, this one
hosted at the Ole Miss website, for example, authored by John Jacob
of the Texas Sea Grant (Texas A&M) and Stephanie Showalter of
the National Sea Grant Law Center (University of Mississippi), uses
the same term in its title, "The
Resilient Coast", and offers a somewhat more detailed
exposition of many of the same ideas found in the Heinz/Ceres
offering. And while the Heinz/Ceres "blueprint" glosses over some
of the thorny jurisdictional issues involved in actually carrying
out sophisticated land use planning that recognizes and adapts to
coastal risks, Jacob and Showalter's document takes a much closer
look at issues of national policy and local autonomy.
But as an opening salvo, the Heinz and Ceres effort is
interesting as much for who produced it, as for what it says. Two
primary backers are
The
Travelers Companies, Inc. (a major insurer), and the
Wharton School at the University
of Pennsylvania (the nation's oldest business school). Also in the
coalition, however, are such environmental groups as the
Nature Conservancy and the
National Wildlife Federation.
Addressing the tough policy issues involved in making our
coastlines ready for the coming century's hazards will require a
major effort to reconcile widely varying political points of view.
The latest Coastal Blueprint could be a beginning step in the
process of bringing some of those interests together, and getting
them on the same page.