Lautenbacher (NOAA) Warns Against Desire To Live Near Coasts - AP

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - The head of the nation's weather and climate research agency says the biggest challenge facing the world is population growth and people's desire to live in coastal areas where they can be endangered by storms. "I believe that the population issue is huge," Conrad Lautenbacher said Thursday. "And it's not just the U.S., there are six billion ... getting up to seven billion people on the Earth and they all want to live in coastal zones."

Lautenbacher is head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that studies weather and climate and issues storm warnings and forecasts, among other activities.

More than half the U.S. population lives in coastal areas and Lautenbacher said that means "you have a lot less margin of ability to absorb and to mitigate and to adapt to severe weather events."

"We need to be much better at our ability to predict and tell you what's going to happen," he said. "We need much better preparation along our coastlines, we need much better building codes, flood insurance, all of the economic issues."

EDIT

http://www.examiner.com/a-593310~NOAA_Outlines_Dangers_of_Coastal_Living.html

[Donnachaidh]

1. heheheheh -- there go the land values of beachfront property

Watch the insurance companies go batshit to hike rates, and then refuse to pay out after a big storm.

[kestrel91316]

2. He's gonna be looking for a new job within a month. Mark my words.

Bush's rich real estate developer friends aren't gonna let this one stand.