I'm unsurprised but still deeply disappointed that neither of the national city and regional planning organizations in the US -- the American Planning Association and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning -- have even acknowledged the fact that an entire region, which includes a university with a planning program, has just been completely devastated by a climate-change driven disaster.
It's disgusting.
Planning ought to be leading climate adaptation and resilience efforts, but instead our field appears to have just written off an entire region. We were happy to lead efforts to bring economic development (read: resource exploitation) to the Appalachians, but now that there are actual human lives at stake, in desperate need of help just to survive, we carry on, business as usual, like nothing happened.
Meanwhile, the top story in the latest APA digital newsletter, sent out today
People are still recovering bodies and APA is talking about "fresh starts."
@DavidM_yeg @DrTCombs you're spot on. #ManufacturedConsent is what our corporate media apparatus specializes in. Notice how neither major political party even dares to utter the words #climatechange, meanwhile the insurance companies and lobby arms of the corporate oligarchy are hedging their bets to make sure profiteering continues and we all accept this as #businessasusual. It's infuriating and unacceptable.
@DavidM_yeg To be fair, the planning establishment didn't shrug its shoulders over COVID. It called it an opportunity.
Covid most certainly was an opportunity as all challenges are… ultimately, in this case, a missed opportunity
@DrTCombs
Sorry to be cynical, but if they all shrugged their shoulders at *another half-million Covid deaths, why would this be different?