A climate change puzzle:

[wtmusic]

The first piece, from today's NYT:

As Coasts Rebuild and U.S. Pays, Repeatedly, the Critics Ask Why

"Storms have repeatedly torn through Dauphin Island, four miles off the Alabama coast, costing tens of millions of dollars.

They are also a monument to the generosity of the federal government.

Tax money will go toward putting things back as they were, essentially duplicating the vulnerability that existed before the hurricane."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/science/earth/as-coasts-rebuild-and-us-pays-again-critics-stop-to-ask-why.html?ref=us

The second piece:

FEMA offers state drought assistance

"Wisconsin farmers now have the opportunity to receive financial aid for devastating crop losses after droughts and floods this summer.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s request for 42 counties throughout the state to be declared disaster areas was met Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Donna Gilson, spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said farmers from each county deemed a disaster area will be eligible for financial assistance."

And the third:

FEMA Disaster Relief Fund Not Depleted By Tornadoes

"WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The rash of devastating tornadoes early in the season across the Midwest and South will not deplete the U.S. disaster fund which was replenished by Congress last year, officials said on Monday.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration's (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund now has about $3.7 billion, a FEMA source said on Monday, after nearly being emptied last year with some $13 billion in spending.

Kentucky on Sunday was the first state hit by the tornadoes to ask President Barack Obama to tap the fund for help in rebuilding after storms that killed at least 39 people, 21 of them in Kentucky."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/fema-disaster-relief-fund_n_1322227.html

Looks like we have no other choice than to pay more and more to rebuild the destruction wrought by these crazy weather patterns. But what's this piece that fell under the table?

Obama spokesman: “We would never propose a carbon tax”

The answer is clear: drop any suggestion of a carbon tax. It would only add to the burden of those suffering the effects of extreme weather!

[phantom power]

1. one of these things is not like the other...

rebuilding and relief == "helping us keep our standard of living and Business As Usual"

carbon tax == "Jimmy Carter telling us to wear a sweater"

[NoOneMan]

2. Have these feedback mechanisms been modeled

That money is an abstract representation of energy, and energy will be spent for rebuilding, and carbon will be put in the atmosphere from doing it. Sure, its negligible now, but at some point the energy spent fending off nature may make a dent if Sandy becomes a relatively normal-sized storm and the coasts are constantly rebuilding from last week's disaster.

Funds for agriculture are the worst though, as they prop up a system that perpetually ruins the earth by its very function