Saturday, August 16, 2008

Who will lead us as we face Natural Foreseeable and Certain Disasters ("NFCD")

In assessing a "belief" system, or the ability of an ideologically-driven candidate to lead, it would seem practical to put them up against Natural Foreseeable and Certain Disasters ("NFCD"). How will your "Beliefs" steel your response? How will the candidate perform in the face of Disaster?

All ideological obsessions--such as judgments on the rectitude of abortions and the rights of gay persons to exist -- pale compared to NFCDs. Let's take an example: Harmful algal blooms (or HABs). These toxic blooms are commonly called "Red Tides", although they are not tide-driven and are not always red.

HABs present one of the most scientifically complex and economically significant coastal management issues facing the nations today. The micro-organisms are ancient, adaptive, and roguish. In the past, only a few regions were affected by these harmful algal blooms, but now all U.S. coastal regions, and vast areas across the globe, have reported major toxic algal blooms.

The Harmful Algae Page was started 9 years ago by Donald Anderson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His gallery of killers is alarming, diverse, and rich. For example, the dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense is among the most efficient poisoners. A Chaetoceros species stabs fish to death by plunging serrated spines into their gils. Over five kinds of human illnesses from seafood poisoning are directly caused by HABs, all of them potentially deadly.

How will your Beliefs help? Will we have a Leader with enough intelligence to understand how much we depend on leadership in the face of real dangers? Will our Leaders devote resources to mitigate the HAB attacks? For eight years, HAB attacks have increased while our leaders ignored them or even encouraged economic activities that have made them worse. All indications are that pollution run-off from human activity has increased the distribution and scale of the HAB attacks.

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