ProPublica
@ProPublica@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 16 hours ago

Rural residents were upset when Oregon released a statewide map estimating property risk from wildfires.

Until then, the impacts of climate change were abstract to many people, one senator said. “This is a very big chicken coming home to roost.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/oregon-wildfire-risk-map-rural-homeowners?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News#Oregon#Wildfires#Map#Home#Misinformation#Climate#ClimateChange
-rb
@dashrb@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 hours ago
@ProPublica so the map shows where the risk of fire is highest. And residents said, “don’t show us that! We might lose money!”

But having higher property values only makes you money on the day you sell. If you don’t sell (yet) then you “enjoy” higher property values merely via the assessment of higher property taxes. Not a real benefit.

That aside, “I want people to burn to death so I can make more money” is kind of a shitty position, IMHO.

So. Fucking. Selfish.
Ruud Steltenpool
@steltenpower@social.edu.nl replied  ·  activity timestamp 9 hours ago
@ProPublica “This map is destroying their property values,” is exactly what I hoped would change behaviour when I had a more generic variant of the same idea: have a browser extension that, when switched on, looks for addresses/coordinates/maps in any webpage and enriches those with your preferred (open) dataset. Make that house/vacation/food/etc money influence floodrisk/noise/pollution/etc.
Interested?
Gabriel N
@wtrmt@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 9 hours ago
@ProPublica reading the comments it seems an undeclared fact that neither the state, nor the federal government will do anything about this structural problem.

In a conservative society, the fact that the governing party has an anti science position makes it very hard to work to solve this issue.

Just blaming the victims or laughing at them is not enough. Schadenfreude does not work when every house is burning.
Lindsey Wise
@Wisel@stranger.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 15 hours ago
@ProPublica interpreting maps is hard & takes time & knowing the details, as they always involve nuance, choices, and scale. Scale is really important! Dunn was 100% correct to say it needed a large outreach & communication campaign to have a chance. Even then, if people have made up their minds before you can talk to them, good luck. It’s super unfortunate, given the risks still exist and the insurance companies are using their own maps to set rates.