I have been in all the lower forty-eight states. Many of them – many times. I have a road atlas with each road my wife and I have traveled. Many states have lots of orange marker, some have less like Nevada. My 78 semester hours in Geography and almost a million miles of driving allow me to be an expert on America.

            During my lifetime, I have seen how climate has changed our country. My Dad drove my Mom and I to see my brother in Utah when I was six. In other trips we went to see him in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. The mountains were green with huge trees. Today those trees south of southern Wyoming are dying from bug infestations. A few decades ago those bugs froze out around the southern Colorado border or a few thousand feet in altitude. Millions of those dead trees now cause forest fires.

            Dad and I caught malaria in New Mexico when streams and low areas had water for mosquitoes to breed. My last trip to New Mexico saw no places where they could breed.             On our way to southern California in 2003 I saw lots of signs for desert land for sale. We were far from the Colorado River so I called the Realtor. He was selling the desert for $15,000 per acre because the government was going to build an irrigation system fifty miles to the land. The water would make it possible to grow alfalfa hay for California dairy cows. My first trip through Yuma was in the mid-seventies. In 2003 it was at least twenty times wider with all trailers and motor homes. During one climate class in college, I had studied how they were quickly sucking their aquifer dry. Now they get Colorado River water or move away.

            Every year the local, state and federal government plus the insurance companies spend hundreds of billions on repairing or replacing infrastructure and buildings. FEMA got tired of paying for a small town on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River and rebuilt it out of the flood plain. They saved Cairo, Illinois which would have to get a lot better to be a bad slum by flooding prime farmland in Missouri.

            Much of Louisiana is a swamp and below the levied surface of the Mississippi River. Katrina showed how far below sea level much of the city is. We spent two billion to try to withstand the next category three storm. Ida was a strong 4 and missed. Still, it was damaging and the electrical supply lines were destroyed. More money was needed to put it back together.

            Why do I have to pay for damage done to property in floodplains, swamps and hurricane prone states? My home insurance went up 10% to offset losses from last year. Many insurance companies have pulled out of those areas and states that get huge claims each year. It will only get a lot worse.