Now there is this: “Chief Resilience Offices Could Enhance Climate Preparedness.”
All of the above sounds wonderful except...
If you are dependent on federal money, then you will have to dance to the tune of the federal dollars and what they are supposed to be used for. Their federal priorities become your priorities. I have a dream that individual jurisdictions would actually choose to establish a disaster resilience officer position that would work on what they feel is important. The early adopters have done so, but that federal funding is going to be ever so tempting to take and replace the state funds that are currently being used to fund the work.
Is there anything wrong with working on equity issues or climate change problems? Nope, none at all — if that is your priority. When you take federal funding, your priorities can be whipsawed by the “risk of the day” or the whims of the budget folks.
Very likely we might end up with the 31 Flavors of Disaster Resilience Officers. Different approaches for different areas of the nation. My only real hope is that “disaster resilience” is somehow included in the mix and not tossed aside, as “resilience” encompasses everything and anything you want to define it as being.
Steve Myers shared the link above.
