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Christopher Dodd, recently retired Democratic presidential candidate, and Democratic Senator from Connecticut wrote that, " The most pressing problems can sometimes be the dullest - until they force their way into our attention in an instant."
Dodd was referring to the country's infrastructure, though he might have made similar remarks about any number of underreported issues that the next president will face.
Dodd said if he were still a candidate for president that he would be talking about dull, boring infrastructure issues, like the sudden collapse of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River last summer killing 13 and injuring more than 100. Or that, as he put it, "160,570 of our bridges are in just as dangerous a shape; one-third of our roads are in poor or mediocre condition; some of our biggest cities depend on water and sewage systems over a century old."
Dodd was decorous not to mention levees, or he might have described the 30-foot section of levee ruptured in Fernley, Nev. last month. Or the completely predictable drowning of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, or as noted by Alex Prud' homme the more than 100 antiquated earthen bermes across the country, the Texas levees protecting 5 percent of our nation's oil-refinery capacity, or the fragile 1,100 miles of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta supplying fresh water to California, the eighth largest economy in the world.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year said that 122 levees are at risk of failure, citing 37 in California and another 19 in Washington State alone.
Before that, just months after Katrina, Robert Giegengack, a respected University of Pennsylvania geologist told policy makers that, "We simply lack the capacity to protect New Orleans." Long before Katrina, other water experts warned about potentially catastrophic flaws in the system of levees and gates built by the Army Corps after Hurricane Betsy ravaged the city in 1965.
So what have we learned from these experts? The government has committed over $100 billion in federal reconstruction funds for New Orleans and the Corps of Engineers has $5.7 billion to rebuild hurricane defenses.
Sen. Dodd was also diplomatic enough not to mention another boring, but hugely important issue for those who purport to defend us, the potential cataclysm of drug-resistant air borne or water borne infection.
The World Health Organization abruptly reminded me of this issue last week in noting that drug-resistant tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union had reached the highest levels ever recorded. Apparently, a number of countries cited in their study simply haven't invested in disease detection, provided appropriate drug therapies or applied basic public health principles to monitor identified patients. In the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control, the presence of drug resistant cases of tuberculosis is three times greater among foreign-born patients compared to American born patients.
Perhaps it's a good time to rent the video of Michael Crichton's microbes gone wild novel, Congo, if you have trouble imaging the impact of an easily transmittable and lethal virus.
I mention these issues, and there are many more, because each of them requires an appreciation of the fundamental role of science and technology in creating prosperity and defending "the homeland."
Politicians don't need a degree in structural engineering or medicine to become president, but they had better understand what science does.
In the months ahead, I hope the media will challenge presidential candidates with boring topics like these.
Andrew Whyman is a nearly-retired physician who lives in Incline Village. To contact Whyman, email adwhyman@aol.com.
Dodd was referring to the country's infrastructure, though he might have made similar remarks about any number of underreported issues that the next president will face.
Dodd said if he were still a candidate for president that he would be talking about dull, boring infrastructure issues, like the sudden collapse of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River last summer killing 13 and injuring more than 100. Or that, as he put it, "160,570 of our bridges are in just as dangerous a shape; one-third of our roads are in poor or mediocre condition; some of our biggest cities depend on water and sewage systems over a century old."
Dodd was decorous not to mention levees, or he might have described the 30-foot section of levee ruptured in Fernley, Nev. last month. Or the completely predictable drowning of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, or as noted by Alex Prud' homme the more than 100 antiquated earthen bermes across the country, the Texas levees protecting 5 percent of our nation's oil-refinery capacity, or the fragile 1,100 miles of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta supplying fresh water to California, the eighth largest economy in the world.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year said that 122 levees are at risk of failure, citing 37 in California and another 19 in Washington State alone.
Before that, just months after Katrina, Robert Giegengack, a respected University of Pennsylvania geologist told policy makers that, "We simply lack the capacity to protect New Orleans." Long before Katrina, other water experts warned about potentially catastrophic flaws in the system of levees and gates built by the Army Corps after Hurricane Betsy ravaged the city in 1965.
So what have we learned from these experts? The government has committed over $100 billion in federal reconstruction funds for New Orleans and the Corps of Engineers has $5.7 billion to rebuild hurricane defenses.
Sen. Dodd was also diplomatic enough not to mention another boring, but hugely important issue for those who purport to defend us, the potential cataclysm of drug-resistant air borne or water borne infection.
The World Health Organization abruptly reminded me of this issue last week in noting that drug-resistant tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union had reached the highest levels ever recorded. Apparently, a number of countries cited in their study simply haven't invested in disease detection, provided appropriate drug therapies or applied basic public health principles to monitor identified patients. In the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control, the presence of drug resistant cases of tuberculosis is three times greater among foreign-born patients compared to American born patients.
Perhaps it's a good time to rent the video of Michael Crichton's microbes gone wild novel, Congo, if you have trouble imaging the impact of an easily transmittable and lethal virus.
I mention these issues, and there are many more, because each of them requires an appreciation of the fundamental role of science and technology in creating prosperity and defending "the homeland."
Politicians don't need a degree in structural engineering or medicine to become president, but they had better understand what science does.
In the months ahead, I hope the media will challenge presidential candidates with boring topics like these.
Andrew Whyman is a nearly-retired physician who lives in Incline Village. To contact Whyman, email adwhyman@aol.com.
