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ZACHARY WEST, TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD
We have no time to lose

Houses, streets and entire neighborhoods sinking below the rising waters. White-crested waves flowing freely over the usual course of an interstate highway. Swamped oil refineries and exploding chemical plants. More rain in just 4 days than rainy Seattle or Portland receive in a full year. Some 30,000 people displaced from their homes, and a quarter of a million without power.

Hurricane Harvey this week wreaked painful havoc on Texas and Louisiana—at least 37 have lost their lives to the storm, a number sure to increase—and impacts of the disaster will continue to unfold in the weeks ahead. Further away from our home, this year’s monsoon rains have proven to be even more deadly for cities and towns in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, where more than 1200 people have died, and tens of millions displaced. Flood-related mudslides in Sierra Leone took over a thousand lives just weeks ago.

In the face of such tragedies, our first thought is to tend to the victims, and to help, however we can. Those who are able to donate resources to help those in need have many avenues to choose from. This article from ProPublica includes some essential advice on how to think about disaster relief contributions to Houston communities. The city-established Greater Houston Community Foundation is prepared to distribute funds to those in need, and Vox has compiled a list including other local, Texas-based charities. The Houston organization Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (tejas) works on critical environmental justice issues such as those sure to be exacerbated in Harvey’s aftermath.

At the same time, we must not avoid talking about the grim lesson these disasters offer us about the increased risk and frequency of such catastrophic weather events that come with a changing climate. The tragedy faced by those affected by recent (and ongoing) flooding, as well as the colossal economic cost, should also prompt us to think carefully about the choices we face as a society about the energy we use.

It has become increasingly hard to deny that the conditions that helped make these storms so devastating—warmer-than-usual ocean waters, warmer air—are going to be more common features of life on Earth thanks to global warming. Houston itself has seen four 100-year flooding events since the spring of  2015. Events such as these should only heighten our collective sense of urgency to stop making things worse by continuing our reliance on fossil fuels and the carbon pollution they produce. Work towards climate progress, towards an economy based on 100 percent clean energy, has never been more crucial than now.

Author Bio

Savitha Reddy Pathi

Deputy Director, Climate Solutions

Savitha has been Deputy Director of Climate Solutions since June 2019, previously serving as Development Director since January 2010. To her, climate change is the biggest social justice issue of our lifetime and she has been working on the issue since 1997, when she interned at the US EPA's Policy office during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. 

Savitha is responsible for organizational effectiveness and also oversees the organization's development, cultivation and fundraising efforts, managing the team that raises funds from individuals, foundations and corporate supporters. Savitha helped form Climate Solutions Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Group and is a graduate of the Center for Diversity & the Environment’s Environment 2042 Leadership Program. She continues her activism through her volunteer service on the Board of Trustees for the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, on the inaugural Advisory Council of the University of Washington’s EarthLab and on the Steering Committee for the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict. Her Board service ended in 2017 for Mize Family Foundation, whose grantmaking focuses on climate justice. In 2018 she served on the fundraising team for the Yes on 1631 campaign, helping raise over $15M to take on Big Oil.

Prior to joining Climate Solutions, Savitha worked at Seattle Foundation where she served as philanthropic advisor to over 100 donor advised funds and the Environmental grant making lead; the Collins Group (now Campbell & Company) providing fundraising counsel for feasibility studies and capital campaigns; and at the Women's Funding Alliance in a fundraising and grantmaking role. In Washington DC, Savitha worked for the US EPA and Environmental Media Services (now Resource Media).

Savitha received a BA with Honors in Government and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College. During her tenure at Climate Solutions, Savitha has been recognized with the 40 Under 40 award from the Puget Sound Business Journal and the Eco Women Making a Difference award from Women of Color Empowered & The Northwest Asian Weekly, and was awarded a Brainerd Foundation Fellowship to Social Venture Partners. She has lived in Seattle since 2000, and is a proud auntie. 

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