The public-private model is never going to fix this

Gill asks us to imagine what might happen if we had some way of researching and combating our most pressing environmental threats without also trying to make a buck.  I wonder if we'll ever know.

Meselhe and Hu are set for trial in August. A memorandum filed by Meselhe's attorney, however, points out that the Basin Wide Model was ”entirely funded with public money through a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.”

What the institute claims as a trade secret, in fact, belongs to the state of Louisiana, according to the memorandum, which also notes that computer codes invented by the Dutch company Deltares were incorporated into the model on the understanding that they would be common property. Deltares on its website declares, “We believe in openness and transparency, as is evident from the free availability of our software and models. Open source works is our firm conviction.”

If that admirable sentiment were universally shared, we would have a better chance of saving the coastal region.

LOL of course we won't, though.  Climate change may be an existential disaster when we see it collectively. But seeing problems collectively isn't the way we do things.  Our political economy isn't a rational process of  determining the best and most equitable outcomes.  It's a conflict among classes and individuals with oppositional interests. We're not organized to avert or mitigate something like climate change. We can only determine who bears the greatest costs vs who can make an extra buck or two in the meantime. In other words, we are never going to fix this.