Uploaded September 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
KMO, host of the C-Realm Podcast, describes two competing approaches to creating resilience along hurricane-prone coastlines. The industrial approach is to harden the coast with mega-scale construction projects that will require an enormous mobilization of resources and commit the local community and federal government to an on-ended maintenance regime. The alternative idea comes from permaculture and takes advantage of variations in scale, physical pattern, and composition to absorb the energy of storm surges. He cites the role that oyster beds once played in the areas of New York and New Jersey hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy. Near the end, KMO attempts to persuade what he takes to be a largely progressive audience not to antagonize or demonize cultural conservatives. Failure to find common cause with conservatives will only make the task of re-directing industrial civilization onto a regenerative course needlessly difficult.
KMO, host of the C-Realm Podcast, describes two competing approaches to creating resilience along hurricane-prone coastlines. The industrial approach is to harden the coast with mega-scale construction projects that will require an enormous mobilization of resources and commit the local community and federal government to an on-ended maintenance regime. The alternative idea comes from permaculture and takes advantage of variations in scale, physical pattern, and composition to absorb the energy of storm surges. He cites the role that oyster beds once played in the areas of New York and New Jersey hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy. Near the end, KMO attempts to persuade what he takes to be a largely progressive audience not to antagonize or demonize cultural conservatives. Failure to find common cause with conservatives will only make the task of re-directing industrial civilization onto a regenerative course needlessly difficult.
