In certain areas...
such as LA and FL per your description, we are mostly culpable for environmental problems that have occurred and are occurring.
No one in their right mind believes we don't contribute to Global Warming. In your opinion, What percentage of the world wide warming issue are we responsible for?
There is a trade off somewhere between our culpability and our technical ability to mitigate a natural process. In the end, our greatest failure may be, not doing the things that should be done to meet the crisis.