Apocolypse Now?

This is a post in reference to the national crisis now being faced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's pummeling of New Orleans and a wide swath of the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. I have a lot of thoughts and emotions resulting from the events of the past week. Driving home last night I found myself unable to have a conversation with my wife because I was simultaneously concerned, disappointed and angry.

Yesterday, a co-worker made an incredibly insensitive quip about the people who died essentially "getting what they deserved" for not evacuating the city when instructed to do so. My question to him was, were they able to evacuate? I don't know the details about the evacuation process in New Orleans or other areas prior to the hurricane, but I do know that it is unlikely that the infrastructure is adequate to handle the evacuation of such a mass of people in a short period of time. Ultimately it is the people of lowest means - the poor, ill and elderly - who were least likely to be left behind in the city. It is not the fault of these people that they did not have the means to evacuate, and they did not "get what they deserved".

(Granted, there are always those who stubbornly refuse to evacuate when a storm like this comes along. Hopefully they were aware of the risks that they were taking. To cast aside the fate of thousands because a few of them may have ignored the warnings strikes me as heartless).

We drove past gas stations that had raised the price for a gallon of gas by 40 cents or more. I stopped at one station that was selling regular for $2.85 per gallon. When I remarked that many stations were charging $3.19, the clerk told me that the old fashioned (analog) pumps couldn't be programmed to charge more than $3.00/gallon. I guess that's to our benefit until the pumps can be updated, or until the "cheap gas" stations run out of fuel. Unless demand is reduced immediately (and substantially), prices will continue to rise. Katrina has caused substantial damage to America's oil rigs, refineries and pipelines. Reserves will dwindle quickly, and prices will increase. I am angry that no administration (I'm not singling out the Bush administration here) has been able to grasp the fact that our societal dependence upon oil, a finite resource, is not sustainable and therefore taken significant strides to move away from oil dependence. Well, I guess the Carter administration knew all this, but Reagan cast Carter's energy initiatives aside and we haven't looked back. We are now 25 years behind where we could have been in developing (and using) more fuel-efficient technology and non-petroleum energy sources.

And, lest you think that I am merely engaging in self-riteous finger wagging at "you driving your Hummer around", I am also disappointed in myself for not being able to do more to wean myself off petroleum. Sure, I feel good about burning wood rather than oil, but how much oil has gone into the effort to bring my my annual cord of wood? And how much oil am I saving by burning wood as a secondary heat source? And is it possible that I could drive less and use less plastic than I do now? Of course I can. I usually justify my occasional slipups with the fact that I know I strive more than most people to conserve energy, and "nobody is perfect". Well, maybe not being "perfect" (or closer to perfect) is no longer good enough.

Then today I read the news that is the kicker for me - funding for needed improvements to the levee system that is vital to the flood control efforts in New Orleans has been cut by 44% in recent years. Why? To help pay for the "War on Terror" in Iraq. Or, shall I say, "to pay for the war in Iraq while simultaneously reducing taxes for the wealthiest of Americans"? Furthermore, Bush Administration policies have allowed greater development of wetlands - wetlands that help serve as a natural defense against hurricane-induced storm surges.

Katrina has become what might be categorized as the Perfect Storm, one whose impact is much more far-reaching than simply the effects of its wind and rains. And one whose impact on this country is exacerbated by the US's own "Taxes are bad! Who cares about the environment? More development is good!" policies in recent decades: poor services available to the poor, ill and elderly; a transportation system centered around the automobile that was ill-equipped to evacuate New Orleans in anticipation of the hurricane; an "Enviornmental" policy that compromised the natural defenses against the hurricane; funding for person-made disaster control diverted to an ill-advised war (and to the bank accounts of the rich); and a petroleum-based society that will now be handcuffed for an indeterminate amount of time due to damage inflicted on the oil wells, refineries and pipelines.

Hurricane Katrina obviously could not have been avoided. But if we had acted with even a little bit of foresight over the last couple of decades, Katrina's human, environmental and economic impact could have been greatly reduced. The Bush Administration's policies are certainly responsible for some of the current problems, but others are the end result of decades of ignorance and inaction by the citizens and politicians of this country. Hopefully we can learn lessons from Katrina, and this will serve as a wakeup call to us all.

Note: Jim Baumer has written a couple of well-researched and well-thought-out entries over the last few days that I think are worthy of a good read. Today's entry at Words Matter directly targets the Bush Administration, adn it provided some inspiration my entry today. I agree with most of Jim's points, so rather than try to go down that road myself, I will simply suggest that you read what he has to say. And at his blatherings blog at WriteForYou, Jim forwarded a post-oil picture of America that was written by Tim Holt in the Portland Oregonian. This vision may come to pass all too soon, it seems. I planned to reflect on this at the Land Blog, but it seems appropriate to point you to it from this post. Jim cares deeply about our society and always writes thoughtfully about many of the issues that of concern to me. I encourage making his Blogs part of everybody's regular reading.