Here's a message for those of us concerned about climate change, from an article
about Hurricane Katrina, "Unnatural Disaster" by Stephen Bocking, Alternatives
Journal, Vol 31, No 4/5, 2005, 36-39.
"Katrina devastated a region unprepared, but not unwarned. It was well known
that the coastline was eroding: millions had been spent on restoring sinking
roads and reconstructing breakwaters. Mark Fischetti's [2001] Scientific
American article describing a Katrina-like scenario was prescient... The Federal
Emergency Management Agency listed a New Orleans hurricane as among the three
most likely catastrophes to afflict America. There was also local awareness: in
2002 the New Orleans Times-Picayune published a detailed analysis of just such a
hurricane, accurately predicting tens of thousands stranded in a watery and
toxic wasteland.
But that year, interest in hurricanes focused more on the liquor and fruit
juice variety. (the potent Hurricane, the drink of choice on Bourbon Street,
even had its own festival.) Some work was underway -- engineering studies, a few
levees were reinforced -- but there was no sense of urgency. That scary stories
failed to compel action should give pause to environmentalists that rely on
doomsday scenarios, whether of climate catastrophe or mass extinction, to compel
action. Fear is a poor motivator."
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John Scull
http://members.shaw.ca/jscull
"Means and ends must cohere because the end is pre-existent in the means, and
ultimately destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
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