September 2005
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September 28th, 2005
Alex's Antedeluvian Rant
"We can all pitch in by being better conservers of energy." - George W BushI can't believe it either. "Arbusto" actually suggested that Americans use less! For the first time in five years, the world's most prominent terrorist said something honest and meaningful. Usually you know when George Bush is lying because you can see his lips moving. This time it was really different. Bush looked at a real problem and suggested a solution. Promoting conservation was a very difficult thing for him to do. If you saw video of this historic proclamation, you saw Bush in agony as he suggested that Americans should do something unselfish and positive. It was shocking. After more than five years in that powerful office, this was the first time that the so called "conservative" had actually talked about conservation. Our reliance on fossil fuels has caused the planet to heat up. Soon this will have catastrophic consequences for all of us. In twenty years, polar ice shelves will have melted enough to raise ocean levels significantly. Many of the world's coastal cities will be flooded. Increasing temperatures will bring drought and plagues of pests to much of the planet's farm land. Much of the rest of it will be flooded. Storm after storm after storm after storm will pound temperate regions. Arctic sea ice and perma frost will melt, and northern forests will burn, accelerating the warming process. Its much too late to stop it now. Our failure to conserve will have lead to the collapse of civilization as we know it. This was true before Katrina. This was true before Rita. Here is what has been driving me crazy. We could have begun the switch away from fossil fuels DECADES ago. We have long known that our economic system (built upon burning more and more oil) was environmentally unsustainable. Our leaders should have called for us to "be better conservers" years ago. Yet it is only after two massive hurricanes, when lower than normal fuel supplies present the threat of ECONOMIC difficulties that the call for change goes out. Bush's call for conservation is about ECONOMIC issues, not environmental ones. In the last century, we did everything possible to make the planet uninhabitable for future generations. We've ensured that catastrophic environmental damage will force us to dramatically re-organize our entire civilization in the next decades. Our leaders have failed to take responsibility; instead they have encouraged us all to live the lifestyles that will lead to the end of everything as we know it. Many countries even refused to adopt the Kyoto Protocol, which marked a small but significant step towards positive change. David Suzuki has a great quote. "If your home were on fire, would your first thought be, 'Can I afford to put out this fire?'" If I were a religious person I'd be thinking a lot about the "Wrath of God." I would notice that it is oil infrastructure in the world's most polluting nation that is being hit by big storms. I would see that disasters spawned by climate change have begun to hit us in that most sacred of places, the pocket-book. I would notice that greedy oilmen were calling on me to be a true conservative. That would tell me that truly, the end was near. However, I'm not religious. I know that life will go on. There is no doomsday, just change. What we will see in the next years will not be the end of the world, just the end of an unsustainable way of life. All closed systems work towards equilibrium. Mother Nature is just a big dog shaking away her fleas. I know that ultimately, this is best.
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September 19th, 2005
ATTENTION : FEMA
It looks like this one will hit on Saturday or Sunday. The warm water of the Gulf of Mexico will provide plenty of fuel for the storm. If the oil rigs and refineries get hammered again...
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September 14th, 2005
More Storms
Its been a little more than four years since a gang of Saudi religious fanatics crashed airplanes into buildings in the United States. Since that time, the United States has been completely obsessed with terrorism. What should have been an international police matter became a illegal invasion of an sovereign nation that had nothing to do with the attack. Shadowy figures hiding in Afghan caves were elevated to the level of super-villains. Americans feared a few hundred religious crazies as much as they had once feared the Soviet Union. Obsessed with fighting terrorism (with terrorism) the United States Government completely forgot about much more serious threats. The biggest threat facing Americans (and the rest of the people of the world) is that of natural disasters, unnatural as they may seem these days. There is a direct co-relation between global warming and the frequency of strong storms. However, leaders within the United States Government have refused to recognize that global warming exists. After all, admitting that our actions have contributed to our current situation would in some way be an admission of responsibility for all that is happening. Acknowledging this responsibility would suggest that we need to change our polluting ways, perhaps by changing our lifestyles and consuming less. Big Oil can't have that. As I type this, Hurricane Ophelia is making landfall on the Carolina coast. It will not be the last system this year. How about next year or the year after? Would it surprise anyone if another major hurricane were to hit the United States in the next five years? After four major storms hit Florida in 2004, can we really doubt that more big ones are coming? With all the work needed on the Gulf Coast, will emergency response officials have the resources to cope? The Bush Administration told the American people that it put their safety first. During the election campaign of 2004, it was suggested that Democratic challenger John Kerry was incapable of keeping Americans safe. Katrina changed perceptions considerably. Clearly, the American people were no safer on August 31st, 2005 than they were on September 10th, 2001. In the face of looming disaster, the United States Government showed itself to be incompetent at best, especially when you consider the amount of warning time provided by slow-moving Katrina. For all that was done in the last four years, the American people were not protected from a predictable event. The "Homeland Security" administration failed miserably at what it was supposed to do best. . It can be argued that the world has become a much more dangerous place for Americans as a direct consequence of the actions of the Bush Administration. Money that should have been spent on critical infrastructure, (like levee maintenance in New Orleans) was diverted to an illegal and needless war. The disaster that is the Invasion of Iraq has done nothing but destabilize the region, giving many young people legitimate grievances against the West. Dropping bombs on civilians can only ensure that future generations will be motivated to hit back. We face decades of struggle and many more terrorist attacks. This did not have to be. Our refusal to do something about our polluting ways has contributed greatly to global warming, which has resulted in a greater frequency of storms. This did not have to be. Government has shown itself to be incapable of making us safer and there are many more storms to weather. Can we take any comfort in knowing that we've done it to ourselves?
_________________________________________________________________September 5th, 2005
Illusions
It has been a really bad week for the United States. Hurricane Katrina left a path of destruction along the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is uninhabitable, perhaps permanently. Tens of thousands may be dead. The economic impact of Katrina may be significant enough to lead to the eventual collapse of the entire US economy. The fallout from the storm presents the United States with perhaps the second greatest crisis it has ever faced. (its Civil War has to be first) There is a lot of cleaning up to do. Still, a greater damage has been done. Katrina will leave a deep psychological scar on the American psyche. Everything is different now. Dominant mythology has been shattered. For decades, we have been inundated with stories of the "American Dream." This mythology tells us of the greatness of American society and its people. We share collective illusions. They tell us that in America... everyone can prosper everyone is equal nobody is poor nobody will be left behind Katrina ripped apart this mythology. As the storm approached, Americans were shocked to learn that many residents of New Orleans did not evacuate the city because they did not own cars. Without the economic means to secure their escape, the poor were left to fend for themselves. Thousands of people died because they were poor. Is this a virtue of "rugged individualism"? Those who survived the storm were abandoned again by their government, left alone, without help for days. Without food or clean water, without shelter or sanitation, chaos emerged. As people were hungry, looting became inevitable. Which of these people are Jean Valjean? The United States government failed its people. For two days, it was clear that Katrina was headed towards New Orleans. This is the time when evacuation orders were given. As the storm rumbled towards the coast, it was well known by government that the levees protecting New Orleans were likely to fail. It was well known by government that New Orleans would likely be submerged. Two days is not a lot of time, but it is enough time to take a few simple steps. One simple question. Where were the buses? The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the organization who's only reason for being is to help people in the face of disaster, was unable to direct a fleet of buses to a major city over a period of two days. Really? The United States government did not act because the United States government did not care. Why would they care about what happened to the underclass of a doomed city? These were not campaign donors. These were not an organized political force. The people caught in Katrina's path were predominantly poor and black. Illusions cast aside, it should be clear that "we the people" mean very little to those in power. Hip Hop Star Kanye West said that George Bush doesn't care about black people. Though he is probably right, Kanye missed the point. It isn't that the people of New Orleans are black, it is that they are poor. George Bush doesn't care about poor people. You can't expect a billionaire frat-boy from Connecticut to understand what it means to be poor. He has never been without. "Christian" values aside, helping those who are less fortunate does not help him. Without minimizing the suffering of those hurt by Katrina, in the end, it is illusions that have been destroyed. This is ultimately a good thing. We have seen how the richest country in the world treats its poor. Let us no longer be deceived about the concerns and motivations of those in power. The relief effort that has now begun (a week after the storm passed!) is as much about public relations as it is about saving lives. FEMA has shown itself to be completely incompetent. The US government did NOTHING to protect those most in need in that crucial time before the storm hit. National Guard Troops that could have stepped in to help through the storm were too busy guarding stolen oil in a foreign land to do their jobs. What lesson can we take from all of this? If you are poor and American, you are on your own. Get used to it, there are more storms coming. Happy Labour Day.