Hurricane Katrina and Climate Justice

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Hurricane Katrina and Climate Justice
by Joshua Karliner, Special to CorpWatch
September 12th, 2005


For nearly five years George Bush has infuriated much of the world by refusing to take action on global warming. Instead, he has called for more study. In a way, he got what he wanted with Hurricane Katrina.

One of the strongest storms on record, Katrina provided an epic and horrific laboratory for observing what happens when corporations and consumers pump more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The world’s top climate scientists have long documented the effects of burning fossil fuels--oil, coal and gas-- and predicted dire consequences for the world’s climate, including increasingly severe and frequent storms and floods.

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The least powerful—whether they live in New Orleans or in the low-lying coastal areas of Bangladesh, Nigeria, Honduras, or on islands from Jamaica to Fiji to the Maldives—are the ones who will suffer most from the hurricanes, typhoons, and rising tides of climate change. As entire coasts come under threat, the wealthy can buy sandbags and create super levies and sea walls, or just up and move to higher ground. The poor—tens of millions of climate refugees--will be stranded; no gas, no food, nowhere to go; up the toxic creek without a paddle.


It’s the Oil, Stupid
The Katrina tragedy is intertwined with oil. Along with gas and coal, when burned, oil produces carbon dioxide, which makes up the bulk of the global warming gases that the world’s people and corporations release into the atmosphere. The United States consumes vast quantities of these fossil fuels. With 4 percent of the planet’s population, it is responsible for about a quarter of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.


http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12629