NationStates Jolt Archive

While you Americans still grieve at the damage and loss in New Orleans and environs, I shall also turn halfway across the globe and take a look at Typhoon Talim striking Taiwan even as we speak. It is the strongest typhoon of the year (though nothing compared to Katrina), and about the fifth to directly strike Taiwan and Fujian this year.

Every year the number, strength, and damage and casualty due to tropical cyclones increase. What is happening to Earth???

I'm not sure if nature is worse, or humans are putting themselves at risk further. For example, 52% of Americans live 30 mi. from a coastline. That's a big demographic shift, as far more people lived inland beforehand.

While you Americans still grieve at the damage and loss in New Orleans and environs, I shall also turn halfway across the globe and take a look at Typhoon Talim striking Taiwan even as we speak. It is the strongest typhoon of the year (though nothing compared to Katrina), and about the fifth to directly strike Taiwan and Fujian this year.

Every year the number, strength, and damage and casualty due to tropical cyclones increase. What is happening to Earth???

The thing is, Taiwan isn't likely to lose an entire city because of their storm; it's a little morbid, but the media will usually focus on the worst news then slightly less-worst news.

A Hard Rain
Never doubt your white privilege. Never forget that you were never made to enter from the rear, never questioned after dark, never denied a place to sleep or eat, or the sun in which to walk. In your hands a weapon renders those before you foes, never you the aggressor.
As many of you are aware there is a terrible tragedy unfolding, one that has affected hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and will continue to do so. It has robbed people of their homes, of their livelihoods, of their security, of their hope.

You think I’m talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, don’t you?

Strange how you might assume that.

After two and a half years, Iraq has seen nothing but death, destruction, and deprivation. Basic services in Iraq are still intermittent, sewage remains a drastic problem, and the unemployment rate is over 50%. And now, beyond the insurgency, which has grown, diversified, and shown amazing resilience and adaptation (in Al-Anbar province it has fought the United States to an absolute standstill), Iraq’s constitutional crisis may very well act as the last nail in its coffin. After two and a half years of foreign occupation and grief, the people of Iraq may now have to face a civil war.

What is the difference between the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in Iraq? There is absolutely nothing that anyone can do about a hurricane.

It’s disturbing how an agenda can alter how much value we place on life, not to mention race. How much death is excusable for the promotion of democracy or to fulfill the gas guzzling needs of others? Is the life of a child worth a quarter off of a gallon of gas? How about twenty children? Were they white children I can assure you that alternative fuel technology funding would be through the roof.

For the most part, we view death through a surreal filter, through a soft lens, from the comfortable confines of living rooms, from the cushioned warmth of couches. We watch as one dimensional personalities detail death with perfect hair, their exquisite dental work giving death a smile. We have become so accustomed to a sanitized reality that it has become nearly impossible for us to fathom our own culpability.

Without A Safety Net

President Bush cut his vacation short and returned to Washington to address the country, to reassure Americans that the government is doing all that it can in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What Mr. Bush did not mention was that more than a third of the members of the Mississippi and Louisiana National Guard are either in Iraq or supporting the war effort. These are the men and women who are supposed to act as the first available resource with regards to rescue and security operations in disasters such as this. According to National Guard officials in those states affected, the limits of available manpower are already being stretched. It should also come as no surprise that most of those remaining to face this disaster have already done tours in Iraq.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is now tasked with trying to repair the damaged and overrun New Orleans levee system, a task that will take some time to accomplish. But what might interest you is that, in 2003, federal funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project was severely reduced. Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told a local news paper in June of 2004 that funds had been diverted…

“It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, has said that hundreds, if not thousands, have been killed in New Orleans alone. A public health emergency has also been declared for the entire Gulf Coast.

Widespread looting and random violence have also been reported. Local police and fire have also reportedly been caught looting.

Reaching Safety

It’s times like these that we of sublimity are given a long look into the gaping, repressive, black hole inhabited by those little considered. It’s times like these that the differences between ‘us and them’ are blatantly exposed. While those in Darfur not only have to live as refugees but also in fear of violent attack, those who have fled Hurricane Katrina do not. Unlike those who were devastated by last year’s tsunami, many of Katrina’s victims will be able to rebuild their lives because of insurance, a generous outporuing of public and international assistance, federal aid that won’t be halved or disappear after this event is no longer a headline. International aid will not be misappropriated, fail to show up, or arrive only to be a tenth of that promised. Those who survived Hurricane Katrina will not be so easily forgotten.

"snip"

Did you create that? If not, could you give a link? That's well written stuff.

Every year the number, strength, and damage and casualty due to tropical cyclones increase. What is happening to Earth???
Even a minute rise in water temperature can drastically increase the power of a hurricane.

"BUSH CASUED TEH HERRICANE!" :rolleyes:

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, can we please not politicize this disaster? A lot of people are dead, more lives ruined, and I'd rather not see them unwittingly turned into political ping-pong balls.

Oh, and the Corps of Engineers ran a "Cost Benefit Analysis" on the levees and decided that a Level Three (out of five) system would be the best. Expect to see heads roll on that, but LATER!

Every year the number, strength, and damage and casualty due to tropical cyclones increase. What is happening to Earth???
The answer is simple really.

Global Warming.

How is it caused you ask? Because we're polluting the atmosphere. We're creating a virtual greenhouse and thus, warming the polar ice caps to increasingly dangerous levels. Currents are shifting, the water temperature is rising, and the water levels are rising.

And it's all our fault.

This is your resident environmentalist providing the answers for you.

There's also supposed to be some natural hurricane cycle where they get bad every few hundred (thousand?) years. I don't know much about this, so don't ask me questions, but I'm sure you can find someone who knows what they're talking about with that.

There's also supposed to be some natural hurricane cycle where they get bad every few hundred (thousand?) years. I don't know much about this, so don't ask me questions, but I'm sure you can find someone who knows what they're talking about with that.

It's really the perfect excuse for humans to keep polluting and blame climatic change somewhere else and say: "it's all natural".

Scientific studies conveniently shift the blame away from humans. This is so great! [/sarcasm]

Every year the number, strength, and damage and casualty due to tropical cyclones increase. What is happening to Earth???

Actually not really. There have been decades were storms have caused far more damage (I think either the 1960s or 1970s). This is based on fact. It isn't every hundred years, but every few or so decades.

Also to hell with those who try to politicize this like Fischer land. Blaming Bush for every damn thing. There are more then enough forces and resources on the ground to deal with it. And there is more then enough resources to begin a strong rebuilding.

<snip>

People who bitch the loudest often seem the least willing to do something about it. You want to make it better? Go join the Louisiana National Guard, and convince your friends to come with you. Or, if that seems like too much, give a quarter to

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=Katrina+relief+charity&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

any of those.

People who bitch the loudest often seem the least willing to do something about it. You want to make it better? Go join the Louisiana National Guard, and convince your friends to come with you. Or, if that seems like too much, give a quarter to

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=Katrina+relief+charity&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

any of those.


Uhhhh..he happens to be CANADIAN.

Uhhhh..he happens to be CANADIAN.


Uhhh... and? So what? That doesn't stop anyone from getting on a plane heading for Jackson, or Mobile, or New Orleans with an armful of water purifiers.

It's really the perfect excuse for humans to keep polluting and blame climatic change somewhere else and say: "it's all natural".

Scientific studies conveniently shift the blame away from humans. This is so great! [/sarcasm]

There is a hurricane cycle that rotates every 30 years or so, then South American gets the hurricanes. It isn't due to global warming yet, so just remember that life can get better as opposed to worse.