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Articles : Sci-TechKatrina’s Shock to the System
Price spikes, gas shortages and two-block long lines at the pump in Katrina’s aftermath are flashbacks to the days of disco. The oil crisis of the 1970s was, likewise, precipitated by a cataclysmic event – the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Egypt, Syria and Israel. The Arab nations invaded the Israel-occupied Sinai Desert and Golan Heights on the Jewish high holiday, taking back land lost in the 1967 conflict. In the aftermath of the war, in which the U.S. aided Israel, OPEC ministers retaliated with an oil embargo. The result was a shock to the system. The U.S. was forced to embark on a crash course in energy conservation. Americans discovered car-pooling and Japanese compacts. President Carter donned a Mr. Rogers-like sweater in an awkward attempt to get Americans to cut down on heating oil usage. The high fuel prices (and the ugly sweaters) helped bury Carter’s hopes of re-election in 1980. But the crisis had a positive legacy: energy conservation became part of the national conversation. In 1975, new cars sold in the U.S. averaged 15.8 mpg (on the highway). By 1988, they averaged 28.1. But as fuel prices fell, so did innovation in fuel efficiency. In 2004, new cars still averaged 28 mpg. SUVs, which made up 26% sales in 2004, averaged 20.8 mpg.
Many experts credit the Arab oil embargo and the subsequent slowing down of U.S. fuel consumption with staving off the peaking of the world’s dwindling oil supply by a decade or so. But that has not averted the looming long-term crisis. We may have already reached the point in which the world’s supply of petroleum has begun to run out. The long-term effects could make Katrina’s shock to our fuel supply look like a blip.
At April’s Peak Oil UK conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, Colin Campbell, a former oil executive and chairman of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, told a somber crowd, “The second half of the Age of Oil now dawns and will be marked by the decline of oil and all that depends on it, including financial capital. It heralds the collapse of the present financial system, and the related political structures…I am speaking of a second Great Depression.”
Matthew Simmons, chairman of the major investment firm, Simmons & Company International of Houston, whose book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy was released this month, said, “Embedded in this thinking [that the world will easily be able to grow its use of oil over the next three decades while bringing down oil prices] is a concept that higher prices will soon induce vast amounts of new supplies and spur technical advances…and make the use of non-conventional oil easier. This case is simply an illusion and why the current tightness in global oil markets is likely to be a permanent feature as a growing number of key producing regions have peaked and as the world nears peak oil output.”
In his new book, Simmons comes to the chilling conclusion that Saudi oil reserves may have already peaked. If the Saudi fields (which are believed to make up one quarter of the world’s identified reserves) have peaked, Simmons argues, so have the world’s.
The six-dollar a gallon gas prices will surely subside like the flood waters in New Orleans. But the unavoidable fact remains: Americans, which make up 5% of the world’s population, still consume around 25% of the world’s petroleum. Will Katrina, like the Arab embargo of the 1970s before it, be the wake-up call we need to embark on a serious quest for alternative energies before it’s too late?
Posted by anthony
Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc,...
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“we need to embark on a serious quest for alternative energies before it’s too late”
A serious futile quest to maintain Anphony’s privilege is in order! Get in line, G’s.
Related (cooler) items: http://www.gnn.tv/B08521
somebody make all my web addresses into links. I don’t know how and refuse to learn.
B08521
Great article, A. Yes, we need to wake up. Now.
aside from the increased looting, which seems to be getting out of hand, and people opening fire on police and miltary, i am hearing reports of “snipers” and of vehicles comandeered by police, which the owners are told they will “not be getting back.” apparanty a bus of evacuees (is that a word?) was comandeered by FEMA, and no one seems to know where it went…
Federal Government Wasn’t Ready for Katrina, Disaster Experts Say
Many More Hurricanes Expected to Follow Katrina: NOAA
As Toxic Waters Rise, Desperation and Fear Grow
Biloxi Newspaper Rips Relief Effort, Begs for Help
No One Can Say they Didn’t See it Coming
Molly Ivins – Why New Orleans is in Deep Water
Airlines Cancel More Flights, Prepare for Possible Fuel Shortages
Shortage looms if jet-fuel disruption not fixed soon#
Gas Prices Soar
US Needs a Real National Energy Policy
Oil and Gas Companies Search for Employees
Why the Levee Broke
Hurricane Housing
man, Nancy Grace on CNN is pissed! she keeps jumping down the throats of any military type person she gets on the air. she has reason to be angry. mobilization for aide has been at a snails pase…
there were a few older stories that saw this coming:
Washing Away: It’s a matter of when, not if. Eventually a major hurricane will hit New Orleans head on, instead of being just a close call. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.*
New Orleans – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces huge budget cuts: The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved.
on edit: stoopid meticulous perfectionist textile, gotta luv it!
Katrina caused by HAARP?!?
it’s going to be so fucking sweet when this happens in New York, Dallas, and all the cities and suburbs that are fucked without cheap oil.
yeah a lot of us will die, but maybe it will comfort the countless souls who died in imperialistic wars and ignored genocides. the souls that watch us wave the flag and cheer the killings of darkies in other countries while crying because dogs are caught on roofs in New Orleans and Jen is devastated by Brad’s willingness to adopt more refugees with Miss Tomb Raider.
it’s just a shame that most of the people that were taken out were the south’s poor who couldn’t afford to leave. if only the pacific coast was prone to hurricanes and the 1 degree change in ocean temperature from global warming caused a storm to pickup Orange County and slam it up the ass of LA. as the wind picked me up i’d aim for Jen’s head to put her out of her misery.
yeah, too bad they’ll (the “powers that be”) cut off the supplies before they totally run out, to assure their own (short term) safety, and it will be the common people who die en mass, not those who created the problems directly. yes, we too are complicit in recieving the benefits of the machine. it’s just too bad we’ll suffer a lot while the Establishment lives a lavish lifestyle behind their armed guards for a few more years. when the disaster we’re getting a taste of right now hits us full force, my people and I will be in the mountains. those who can make it to us can join us, we don’t have the resources to get refugees to us ourselves. the cities will be like N.O. is right now, and much much worse.
How New Orleans Was Lost: Chalk up the city of New Orleans as a cost of Bush’s Iraq war. There were not enough helicopters to repair the breached levees and rescue people trapped by rising water. Nor are there enough Louisiana National Guardsmen available to help with rescue efforts and to patrol against looting.
Arianna Huffington: The Flyover Presidency of George W. Bush: The president’s 35-minute Air Force One flyover of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama was the perfect metaphor for his entire presidency: detached, disconnected, and disengaged. Preferring to take in America’s suffering – whether caused by the war in Iraq or Hurricane Katrina – from a distance. In this case, 2,500 feet.
Chris Floyd: The Perfect Storm: As the harsh, aggressive militarism and brutal corporate ethos that Bush has injected into the mainstream of American society continues to spread its poison, we will see fewer and fewer resources available to nurture the common good.
Hurricane Katrina: A calamity compounded by poverty and neglect: As always with a devastating event like Hurricane Katrina, voices are raised claiming that nothing could have been done to prevent the catastrophe. Such declarations are thoroughly false.
Rising Waters, Disastrous Low: Katrina and her aftermath are 100% disaster and only very slightly natural.
Katrina: ‘Shock and Awe’: It will take just a couple more days of almost 100 degree weather to really bring this New Orleans stew to an incomprehensible completion with the bloated corpses of pets, animals and yes, people. As morbid as it is, it soon will be all too easy to find the missing.
$4 a gallon: America is over. America is like Wile E. Coyote after he’s run out a few paces past the edge of the cliff – he’ll take a few more steps in midair before he looks down. Then, when he sees that there’s nothing under him, he’ll fall. Many Americans suspect that they’re running on thin air, but they haven’t looked down yet. When they do…
Unrest Intensifies at Superdome Shelter: ‘We are out here like pure animals. We don’t have help,’ the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where corpses lay in the open and evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing.
The Poor and Hurricane Katrina: Left Behind to Drown
Katrina could tip U.S. toward recession: Hurricane Katrina could prove more than a natural disaster for the Gulf Coast. It has the potential to be a tipping point that heads the economy toward recession, economists say.
Rescuers: Boat Operation Suspended
Disasters Keep Coming but FEMA Phased Out
NOW – Katrina: Why the Devastation Was So Bad
Bush ‘Casual to the Point of Carelessness’ on Katrina
Another older story that say this coming:
Drowning New Orleans: A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city.
but there have been alternative energy sources for EVERYTHING for years, just held back for economic reasons, anyone who does not realize that is indeed foolish. i know several engineers who lost their jobs for devising and supporting low cost, long-life, long charge battery systems that would easily power and automobile with no fuel at all. where did they work? why, general motors!!! they have been blacklisted from their industry, the only one that i still know for sure is alive is currently employed as an overnight stockboy at wal-mart.
not to dissuade from katrina being a major tragedy, however the current rise in gas prices is COMPLETELY unjustifiable. sure there were valuable fuel centers destroyed HOWEVER when every major oil company reports tens of BILLIONS of dollars in PURE PROFIT last QUARTER alone, and haven’t had any losses in DECADES, there is absolutely NO reason why prices should rise. especially when not every company was affected.
not to mention that this might not be so much of an issue, had the funds being used to strengthen the flood defenses of this particular valley, in a project that has been going on for many many years, been almost completely diverted as part of the “war” effort.
in actual reality, there is no energy crisis. in the reality that is forced upon us, an energy crisis is being created to ensure long term prosperity for a few thousand select people, leaving the rest of us standing in the dark with our dicks in our hands, so to speak.
not to mention, you can’t tell me that there is no way to synthesize gasoline. you can try, but i will not believe it, not even a little bit, not even for a second.
and gasoline aside, fuel oil does not even matter! even at the ore-ida frech fry plant, the company cars are vw beetles that have been modified to run efficiently on french fry oil.
industrial hemp can be used to create a number of products, including fuel oil, rubber, and paper. for those not in the know, this is the true cause of the illegalization and demonization of marijuana in the early 1900’s. all of the original anti-marijuana propaganda, which was released at that time, was sponsored and paid for fully by the newspaper barons, as they manufactured their own paper, for their use and for sale as well, and saw the major threat, as hemp makes paper cheaper.
however, politicians cannot endorse ANYTHING that compromises the interests of an oil company. all politicians, all that seek national office, have friend somewhere with heavy interests in oil. these friends all make large campaign contributions. without any need for fossil fuel, oil companies go out of business, and not only do millions go jobless, campaigns cannot be funded, and so it is a vicious cycle.
alternative energy sources are not in use, not because they don’t exist in any kind of efficient manner; this is a fallacy. they are not in use, because the country, the world, would be sunk into a depression that would change the world as we know it.
i do not usually check these boards, so if anyone wishes to discuss this further, i can be e-mailed at johngarett022@yahoo.com
here’s an interesting article from December 2000 about the disappearing New Orleans marshlands and it’s possible effects:
The Lost City of New Orleans?
Louisiana’s marshlands, the only buffer for hurricanes that come out of the Gulf, are slipping into the ocean at an alarming rate. New research indicates that just one major hurricane could put New Orleans under water.
...
New research by the U.S. Geological Survey, however, indicates that New Orleans is sinking faster than many realize and could be under water within 50 years.
and nobody saw the devastation of Katrina comming? don’t believe it!
this is from wikipedia
An unintended consequence of the levee system is the prevention of river silt from replenishing the marshlands downriver from New Orleans and extending into the Gulf of Mexico. These marshlands have been decreasing in size for decades, removing a critical buffer from storm surges, such as those produced by a hurricane. Ecologists and regional planners had warned of the increased risk of catastrophic damage from a direct hit by a hurricane.
Despite the dire warnings, no large-scale corrective measures had been implemented by the time Katrina made landfall. Moreover, in June, government funds for the US Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans district were cut by an unprecedented USD $71.2 million; according to a Dolan Media newsreport of that time, “[t]he cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.” (At the same time, Katrina hit before the study would have been completed or implemented. But Katrina was only Category 4.) Overall, since 2003, approved federal flood protection spending in New Orleans has been roughly 20% of the amount estimated as needed by the USACE
Here’s an article by NGC news from February 2005:
U.S. Oil, Gas Threatened by Louisiana Wetlands Loss
National Energy Infrastructure at Risk
The Louisiana coast is home to many rigs and pipelines, crucial infrastructure for the domestic oil and natural gas industries and for petroleum arriving by ship from foreign sources.
Wetlands act as a natural buffer protecting such industrial systems from hurricanes and other storms.
do warnigs come more clearer then that? don’t think so…
yeah a lot of us will die, but maybe it will comfort the countless souls who died in imperialistic wars and ignored genocides. the souls that watch us wave the flag and cheer the killings of darkies in other countries while crying because dogs are caught on roofs in New Orleans and Jen is devastated by Brad’s willingness to adopt more refugees with Miss Tomb Raider.
Are you fucking kidding me? I wish that I was detecting more sarcasm there.
Are you fucking kidding me? I wish that I was detecting more sarcasm there.
Sorry for the double…
i just listened to an interview with Ray Nagin on WWL radio
he basically told the Louisiana gov’ner and the prez to get off their lazy asses, stop giving press conferences and start doing something
“_They’re feeding the public a line of bull,_” Nagin said in the interview, “_and it’s spinning and people are dying._” At another point, Nagin reiterated the point when he said “_It’s politics man and they’re spinning. They’re spinning for the cameras._”
this guy is going to be in trouble…
fuck textile
I don’t think there is going to be some mass die off, but I definitely do see the standards of living for the majority us falling in the near future unfortuntaly.
Alternative sources will save us, but it’s not as if it’s going to be smooth transition. There’s is going to be winners and losers, as always. Unless of course your one of those “Free Market” whores who read stuff like Wired magazine and buy into all the neat convient psuedosciences that will magically fix everything for mankind.
You should be looking at this from social viewpoint, rather then apocalyptic.
I have spoken. At ease children.
the guy who’s in charge of FEMA is a real esate lawyer and he used to work for the International Arabian Horse Association Legal Department…
link
this shit is almost funny
I’m surprised I haven’t seen any conspiracy theories about this yet.
I just thought of a good one this morning.
OK, check it out (and I bet neverknwo will make a post like this soon): the Feds knew that Katrina was going to be super-powerful, because they engineered it using HAARP. They wanted to do three things, simultaneously, to pave the way for a takeover of the US by NWO forces.
1) Knock out US refining capabilities, to create gas shortages and destabilize the US
2) Create conditions of lawlessness and “anarchy”, using secret agents disguised as looters (your basic agents provocateurs) to run amok and show how people really can’t be trusted to act decently when the chips are down.
3) Generate, using the Hegelian dialectic of problem+reaction=solution, support among the general populace for martial law in times of disaster because people won’t want to live in a lawless anarchy like what’s going on in New Orleans.
Remember, you read it here first!
Now, I just made all that shit up. But I guarantee you some conspiracy nutter is going to pass that stuff off as true sekrit info within the next two weeks.
I’ll bet people in Bangladesh are scratching their heads and wondering what all the fuss is about. This type of natural catastrophe happens over there every rainy season.
John Nichols The Real Gas Gougers
How convenient for the oil industry that Hurricane Katrina hit just before the traditional Labor Day-weekend hike in gas prices. Now, John Nichols states, that instead of having to fake up some absolutely absurd excuse for jacking up gas prices, the industry can try and dupe Americans into thinking that they are suddenly paying $3.25 a gallon because of a storm.
Beyond Petroleum by Brian Siu, TomPaine.com – Hurricane Katrina has highlighted the U.S. oil supply’s vulnerabilities. It also opens the door for smart alternatives.
When Government Is ‘Good‘ by E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post – Katrina is the work of nature, but what happens from this point forward is the responsibility of political leadership.
how thought this would/could ever happen:
Belgium is sending three medical teams (about 30 men) and 250 army engineers to the Southern U.S. on the request of the U.S. government…
Canada is sending 4 ships and upto 1000 people including divers and engineers
Shogo why do you act like this? This is a serious thread.
People are suffering and you come in and act like an ass putting peope down.
I don’t understand.
Stop ruining every thread. Please…
Hurricane Katrina Highlights an Oil-Hungry World
the tragedy here, the real disaster, is not the hurricane, but the selfishness of corporate america, and the foolishness of our resources being tapped out to a war of pretense.
it is really sad when leona helmsley donates 5 times as much money for aid that shell oil, when leona helmsley doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but the shell oil stuff that got destroyed will be replaced with government cheese.
oprah can shell out a free pontiac to every member of her audience, but general motors can only send 25 cars to new orleans?
bush can have 130,000+ troops in iraq, and can call for them to be there for four more years, but can only send small fractions of that to help with all of this.
independant volunteer groups are being denied entry into the region to help while other groups reign supreme in that territory, while people starve to death and dehydrate to nothingness.
this has caused a fuel crisis, but there is helicopter footage all over the television of the affected area.
bill gates can sign off on research grants for tens of millions to independant groups for biotech research, but where is his compassion for the poor minorities literally facing hell or high water.
there is a plethora of resources and finances available that can be diverted to fix this problem, to save countless lives and rebuild the area. unfortunately those in control of said resources and finances are unwilling to cooporate, and those that do are shelling out just the bare minimum it takes to seem impressive, only a fraction of what can easily be done without.
it’s a whole lot of showboating, it is all about publicity, and nothing about helping.
such is the world we live in.
shogo this last part is just for you my friend:
it kind of makes you wonder though, let’s say this happened in a region heavily populated by wealthy WASPS, by rich industrialists, by the proverbial power behind the throne in this reign of the New King George. how differently do you think this would be handled if it wasn’t a majority of the impoverished? i hate to scream conspiracy, but by defination, by Okham’s Razor, all fingers point in a single direction. much like the first desert storm, after which it was shown that those troops in the most high risk positions, the folks recruited the most heavily, the first sent over into the belly of the beast were poor minorities, so we may find to be true here. and while this isn’t an active call to a death deemed glorious in a welath of new found patriotism, the answer fits the formula. who is sniping who in new orleans, conspiracy indeed.
It is for a great many, but crucially not all, intents and purposes already “too late”. We are in for a world of economic hurt. The U.S. and China and India and pretty anybody who has any are going to burn coal like there is no tomorrow and the last half of conventional oil is going to be much dirtier than the firts half and the tar and heavy sands projects are going to be dirtier still. All of which will causie even greater amounts of CO2 emissions with less economic activity aka wealth generated. The real crux of the matter is whether we are going to A) learn how to share B) learn that our economic system and consumption patterns are leading us to foul our own nests as badly is Katrina fouled New Orlean’s C) the market must always be subservient to the people aka the government. D) this means that the government must be a check, a balance, at least in part an antagonist towards what business always wants to do: maximize profit by externalizing costs.
All in all an extraordinarily tall order for societies whose wealth creation abilities are in decline. To my mind the future holds two mutually exclusive poles: we either continue on our current market and concentration of wealth and military path and degenerate into a hell on earth akin to Haiti or we the people grow some up intellectually and politically and exercise our franchise to become lot more egalitarian in our distribution or resources like Cuba.
Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?: Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
Wait guys, Shogo said it was all a conspiracy theory(closely followed by his favourite nutter word) so theres no point investigating… lets go get beers instead? I’ll drive the Humvee… later we can watch Newlyweds and American Idol feeling safe in the knowledge that Bush is looking out for us all regardless of race/religion/income.
Interestingly there is no proof of HAARP ever being used, and certainly the Air Force /Navy/DoD would never freely admit to that, so by Shogo’s reasoning since the US gov says it hasn’t happened, it obviously hasn’t happened stupid!
Why build a machine to interact with the ionosphere if you arent going to use it? And if you are going to use it, what is there to use HAARP for instead of fucking with the global climate? Maybe it also doubles as a good way to pick up Chinese free to air TV? Maybe it’s for making pretty colours in the sky on the 4th of July? Got any better suggestions brainiac? oooh I know, HAARP is going to be used to save us all from the effects of Global Warming so I can leave the fridge door wide open and not give a fuck.
once again, there is no energy crisis. how does an extra trillion barrels of oil being available within out own country sound?:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html
peak oil crisis, indeed!
Living Paycheck to Paycheck Made Leaving Impossible
Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects
Met by Despair, Not Violence
“Sixteen in the clip!” one Guardsman shouted, a common refrain used to indicate that rifles are fully loaded. But when they arrived, they did not find marauding mobs. They did not come under fire. They found people who had lost everything in the storm and, since then, their dignity.
Eyewitness: My friend was shot and killed for his car: ‘These murders are not being reported to avoid panic.’
A Death In New Orleans: Neighbors buried Vera Smith on top of the concrete sidewalk at the edge of the Garden District on Saturday in a crude grave they made of soil and bricks they had unearthed from a little park nearby.
Guardsmen ‘played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official
New Orleans crisis shames Americans
Bush visit halts food delivery
Bush Visit Grounded Helicopter Rescue
New Orleans Police, Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force
Video: Police looters in walmart
Delusions Under Siege
*Warnings went ignored as Bush slashed flood defence budget to pay for wars*
Navy ship nearby underused: The Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.
New Orleans is a bad place to be poor. New Orleans officials issued an almost cynical evacuation order in a city where they know full well that thousands have no car, no money for airfare or an interstate bus, no credit cards for hotels, and therefore no way to leave town before the deadly storm and flood arrived.
Wait guys, Shogo said it was all a conspiracy theory(closely followed by his favourite nutter word) so theres no point investigating
You’re awesome renwald.
Thanks for stepping up to the plate and being the first to imply that the hurricane was created by HAARP.
See, I was only joking in a sense. I was cynically predicting that we would see some fool turn this event into a platform for promoting their wacky conspiracy nonsense. And now you have done so.
Bravo, sir. Well done.
if you learn more about HAARP, and if you take a look at who is running this country, and really stop and think about things, you’ll see that HAARP causing the hurricane, or at least having the possibility of amplifying it, even if as nothing more than an experiment, is entirely plausible. i’m not saying it happened, but i am saying that it doesn’t not make sense. and ShiftShapers proposed it first.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/haarp.html
Survivors From New Orleans Speak Out About Week of Horror We go to Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans where thousands of hurricane survivors are staying. The airport has become a triage center where the oldest, the youngest and the sickest lay desperate for help. [Listen/Watch/Read]
Rev. Al Sharpton: President Bush’s Response ‘Inexcusable’ More public figures have spoken out, lambasting the government”s slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Reverend Al Sharpton spoke in Houston on Saturday and said that race played a role. [includes rush transcript] [Listen/Watch/Read]
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s Desperate Plea For Help New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin expresses outrage and frustration during an interview last week by a local New Orleans radio station. Nagin demands greater effort and quicker delivery. [Listen/Watch/Read]
New Orleans Activist Malik Rahim Blasts Mayor Nagin Malik Rahim, veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, is interviewed in the Algiers neigherborhood by Democracy Now! producers. Rahim talks about what should have been differently. [Listen/Watch/Read]
DN! Producers Describe the Devastation in New Orleans & The Survivors In Baton Rouge Democracy Now! producers John Hamilton and Sharif Abdel Kouddous join us from Baton Rouge. On Saturday they made it into New Orleans to witness what’s left of the devastated city. [includes rush transcript] [Listen/Watch/Read]
HOW THE POOR GOT TRAPPED Will Bunch, Attytood Why was the issue of getting the poor and the car-less out of New Orleans treated like there was no solution, when there was so much that could have been done?
A HURRICANE OF CONSEQUENCES Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy in Focus The Bush administration decision that most directly contributed to the high numbers of unnecessary deaths from Katrina was the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
ANOTHER CASE OF GOVERNMENT FOR SOME Makani Themba-Nixon, AlterNet The states hardest hit by Katrina are for many African Americans our real home. Once again we are forced to face the fact that to politicians, black life is cheap.
MONUMENT TO A ROTTEN SYSTEM Dave Zirin, AlterNet Governmental hypocrisy is personified painfully in the monument to corporate greed that has rapidly become the earth’s most damnable homeless shelter: the Louisiana Superdome.
For info on peak oil and all the related energy problems check out www.fromthewilderness.com, Mike Ruppert lays it down there and in his book ‘crossing the rubicon’
ShadowUnit: well no shit
[being facetious, forgive me]
Oil Firms Turn Katrina Into Profits
Mega-Disaster, Live!
Republicans Eye Expanding US Offshore Drilling: Barely a month after President Bush signed a $14.5 billion energy bill into law, Hurricane Katrina’s destructive dance through the US oilpatch is being seized on by Republicans as a reason to open more federal offshore waters to drilling.