Global Warming
Hits New Orleans
By Jeremy Rifkin
07 September, 2005
The
Chosun (Korea)
First
the deafening roar of Katrina bearing down at 145 miles per hour on
the gulf coast of the United States. Now the eerie silence, as victims
wash ashore and out to sea. And in the aftermath, it seems that all
of official Washington is holding its breath, less the dirty little
secret gets out: that Katrina is the entropy bill for increasing CO2
emissions and global warming. The scientists have been warning us for
years. They said to keep our eyes on the Caribbean where the dramatic
effects of climate change are first likely to show up in the form of
more severe and even catastrophic hurricanes. Indeed. Over the course
of the past several years, hurricane activity and intensity has picked
up in the Caribbean basin. Now the killer storm Katrina has hit with
a vengeance, exacting incomprehensible devastation on a wide swath of
the southeastern portion of the United States.
The reality is,
Katrina will be looked back on as a tipping point of the
fossil fuel era the moment when the American public began to discard
the comfortable myth that the end of the oil era and the cataclysmic
effects of global warming lie far in the distant future. The future
arrived on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain with a giant wave of water
rushing through the streets of New Orleans, wreaking destruction and
havoc on the low-lying lands of the Mississippi gulf region on Monday,
August 29th and the result is that America and the world have changed
forever.
Katrina is not just
bad luck, natures occasional surprise thrust on an unsuspecting
humanity. Make no mistake about it. We created this monster storm. Weve
known about the potentially devastating impact of global warming for
nearly a generation. Yet, we turned up the throttle, as if to say, we
just dont give a damn. What did we expect? 52% of all the vehicles
owned in America are SUVs, each a death engine, spewing record amounts
of CO2 into the earths atmosphere.
How do we explain
to our children that we Americans represent less than 5% of the population
of the world, but devour more than 1/4 of the fossil fuel energy produced
each year. How do we say to the grieving relatives of the victims whose
lives were lost in the hurricane that we were too selfish to even allow
a modest 5 cent additional tax on a gallon of gasoline to encourage
energy conservation? And when our neighbors in Europe and around the
world ask why the American public was so unwilling to make global warming
a priority by signing on to the Kyoto Treaty on climate change, what
do we tell them?
In the coming days
and weeks, millions of Americans will rush to the assistance of the
victims of hurricane Katrina with offerings of food, shelter and financial
assistance. Natural calamities bring out the best of the American character.
We pride ourselves on being there for our fellow human beings when they
cry out for help. Why cant we muster up the same passionate response
when the earth itself is crying out for help? Shame on the United State
of America and the peoples of other countries were not alone who
have put their personal short-term whims and gratifications ahead of
the welfare of the planet.
Of course, now even
we are paying the price. Were caught up now between two storm
fronts. On the one hand, global oil demand is, for the first time in
history, eclipsing global oil supply. The price of a barrel of oil is
hovering at $70.00 on world markets. Gasoline and heating oil are rising
as fast as the flood waters in the gulf-states, in part because the
storm knocked out oil rigs across the Gulf of Mexico and crippled a
large portion of our gasoline refining facilities.
We are entering
the last few decades of the oil era, with ominous consequences for the
future of a global economy run virtually entirely on fossil fuels. While
our petro-geologists are not sure when global oil production will peak
the point when half the worlds recoverable oil is used up its
clear to all but the few delusional souls in the oil industry that the
beginning of the end is in sight.
On the other hand,
our Biosphere is convulsing from the buildup of CO2 gases, and there
is nowhere to hide or escape. Our planet is heating up, trapping all
of us in an unpredictable new period in history.
There will be thousands
of memorial services in coming weeks to pay respects to the dead, the
missing and the injured. There will be hand-wringing and recrimination.
The public will demand to know why the dikes protecting New Orleans
and the gulfport region failed. Why necessary precautions werent
taken to lessen the impact of Katrina. Why the relief effort was too
little, too late. Still, what we are not likely to hear from President
Bush and The White House or from business leaders, or for that matter
from all of us still driving our SUVs is a collective were
sorry!
President Bush has
called on the American people in this hour of our grief to rally to
the task, to help restore the dykes and causeways, patch up the streets,
and rebuild the homes and communities lost in the devastation. To what
end, if we leave the demon of global warming unchecked. The next time
it will be a Category 5 storm or something even far worse and unimaginable.
If I could get the
ear of President Bush, for just a moment, heres what I would say.
Mr. President, if you had looked deeply into the eye of the storm, what
you would have seen was the future demise of the planet we live on.
Its time to tell the American people and the world that the real
lesson of Katrina is that we need to mobilize the talent, energy, and
resolve of the American people and people everywhere to weaning ourselves
off the oil spigot thats threatening the future of every creature
on earth. President Bush, spare us your homilies about American grit
and determination to weather the storm and persevere. Instead,
tell us the truth about why Katrina really happened. Ask all of us to
consider a change of heart about our profligate energy-consuming lifestyles.
Call on us to conserve our existing fossil fuel reserves and make sacrifices
in our future use of energy. Provide us with a game plan to move America
beyond fossil fuels to a new sustainable energy future based on renewable
sources of energy and hydrogen power. Were waiting.
Jeremy Rifkin is
the author of The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World Wide Energy
Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth (Tarcher/Putnam: September
2002).
Copyright 2005 Chosun
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