Politics Behind Hurricanes

Look at this year alone. We've had four major hurricanes to hit Florida this year. We had Charley, one of the five most destructive hurricanes in Florida history. Then we had Frances, Ivan, Jeanne. All four of these hurricanes costing Florida billions in damage and forcing millions to evacuate from their homes.

I believe the policies of the Bush Administration are encouraging the further acceleration of these types of extreme weather with their terrible environmental record, the worst among any administration, not to mention their cold shoulder on climatologists and scientists in inexcusable.

Our scientists are suffocating under this Administration. Their reports continue to relentlessly be distorted by the White House of dire warnings about climate change, stem cell research, the dangers of mercury and hundreds of other toxic chemicals, the dangers of depleted uranium, Agent Orange, mining, nuclear weapons storage, and the power plants themselves. 4,000 scientists including 48 Nobel Laureates, 62 National Medal of Science recipients, and 127 members of the National Academy of Sciences have come out accusing the Administration of this, who continue to be blacklisted and harrassed, suppressed from releasing information to the public that is critical of the Bush Administration and its corporal contributors. Mountaintop removal strip mining, endangered species, marine studies, all across the board, their findings are being distorted.

There are 673 billion dollars of federally insured flood sites, a vast majority of which are within the 17 of the 25 fastest growing counties in the United States, which are coastal communities. About half of these sites are in Florida. None of that flood insurance even takes into account rising sea levels, intensified hurricanes, the other impacts of global warming.

There's even a government report that says 25% of all houses within 500 feet of the ocean will be gone in the next 50 years. Yet, a majority of these Florida sites the 673 billion dollars covers are in places like North Captiva, Florida, where the flood insurance program began in 1968, where citizens are subject to harms way, and in flood plains and in areas of high erosion due to sea-level rise.

Both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission, two major commissions that just reported on the state of America's blue frontier, both recommended reforming the flood control system so it doesn't encourage new growth in high risk areas. Even three republican governors from Maryland, Massachusetts and South Carolina agreed in reformation.

But guess what? Jeb Bush isn't. He is more interested in real estate interests. He believes if you watch a hurricane hit Punta Gorda, turn your head, and says to come back one year later, it'll be a more beautiful estate than ever.

Had Charley stayed its original course and hit Tampa, Charley could very well have been one of those $50 billion to $100 billion destructive hurricanes climatologists are warning about. And they continue to be left in the background.

The consequences of climatologist backlash go far beyond America as well. We have seen depressing floods in Bangladesh kill thousands and leave thousands more homeless and sick from malnutrition. We see our great glaciers vanishing at alarming, accelerating rates in the Himalayan mountains. In result, virtually all the great rivers of Asia are threatened to dry up, which can cause untold damage to their irrigation agriculture and leave millions in famine. We had that massive heat wave in Europe last year that killed about 20,000 people.

The results affect us globally. And very little is being done.


The solution? We've got to work together to demand the climatologists be taken seriously and make sure their reports are reported in their organic context. We've got to reform the flood control system. We've got to stop this acceleration of mercury and carbon into our atmosphere that encourages the greenhouse effect.

Any other ideas?

Love,
Noah Eaton

 

It'd be nice to blame the Bush administration, because it'd be easy, their policies suck. But this has been a problem long in the making. It has more to do with our wasteful throw-away culture than the policies enacted. Really, the policies just reflect the general attitude of the country. Now, of course there are special interest groups that are being pandered to, but how many people do you know who are really worked up about the environment? I have to constantly hound my coworkers to just stop throwing water bottles out (I've set up a recycle bin for them). People won't stop driving giant cars to do their grocery shopping. Yes, the government needs to take a lead, and can do a lot, but the people have to want it. Because remember, we the people elect our leaders (in most cases).

You're right though, we need to start demanding that the scientists be taken seriously. We need to make the environment an issue as big as gay marraige and Iraq are today. This is the biggest problem facing us as environmentalists. But it is from this point that all further action will come out of. We must raise awareness and concern. We should be as worried about mercury levels and carbon emmissions as we are about global terrorism. Maybe it won't always be, but this has got to be a people driven movement, a true grass roots kind of thing.

We have to start by making people understand that being envrionment conscious does not mean being anti-business. Recycling saves money because new ore/plastics/trees don't have to be made from scratch (think of the costs of mining compared to recycling). Furthermore, being green-friendly means taking preventative action. Why spend billions to clean a lake when you can spend a few million to avoid the mess in the first place? It's the taxpayers that pay for most of the clean up, and who suffer the most from the mess. This is a key issue that needs to be clarified.

 

Well said, Brandon...

If the majority of people cared about the environment and really wanted change, then change would happen.

Just this year, in one morning, I saw three different people dropping their kids off at school in Humvees. Obviously saving oil is not a concern to them.

Now, my town is pretty good about recycling. The dump takes nearly anything that you have sorted, for free. But you have to take it there. Not a lot of people are willing to do sort it AND take it to the dump.

It doesn't help that a lot of reports are being twisted and downplayed by this administration. I think that a lot of people really want to believe that things are getting better, or that they aren't very bad; and they are grasping at the lies, because they fear the truth.

 

Its true, everyone knows Bush loves oil and global warming will eventually, or may have already, lead to more frequent, more powerful storms, be prepared to fight earth, because its only starting...

 

lol....yeah they had billboards down in Florida trying to blame Bush for the weather......sure didn't help them out any lol........