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

cartoon by Khalil Bendib 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. That future is now. Katrina and its ugly aftermath are harbingers of world torn asunder not only by global warming’s howling winds and towering waves, but also by deepening fissures between rich and poor, black and white. Of course, mother nature does not discriminate by race or class. The flood waters swallowed up plenty of rich folks’ property and billions in corporate capital. But when nature makes her wrath felt, the wealthy are far more able to get out of the way and write off their losses, while the poor are trapped in her fury. In New Orleans, the poorest neighborhoods lay on lowest ground; the people without cash or cars had no way to evacuate. They are now environmental refugees--the ones the government utterly failed to help for days; the ones who will find it most difficult to relocate, to recover, to start anew. 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.