Sunday, September 04, 2005
As the effects of Katrina is gradually revealed to the world, this blog is watching the plight of New Orleans and the Gulf States with a mixture of sad mourning and a vengeful smirk. While this is the second tragedy on USA soil in 4 years, not counting all the minor ones in between, this blog believes the irony is not loss on many of the environmentalists that USA had vehemently refused to rectify the Kyoto Protocol.
While it remains to be seen whether Katrina is just another freak of nature or is it due to some form weather imbalance due ultimately to the increase in greenhouse gases, this blog asserts that it is becoming increasingly obvious that the weather is gradually changing. The 7 highest temperature on record occurred within the last decade, with temperatures rising faster still. The Arctic and Antarctic glacial sheets have decreased in size and there is the problem of the ozone hole. Quoting Kofi Annan in a different context, 'If I was a doctor doing a diagnosis of the world, I would be very worried'.
And yet here we have the world's sole super-power artificially lower the price of oil on her own soil, pushing the price below what is the market rate, encouraging demand for oil, and polluting more air per capita than any other nation on earth. If this continues, the capacity of the earth to absorb the damage cause by the pollution and destruction maybe irreversibly damaged. Already, there are reports that oil supply is running dry and headway to alternative sources are slow and at time even causing more damage than oil itself (eg nuclear energy). Perhaps we should open our eyes to the fact that our lifestyle now is not sustainable and must end, whether we are prepared or not to accept that fact.
Katrina is a wake up call, and just as we will remember the dead, we must remember to save the living as well.
1:01 AM
