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Pastimes : Hurricane and Severe Weather Tracking -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (2814)	8/31/2005 8:35:54 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 26002

The Storm after the Storm _______________________________________________ With the full extent of the hurricane disaster on the US Gulf Coast just now becoming apparent, many people are wondering if there are any lessons to be learned. Several German commentators are once again considering climate change and its potential effects on the weather. service.spiegel.de <<...Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the disaster shows little sign of letting up. The death toll is continuing to rise with one county in Mississippi alone reporting at least 100 deaths. The aftermath has in many ways been worse than the storm itself. The breach of two levees on Tuesday sent water flowing into the streets of New Orleans and now up to 80 percent of the city is submerged with some areas are reporting depths of up to 20 feet (6 meters). Concerns are rising about the spread of disease and drinking water supplies even as rescue operations -- many centered on plucking residents from their rooftops -- continue. Once again, the disaster makes headlines in Germany's major dailies and makes an appearance on editorial pages. Much like on Tuesday, when the German Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin used Hurricane Katrina to hammer US President George Bush for his reluctance to address global warming, worldwide environmental policies are on the minds of German commentators on Wednesday. Unlike Trittin, however, (whose spokesman Michael Schroeren said on Wednesday that he can't understand why Americans might be upset by the timing of his bosses broadside) the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung lauded the American ability to cope with such a grand disaster while more gently suggesting there could be a link to global warming. The United States, it writes, is stoic and often heroic in the face of natural catastrophes and Americans quickly rebuild and get on with their lives. And they tend not to demand much from their politicians when such a devastating event takes place. Why not? Because "the majority of Americans still don't make a connection between the weather and climate change -- a phenomenon that can and should be politically addressed by the government." Why the connection is not seen, writes the paper, is easy to understand when one considers the vastness of the country. Nature is seen as incredibly powerful by many Americans making it seem unlikely that humans can have much of an effect on things like climate and the weather. ("Those who have seen a tornado twist over the Oklahoma prairie must feel like a small and meaningless part of creation.") This, the paper posits, explains the difference between the Americans' attitudes toward climate change and that of the tightly-packed-together Europeans. The initiatives being made by many US states and cities to cut emissions are definitely a welcome sign, the paper continues. But it is time for the federal government to follow suit. But, "just as Sept. 11 clearly showed that America is vulnerable, it will likely take a couple more hurricanes of the magnitude of Katrina before America changes its appalling environmental and climate policies."...>>