Time and Place

As we learn that thousands are feared dead in New Orleans, Robert F. Kennedy lectures about the role Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile, Russ Gelbspan educates us as to Hurricane Katrina’s real name, global warming, and writes, “Unfortunately, few people in America know the real name of Hurricane Katrina because the coal and oil industries have spent millions of dollars to keep the public in doubt about the issue.” It’s a tempting premise but there is no conclusive evidence that Katrina has anything to do with global warming. Stomping your feet and jumping up and down won’t make it so. There is certainly nothing wrong with exploring a connection. But I would advise RFK and others to consider that this catastrophe is still unfolding and that the knee-jerk politicization of the disaster will surely do nothing to convince global warming skeptics to come around.

August 31st, 2005