The Man-made Disasters Show

Our friend Paki, one of the Raging Grannies here in the Valley, will be phoning-in from the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans. She'll clue us in on what's going down amongst the refuse of our most recent MAN-MADE DISASTER! But first a question: when is a disaster man-made? We'd say when man so screws up the environment so badly that natural disasters become mega-magnified! We're talking climate chaos and degraded ecosystems here, folks. Last weeks U.S. House Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina (whew!) report,even though it was a Republican panel, got all over the feds for their screw-ups in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It described FEMA's personnel shortfall as the most "difficult challenge", but said absolutely nothing about "preparation" with regard to reinforced levies, construction in flood zones, much less rehabilitated wetlands and barrier islands! A supplementary report by House Dems complained about a lack of attention to present problems in the Gulf region resulting from Katrina and called for head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff to be removed. The NYT echoes that call in its 2/16 editorial.

In any case, apparently the House report is only about Homeland Security's lack of logistical preparation and response, not about preparing for disasters by living WITH the land. These guys are doin' a heck of a job, no?

Like we said, there's a mega man-made disaster that looms behind the disaster of Katrina. The warmer than normal water in the Gulf, and across the globe, intensifies storms. Those warmer waters are the result of massive climate change and the verdict is in on what powers the climate chaos growing all around us: you guessed it! Human activity, and we're not talking keg parties or street demos; we're talking industrial civilization. Now we read in Scientific American (http://www.sciam.com/) that glaciers in Greenland are already experiencing or may soon experience increased melting, meaning that Greenland's ice will contribute even more than expected to the world's rising seas. This is not good news for lowlanders!
But hey, don't take our word for it, even Fortune Magazine....er.. buys it?

Bhopal was truly one of the classic man-made disasters. The people living near Bhopal continue to suffer from the consequences of the Union-Carbide plant gas release. Glen has a clip from the Yes Men ripping a new one for UC, et al.

On our Bus Stop Billboard we see Traprock Peace Center is hosting a video showing of "Surviving the Vernon Reactor" at the Jones Library in Amherst immediately following our show at 7pm. The Vernon nuke, as you listeners know, is a man-made disaster waiting to happen. Also, March 6 is the deadline for comments on that bogus coal-burning power plant by Mt. Tom. In even a less-than-perfect world that sucker should be shutdown.

Stay tuned. Same bat channel, same bat time!