Stream of conciousness re: Gulf coast disaster

The scope of human misery in the news can be overwhelming sometimes. Apparently, as we fret over what looks like 500 or so deaths due to the recent hurricane, about 1000 Iraqis (people who are now quite intimate associates of human misery) were trampled to death in a panic at a religious gathering.

I have nothing useful to say on the matter, it just makes having any kind of real perspective difficult, if not absurd. In that spirit, I will go on musing about urban nature, as I do.

The city of New Orleans, with its levees, destruction of wetlands, and petroleum industry seems to be at least somewhat complicit in its destruction. Not that the people who suffer most are to blame—the most powerless are the ones who suffer. Of course, being an animal lover, I wonder about the suffering of the animals. Call it trivial, we all have our interests. The zoos of the area are not suffering any more than anyone else—no major animal losses are reported from anywhere except the Gulfport, Mississippi Marine Life Oceanarium, which no longer structurally exists. Those fish and birds are now part of the gulf coast food web, but the dolphins are safely swimming in hotel swimming pools.

I wonder about the wildlife. Are there alligators swimming in the flooded streets of New Orleans? And what of the nutria, the huge introduced aquatic rodents that plague the region? Did they drown (as our muskrats do when the Muddy River floods) or did they find the high ground, making muddy dens of the Bourbon street balconies?

All of this makes it hard to comment on the loose ostriches on the Golden Gate Bridge, or the giant centipede found in an alarmed Briton’s home.

Tom Toles

My favorite editorial cartoonist is Tom Toles. I thought I'd share that with you all.



http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/uclickcomics/20050901/cx_tt_uc/tt20050901

There's no one to blame -- or is there?

Thanks to izzy23 who linked to wicked_wish, here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/wicked_wish/582898.html

Look at the money trail. Everyone knew the levees were in trouble. The city had been begging Uncle Sam for money to fix them, but federal money had slowed to a trickle. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. There's cash to be followed, if you're interested. Go here and read.