The Unnatural Disaster of KatrinaNorth Carolina is also at risk

Mother Nature doesn't deserve all the blame for the tragedy unfolding in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast: Humans' environmental destructiveness is also responsible for a great deal of Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact.

Altering the Mississippi River and destroying wetlands at its mouth have left the area around New Orleans abnormally vulnerable to the forces of nature, according to an assessment released today by the Worldwatch Institute. In addition, global warming exacerbated by human greenhouse gas pollution has led to unusually high Gulf water temperatures and rising sea levels, which may have intensified Katrina's power, the organization warns.

"The catastrophe now unfolding along the U.S. Gulf Coast is a wake-up call for decision makers around the globe," says Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin. "If the world continues on its current course--massively altering the natural world and further increasing fossil fuel consumption--future generations may face a chain of disasters that make Katrina-scale catastrophes a common feature of life in the 21st century."

North Carolina lawmakers this week took steps to begin addressing global warming's impact by approving the creation of a commission to study climate change. However, the state faces other problems that leave its people and natural environment vulnerable to severe hurricane damage.

For example, some flood-prone North Carolina communities such as Princeville struggle with inadequate levee systems, as I reported earlier this year in Southern Exposure. In addition, the state has permitted extensive development of its fragile coastline in recent years while allowing beach "renourishment" projects that actually put the coastline at greater risk of destruction, as Duke University coastal expert Orrin Pilkey reported last month in The Independent Weekly.

Let's hope North Carolina officials are paying attention to the lessons of Katrina, which according to Worldwatch include:

1. Maintaining the integrity of natural ecosystems should be a priority. "Indiscriminate economic development and ecologically destructive policies have left many communities more vulnerable to disasters than they realize," Worldwatch cautions. "This, together with rapid population growth in vulnerable areas, has contributed to worldwide economic losses from weather-related catastrophes totaling $567 billion over the last 10 years, exceeding the combined losses from 1950 through 1989. Losses in 2004 exceeded $100 billion for the second time ever, and a new record will almost certainly be set this year once Katrina's damages are totaled."

2. Short-term thinking is a dangerous approach to policy. "During the past few years, the U.S government has diverted funding from disaster preparedness to help finance the Iraq War, and has reduced protections for wetlands in order to spur economic development," Worldwatch notes. "Both decisions are now exacting costs that far exceed the money saved. Natural ecosystems such as wetlands and forests are often more valuable when left intact so as to protect communities from floods, landslides, drought, and other natural occurrences. Failure to protect ecosystems contributed to the massive loss of life when the tsunamis swept across the Indian Ocean last year and when Hurricane Mitch killed 10,000 people in Central America in 1998."

3. The links between climate change and weather-related catastrophes need to be addressed. "Although no specific storm can be definitively link[ed] to climate change, scientists agree that warm water is the fuel that increases the intensity of such storms and that tropical seas have increased in temperature by up to 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century," says Worldwatch. "Global warming and its anticipated effects on the hydrological cycle will make some areas more vulnerable as storms, floods, and droughts increase in frequency and intensity."

4. There is an urgent need to diversify energy supplies. "The national and global economic impact of Hurricane Katrina is growing by the day, with consumers around the world now paying significantly more for energy than they were a week ago," Worldwatch observes. "Decades of failure to invest in new energy options [have] left the world dependent on oil and natural gas that are concentrated in some of the world's most vulnerable regions--the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Persian Gulf, and the Niger Delta in Africa. Biofuels and other renewable resources now represent viable alternatives to fossil fuels, which are not only vulnerable to natural disasters but could have a big impact on the severity of future disasters."

We can't say we weren't warned.