AUGUST 31, 2017
by JOSHUA FRANK
Natural disasters that
are exacerbated by industrialization really bring out the best in people.
Especially climate change denialists.
As the Texas-Louisiana Gulf
coast drowned in the floods of Hurricane Harvey, Donald Trump pardoned Sheriff
Joe in hopes of capturing higher ratings and Ann Coulter, who needs no
introduction, took to her Twitter account to express sympathy for the victims.
Okay, of course she didn’t, instead the Queen of Darkness blasted out that
God’s hatred of homosexuality is more credible than climate science.
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Ann Coulter Retweeted
POLITICO Magazine
I don't believe Hurricane
Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is
more credible than "climate change."
What does Coulter believe
then? That Harvey is nothing new? Actually, it is, no matter what Coulter
tweets. Harvey is now the heaviest rainstorm in US history and was made worse by
our warming climate. There’s little scientific doubt about it. As climate
scientist Katharine Hayhoe and many others point
out, as the world warms, evaporation of water increases, which means
there is more water vapor in storms and more rain to dump compared to 70 years
ago. In basic terms, warmer air is able to hold more water and hence more
rainfall is likely to occur. Hurricane intensity in the future is predictedto increase as our climate warms.
The Gulf of Mexico’s surface
temp increased almost 5 degreesFahrenheit as Harvey was building last
week. These waters, one of the warmest ocean surfaces on the planet at the
time, along with warmer air temps, allowed Harvey to turn from a tropical storm
into a cat 4 hurricane almost overnight. Even Coulter’s God couldn’t stop it.
Coulter and her fans
probably wouldn’t want the floods to dry up anyway, because when crisis hits
there is money to be made and victims to rip off. As
Ken Klippenstein first
reported, a Best Buy in Cypress, an unincorporated suburb of Houston in
Harris County, began selling packs of bottled water for $42.96. Best
Buy later apologized in response to the report, but the Texas AG’s office as of
August 29 had received over 550 consumer complaints of price gouging. It’s safe
to say Best Buy is just the tip of the iceberg.
Unfortunately, disaster
capitalism is the least of concerns for many Houston residents that are losing
everything. Survival is their most pressing struggle. As the flood waters
recede, far more deaths will likely be recorded — more victims of capitalism
and carbon. Sadly it’s a trend that’s going to continue.
No doubt the worse is yet to
come for Houston and the surrounding area, even when the rains end. ExxonMobil
admits that Harvey has caused damage to two of its massive Houston refineries, releasing hazardous pollutants. The company’s Beaumont
refinery, which is the second largest in the country, released at least
1,312.84 pounds of sulfur dioxide after Harvey hit. Many other chemicals also
leaked when the sites were forced to shut down. These refineries sit in largely
poor, minority neighborhoods that have long been victims of environmental racism — injustices
that will continue unabated if Donald Trump has his way and destroys what’s left of the EPA’s Environmental
Justice Program.
“Any release of carcinogens
(like benzene, 1,3-butadiene) adds to the increased cancer risk for those
living near these plants,” said Luke Metzger, director of the group Environment
Texas. “[Nitrogen oxides or sulfur dioxide] and other respiratory irritants
adds to the respiratory problems people in the area suffer from at high rates.”
In short, Harvey is bad for
Houston’s air too, especially for those that reside near these refineries.
There’s more. Harris County
is home to a dozen federal Superfund sites, more than any county in the Lone
Star State. Currently over 30% of the county is flooded and the EPA admits that as water levels rise, risk of
contamination from the sites increase. A chemical plant in Crosby, southeast of
Houston, is in meltdown mode. There have been reports of explosions at the plant that is six feet
underwater. The facility produces peroxides, harsh compounds that are used in
construction and pharmaceutical products. Inhaling fumes from the plant can be
very dangerous and the EPA states that peroxides can cause skin and liver
damage.
While the impacts of
Hurricane Harvey are unprecedented in the US, these types of extreme storms are
becoming the new norm, not only for the Gulf Coast, but for many areas of the
globe. All the climate change skeptics, especially those with the power to
regulate the oil, gas and coal industries, are certainly culpable in the death
and destruction these events bring with them.
Right now in India, Nepal and
Bangladesh, over 41 million people are being affected by massive, uncontrolled flooding. Over 1,200 have died thus
far and millions more have been forced to flee their homes. These monsoon
floods are unlike anything they’ve seen, and similar to Houston, are being made
worse as temperatures around the world continue to rise.
It doesn’t really matter if
Donald Trump believes global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese or if Coulter thinks God’s
wrath is more legitimate than climate science. More and more people are finding
out that shit’s getting very real and will only get worse as carbon and methane
emissions increase in the years ahead.
Perhaps the silver-lining of
the unfolding Texas catastrophe is that it will wake up a few climate change
skeptics and transform them into advocates for a future free of fossil fuels.
One can hope, anyway, but
I’m not holding my breath. I will leave that to all those still underwater in
Houston.
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