Satellite imagery of oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The yellow boxes
indicate oil rigs/platforms. The dark streaks
indicate oil slicks.
05/09/2005 — Greenpeace extends its sympathies
to the people of New Orleans, southern Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama who have lost so much
in the wake of Katrina.
While the immediate effort must go into addressing
the human and environmental consequences,
over the longer term Katrina has many lessons
to offer and should be seen as a wake-up call
about the dangers of continued global fossil
fuel dependency.
Greenpeace believes that as the water is
pumped from New Orleans and the city is rebuilt
a parallel effort should be made to wean the
US, and the world, from its fossil fuel addiction,
an addiction which fuels global warming and
which will cause much more coastal flooding
and many more extreme weather events.
Switching to renewable energy sources, which
do not contribute to global warming, would
also protect against future economic and energy
security shocks like those suffered after
Katrina. While much discussion can be made
about whether or not global warming contributed
to the severity of Katrina what the world's
climate scientists do know is that the burning
of fossil fuels will likely increase the number
and severity of extreme weather events.
What does Katrina have to tell us about Global
Warming?
Here's an excellent technical discussion of
the issue from RealClimate.org.
More into about the impacts of Climate Change.
Climate Change and the Insurance Industry:
1993 Greenpeace report in the wake of Hurricane
Andrew outlining options for the insurance
industry in the wake of mounting extreme-weather
related claims and the prospect of more to
come.
New report from Ceres warns of rising threat
to US insurers and their customers from Climate
Change.
