Thursday, September 1, 2005
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Committee, starlene@greens.org,
cell phone 916-995-3805
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members, rallying
to help people hit hard by hurricane Katrina in Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama, began to ask hard questions about
preparations for the disaster and the link between increased
hurricanes and global warming.
Greens within traveling distance have offered
rooms in their homes for those displace by Katrina, while Greens
throughout the U.S. pledged to help keep the Green Party alive in
affected states at a time when addressing humanitarian and
environmental issues is extremely crucial.
Green Party member Bart Everson, who escaped from
New Orleans to Bloomington, Indiana, established a clearinghouse of
information for Katrina victims and those willing to assist them:
"Louisiana has a special place in Greens'
hearts, since the Green Party of Louisiana became the most recent
state party to achieve official ballot status, in the face of
difficult requirements," said Marc Sanson, co-chair of the Green
Party of the United States. On August 8, 2005, the Green Party of
Louisiana became the first qualified progressive party on the ballot
since 1916.
Green Party leaders asserted that the Katrina
disaster raises some urgent questions about the environmental, safety,
and public health priorities of the Bush Administration, as well as
state and local governments in the region affected by Katrina:
-
Will the Bush Administration and other
skeptics recognize Katrina -- the sixth hurricane to hit Florida
in the space of a year -- as a symptom of the human-influenced
global warming? Will they acknowledge that the growing number of
destructive hurricanes are a result of rising surface water
temperatures, consistent with other manifestations of global
warming around the world?
-
What steps will be taken to conserve fossil
fuel consumption, in the wake of disabled drilling operations in
the Gulf and the role of greenhouse gases in the generation of
storms like Katrina? Does President Bush understand that relaxing
environmental standards to provide more gasoline during the
current shortage and price surge will aggravate the conditions
that create killer storms?
-
In the face of growing evidence that a
hurricane like Katrina was likely (especially after hurricane Ivan
in September, 2004), why did the Bush Administration cut funding
for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project and other
aid for environmental emergencies? Given the likelihood of more
killer storms along the eastern seaboard in coming years, possibly
as far north as New York and New England, what steps are being
taken to ensure public health and safety in population centers?
-
What steps will be taken to reverse
overdevelopment along flood plains, which eliminated
flood-buffering wetlands and vegetation, and to end reliance on
levees, which cut off natural water channels and increase water
velocity?
-
Will chemical firms and public officials be
held responsible for the notoriously haphazard storage of toxic
products near population centers -- disproportionately located
near African American and poor white neighborhoods in states like
Louisiana -- which pose a public health threat because of
Katrina's devastation?
-
What prevented the National Guard of the Gulf
Coast states from helping with evacuations of the poor and elderly
as Katrina approached? Why is the National Guard limited in its
ability to assist after the hurricane? To what extent was such
assistance limited by the deployment of the National Guard and
equipment in the war on Iraq? Why did the White House and Congress
consider and invasion of Iraq (which was never a credible threat
to the U.S., despite the Bush Administration's fraudulent claims)
more urgent than an impending and predictable hurricane disaster
in the southeast U.S.?
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party Hurricane Katrina Page
http://www.gp.org/katrina2005/
"Stormy Weather: Can We Link it to Global Warming?"
By Jim Motavalli, EMagazine.com
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2865
"Katrina's real name"
By Ross Gelbspan, The Boston Globe, August 30, 2005
http://www.boston.com/
"Washing Away: Special report from The
Times-Picayune"
Originally published in June 2002
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/