EMISSIONIZERO - Worldwatch: DISASTRO INNATURALE - Le Lezioni di Katrina

["emissionizero" <emissionizero at zeri.org>]

EMISSIONIZERO suggerisce la lettura di quanto il Worldwatch Institute
scrive circa l'Uragano Katrina e le relative responsabilità politiche. 
Decisamente Katrina non è un disastro "naturale"
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Contents

- <#1>Unnatural Disaster: The Lessons of Katrina

- <#2>Weather Related Disasters Have Growing Economic, Human Toll

- <#3>Hurricane Katrina: Just a "Natural" Disaster?


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Worldwatch Institute: September 2, 2005

Unnatural Disaster: The Lessons of Katrina

Worldwatch Projects Catastrophe Will Be Most Costly Weather-Related
Disaster in History

The overwhelming human and financial impacts of Hurricane Katrina are
powerful evidence that political and economic decisions made in the United
States and other countries have failed to account for our dependence on a
healthy resource base, according to an assessment released today by the
Worldwatch Institute.

Alteration of the Mississippi River and the destruction of wetlands at its
mouth have left the area around New Orleans abnormally vulnerable to the
forces of nature. According to many scientists, the early results of global
warming—90 degree Fahrenheit water temperatures in the Gulf and rising sea
levels—may have exacerbated the destructive power of Katrina.

"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."

<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/press/news/2005/09/02/>Read the full
statement online.



Vital Signs Fact of the Week

Weather Related Disasters Have Growing Economic, Human Toll

<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/features/vsow/2005/09/01/>  In 2004,
weather-related disasters caused nearly $105 billion in economic losses (in
2003 dollars)—almost twice the total in 2003. Roughly 12,000
weather-related disasters since 1980 have caused just over 618,200
fatalities and cost a total of 1.3 trillion. Average annual economic losses
from such events have risen from $26 billion in the 1980s to $67 billion
over the last decade. Average annual fatalities due to weather, meanwhile,
jumped from 22,000 in the 1980s to 33,000 in the 1990s.

<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/features/vsow/2005/09/01/>Read the
full summary and download the PDF of this Vital Sign.
<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/pubs/vs/2005/>Purchase Vital Signs
2005 in print or PDF versions.


Hurricane Katrina: Just a "Natural" Disaster?

<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/pubs/paper/170/>  U.S. President
George W. Bush stated yesterday, "We're dealing with one of the worst
natural disasters in our nation's history." However, in a
<http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html>Salon.com/Spiegel
Online editorial on August 31, former U.S. administration official Sidney
Blumenthal says the Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands
to developers almost certainly contributed to the heightened level of the
storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Sandra Postel, Director of the Global Water Policy Project and Worldwatch
Institute Senior Fellow, notes in
<http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/paper/170/>Liquid Assets: Safeguarding
Freshwater Ecosystems that distinguishing between a natural and
human-induced disaster is becoming more difficult. The "clearing of trees,
filling of wetlands, engineering of rivers, and destruction of mangroves
has frayed the natural safety nets that healthy ecosystems provide.
Consequently, when a natural disaster strikes, the risks of catastrophic
losses are higher."

Purchase print or PDF versions:
<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/pubs/paper/170/>Liquid Assets:
Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems
Liquid Assets press release:
<http://www.worldwatch.org/ct/20050902/press/news/2005/07/11/>http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2005/07/11/

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