UPDATE: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says that thousands have died. In a news conference, he announced that, “We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water.” He thinks that there are also people lying dead in attics across the city. The actual number of dead will not be known until the water can be pumped out of the drowned city.
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Three of America’s leading climate scientists are accusing a politician of intimidating them, because they are insisting that global warming is real and that action should be taken immediately to curb greenhouse gas emissions, before more events like hurricane Katrina occur. The question is, is Rep. Joe Barton (R,TX) doing this at hisown instigation or acting on orders from above?
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Another summer, another series of weather catastrophes worldwide. Monster rains kill hundreds in India, a gigantic area of Siberian permafrost melts, northern Europe floods while southern Europe experiences its worst drought ever recorded.
And now Katrina, which could well turn out to be the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the United States, and a terrifying warning of worse to come. As I write this, the governor of Louisiana is saying that the situation is “worse than our worst fears” and 80 percent of New Orleans is under water.
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Everywhere you go these days you overhear conversations taking place on cell phones and see people wearing headphones moving to music only they can hear. All this is leading to old ears on young bodies. Audio expert Robert Novak says, “We’re starting to see hearing loss in young adults that we expect to diagnose in middle-aged adults. This loss is often self-induced and may be related to young people’s exposure to amplified sound and use of personal listening systems, such as cell phones and portable music devices. The damage can be temporary or permanent.” The cause: damaged ear hairs.
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