Quicksilver כספית

[UPDATE 9-16] Katrina's environmental and toxic legacy

Katrina struck Gulf Coast counties with a heavy concentration of oil and chemical industry facilities. So, part of their legacy of hazardous waste has churned up, awash, and coming back to haunt us. Plus, toxic chemical storage that may have been spilled.                   (Other Katrina posts here.)

{9-16} Write EPA to better investigate and monitor the toxic waste disaster in New Orleans -- via OMB Watch. OMB also has a database of NOLA toxic chemical sites (thanks to long-time data guru Rick Puchulsky). The Sierra Club, besides handling right-wing attacks, has a fine post by Carl Pope.

It's too early to estimate the environmental and toxic aspects of the hurricane's damage, but here is some news and links:

{9-16} Coast Guard reveals more on oil spills (HT EffectM). Indeed, the spills are now 2/3 the size of the Exxon Valdez, for which "a team of economists estimated the aggregate willingness to pay of U.S. households to prevent another oil spill of that size in Prince William Sound to have a lower bound of $2.8 billion and a mean of $7.19 billion. (HT Enviro Econ).

{9-16} "The Mother of All Toxic Cleanups" reports BusinessWeek. EPA Chief on their hard choices, including the reg waivers (AP). An interview with EPA whistle-blower Hugh Kaufman criticizing the agency. (HT EffectM)

{New} More environmental resources. CS Monitor on toxics cleanup. EPA's updates. Fascinating info/photos on environmental impacts via US Geological Survey.

{9-8 update} EPA reports that it tested "priority pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), total metals, pesticides, herbicides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). ... Lead concentrations in water exceeded drinking water action levels. These levels are a concern if a child ingests large amounts of flood water. For the additional chemicals tested, we have yet to detect contaminant levels that would pose human health risks. ... EPA testing has focused on neighborhoods and not in heavily industrialized areas."

"Michael McDaniel, the Louisiana secretary of environmental quality, said it was "simply unfeasible" to attempt to filter the water before flowing it into the lake. The EPA granted the Army Corps of Engineers a waiver from treating floodwater before sending it into Lake Pontchartrain." Read interview. Any public input on this waiver?

{9-8 from Gristmill} "An article on CNN.com today quotes Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Mike McDaniel: "Everywhere we look there's [an oil] spill ... there's almost a solid sheen over the area right now." The story also describes destroyed sewage plants, natural gas leaks, and oozing vehicles of all shapes and sizes. It is, as McDaniel says, 'almost unimaginable'."

{News 9-2): Explosion at a chemical depot in New Orleans. Potentially huge oil spill into the Mississippi.

{News 9-6} Reports on the toxic brew and e-coli situation by CNN (E.g., Rodney Mallett, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, say there do not appear to be any choices other than to pump the water into Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, a key maritime spawning ground. "I don't see how we could treat all that water," Mallett said.") Reuters (Bass and Murphy oil spills, 25 damaged sewage treatment plants)

[New] Just received an email from a guy who both warned about (in 2002) and survived hurricane Katrina, New Orleans environmental reporter Mark Schliefman, sent me this email:

Bit too tired to go thru all the toxic potential involved here, but in
general, you've got some 250,00 batches of household chemicals mixed
with leaking gasoline and kerosene from underground tanks, cleaning fluid
from dry cleaners, chemicals from a variety of businesses, etc. Then
you've got a myriad of tanks containing who knows what that would have
floated off their footings, breaking their connections and spewing their
contents. (9-2-05)

New Orleans now 'hazardous waste site,' experts say by Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer (August 31, 2005) Thanks and hat tip to Confined space.

Dave Roberts at Gristmill put up many links on environmental damage and debate about Katrina. Likewise, Risk World on damage to oil and energy resources.

The finger-pointing has already begun. Nobody causes a hurricane. Of course, there's a history behind the limited preparedness of this heavily industrialized region. But who bears responsibility for the concentration of industrial toxicality in the poor counties of Louisiana and Mississippi? The responsibility is dispersed, like barrels of pollutants in a toxic stew.

Kaspit

{Update} Gov't portal for environmental info to help interpret the Katrina and New Orleans situation.

About the makings of a disaster like Katrina, Impact Analysis and Mark Schleifstein's work. About fingerpointing (e.g., Agonist) , for instance, The Commons blog. For a quick photo of media justice, Hungry Blues.

Mercurial Congress lets weak reg's through

EPA's weak mercury emission rule has passed another hurdle on its way to law. Senators Leahy and Collins did not quite get enough votes (47-51) to overturn the pending EPA regulations. As NRDC reports, an appeals court reject a lawsuit against the regs brough by environmental groups and 14 states. Some New England states are trying to move forward with their own regulations, though they obviously can't curtail the emissions coming from big midwestern utilities.

Photo of bald eagle, evidently found with high mercury levels in Indiana.

Kaspit

PS Here's a still relevant post about the prenatal and other hazards of mercury exposure through fish, etc.

Bioremediation of Katrina flood waters

As New Orleans' toxic waters get pumped out, Jewish activists are among those advocating for the bioremediation treatment of flood waters. The flood waters are highly polluted by oil, toxic wastes, and biological hazards (e coli, etc). As an alternative to chlorine bleach or other chemical treatments, bioremediation involves the use of microorganisms to break up pollutants (USGS fact sheet).

In particular, the use of Effective Microorganisms (EM) technology has been debated by participants with COEJL (Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life) and elsewhere. Circulating in the internet, this memo claims that EM was used for the recent tsunami and saved many lives. The company also claims EM was used for the giant 2002 Elbe flood. (Hat tip to Terry Gips at Alliance for Sustainability.)

{New} Here is a link to their database of research on EM. I can't vouch for the quality of the research but it is extensive.

As posted earlier, it is problematic that the toxic flood waters are being pumped into ecologically-sensitive waters without any treatment.

However, it is unclear that bioremediation of any sort would be effective in the New Orleans situation. [1]

Kaspit

[1] Alan Ismond, P.Eng. gave permission for me to cite his comment: "I have worked with microbial / enzyme / nutrient products for remediating wastewater. I agree ... that this is a complex field and not as simple as pouring a product down the drain to unclog a pipe. I do not believe that one single product can be a panacea that will address all of the issues in contaminated water. For example the contaminated water in the disaster area could contain widely diverse pollutants ranging from heavy metals to harmful bacteria to fuels and hydrocarbons. There may be specific organisms that can break down specific pollutants.... However, I do not know of one organism or mix of organisms that can do everything under the sun.

Another important concern is the dose rate of a remedial product and controlling the environment so that the product can work effectively. Sewage treatment plants are a controlled environment that are maintained for optimal performance. Acres and acres of wastewater in contact with an endless supply of pollutants and wastewater volumes of millions and millions of gallons is hardly a controlled environment. With the concentration and mix of pollutants and volume of wastewater to be treated being unknown or constantly changing, and no ability to control the environment that remediation products will be exposed to, I am skeptical of a quick fix. I would be thrilled if a vender could provide documented, controlled and reproducible test data and independent studies or case histories."

Ten days after hurricane Katrina: interim critique

Ten days ago the hurricane struck. I see three broad areas of criticism about the hurricane Katrina disaster: I) Preparation, II) Response, and III) Political smoke and mirrors. Here I am leaving aside the painful social justice questions.

What needs to be done now? Besides investigating Dept of Homeland Security and FEMA (and local govt), here’s my stab at five short- and near-term steps:

1. Put a temporary hold on pumping the heavily contaminated NOLA water, assess risk of further spreading pollutants, move in portable treatment and/or filtering capacity. {See new post on bioremediation.}
2. Investigate and resolve conflicts-of-interest in Katrina-related contracts, including Halliburton work
3. Fire Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. {Update: FEMA's Brown has been recalled from relief operations.}
4. Separate FEMA from DHS. {Update: Hillary proposes. HT Town Crier.}
5. Get an independent status report on prevention and planning for major environmental and natural disaster risks.
6. Public agencies are needed to handle large scale risks. We need agencies set up to be accountable, not corrupt, competent, not handcuffed.

I. Critique of emergency preparedness

A. Government, business and community leaders have a responsibility to protect cities from destruction. Mayors, local leaders, and state officials bear much responsibility. Nonetheless, owing largely to the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration consolidated emergency planning and preparedness under the Department of Homeland Security. Brad DeLong (Financial Times) on the Bush Administration.

B. Despite years of warnings about the danger of a category 5 hurricane, the levees were not adequately reinforced. (Despite infamous Bush photo-op.) If I recall correctly, federal monies were approved -- but the Administration scuttled it (and the city). Urban Economics on investing in levees (investments in natural disaster risk mitigation represent a type of 'redistribution' because the poor are most likely to face mortality risk from such shocks.").

C. Is it sustainable to build and safely maintain a city in NOLA’s situation? Don’t know. But it is irresponsible to leave so many, including so many poor, so vulnerable. Economic growth and greed are no excuse. “Levee improvements were deferred in recent years even after congressional approval, reportedly prompting EPA staffers to dub flooded New Orleans "Lake George."” The real costs of a culture of greed by Robert Scheer. Hat tip to Torat haLev.

D. As Mark Schleifstein reports, DHS and FEMA were briefed in advance by the National Hurricane Center, about the threat of Katrina. Yes, both FEMA's Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff knew about the coming danger.

E. In sum, Roger Pielke correctly names this a massive and unforgivable intelligence failure by DHS. How could this happen after 9/11? He concludes:

“Chertoff and Brown are the respective heads of … the federal agencies with lead responsibility for being prepared for and responding to disasters. … This commentary is not a cheap political shot at the Bush Administration. … there has been a significant policy failure on their watch. … Under this new [9/11] reorganization, DHS has comprehensively failed its first test. Congress needs to find out why, and fix it. We will have more disasters, that is for sure. The time to start asking hard questions is right now.”

II. Critique of crisis response to hurricane Katrina

A. The evacuation was inadequate, especially in the lack of options for the poor, sick and others without cars.

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died. From Truth out thanks to Machopicasso at Daily Kos

Prof. Susan Cutter (via NYT): "... New Orleans' mayor should have ordered a mandatory evacuation earlier on Thursday or Friday. She said it would take at least two to three days to fully evacuate New Orleans, a city surrounded by water with few exit routes. The city's hurricane plan said it might take 72 hours for residents to leave." (HT Env. Econ. on economics of evacuation)

B. Unforgivably poor arrangements for a safe haven shelter for those left behind and not evacuated.

C. The failures by FEMA list (with Hat tip to Paul at Eyeteeth). Also:

"In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the US, including a terrorist attack on New York City." BBC report on FEMA thanks again to Machopicasso at Daily Kos

Radly Balko's list of government failures (HT Dispatches). Thinking Progress.

D. Despite such incompetence, FEMA is too easy a scapegoat. FEMA has been corrupted and cut down by the Bush Administration. (HT to Brad DeLong) Rather than collude with Bush-Republicans in undermining the governmental sector, it's crucial to demand that serious public servants get serious funding for risk prevention and emergency management. For this reason, I recommend that the political momentum now ought to be spent on remaking FEMA as an independent agency, not one filled by cronies and hacks. (Maybe DHS can be re-engineered, too?)

E. The pumping out of NOLA has begun. But without any public participation or even EPA input, apparently. EPA has been excluded from NOLA clean-up management?! With New Orleans a stagnant pool of toxins, bacteria and fuel, how can they stiff arm EPA? Reportedly, because EPA was critical about the 9/11 response… (Cp. Effect Measure here.) (AP story on EPA, CDC view.) Pause the pumps -- let the experts and public at least briefly evaluate this shifting around of pollutants -- quickly get in place portable treatment and/or filtering.

{9-8 update} "Michael McDaniel, the Louisiana secretary of environmental quality, said it was "simply unfeasible" to attempt to filter the water before flowing it into the lake. The EPA granted the Army Corps of Engineers a waiver from treating floodwater before sending it into Lake Pontchartrain." Read more.

Hence, EPA is now engaged... and granting a waiver. Any public input here?

F. Where was Bush? Cheney? (Condi Rice?) In a storm, the pilot should take the helm. A businessman’s viewpoint:

"As a retired VP of a multinational corporation, formerly involved in disaster recovery planning and preparedness, I can say with confidence that any responsible CEO with a factory in Katrina's path would have been burning up the communication lines not later than Sunday morning, when a Cat. 5 landfall was expected, to ensure that all measures were in place to protect employees, and would have had teams from other sites standing by to go in immediately after the storm with relief and recovery provisions. The fact that Chertoff had not activated all of his resources by noon Sunday says clearly that he is not qualified for his post and totally failed his responsibility. The fact that Pres. Bush had not checked what actions Chertoff was initiating before late Sunday at the latest, also calls his competence into question. Local authorities with experience, like in Florida, can be left to deal with a Cat 3 hurricane on their own. An expected Cat. 5 should have had federal gov't attention from the top as soon as it was expected, even without the added risk of New Orlean's levees. Waiting to see if the bullet would be dodged is totally unacceptable. Both Bush and Chertoff should resign.” Murray Duffin

G. Five cogent points on The public choice economics of crisis management (Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution) with link to scholarship, incl Israelis. It's not wise to privatize or stick to business as usual. The agencies that handle environmental and other major accidents need to be accountable from a technical, a democratic and an ethical standpoint. President Bush will not be impeached over Katrina. Nonetheless, since Bush takes too lightly and fumbles his duties to public service, perhaps those vital duties and authorities can be shifted to independent, competent and honest leaders.

III. Critique of the political cover-up and ploys of the Bush Administration.

A. Here’s a superb (mis-)management and political timeline by Think Progress of Katrina and aftermath. Must read. (HT Cervantes.)

B. Failing to save lives, the Bush Administration excels in saving its own skin(s) during public relations emergencies. E.g., photo op with firefighters.

C. Dissembling and falsehoods. See, among Jewish bloggers, esp. Dov Bear (and here) and The Town Crier.

Well... my sketch of the landscape. I hope to color in some perspectives from Jewish law, add links to more data and analysis, suggestions welcome.

Kol tuv,

Kaspit

NJ labor + environmentalists defend right-to-know access

"New Jersey's Office of the Attorney General has announced the state will abandon plans to establish controversial restrictions to its Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The restrictions, proposed in a state rule change, would have required requesters to prove a "need-to-know" before the state would release information about chemical hazards." From OMB Watch.

Kudos to Rick Engler, executive director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council and a labor union leader who has long struggled against NJ's chemical industries on right-to-know and other toxicality issues.

No child left behind?

No child left behind... unless they were among the poor and/or black of New Orleans. Am I being too harsh? Due to a muddle of prejudice, incompetence and systemic  disregard for the underclass, the response of our government is shameful. In its urgent charitable work and political response, the Jewish community ought not overlook the injustice(s) at work.

"Hurricane Katrina pulled back the curtain, exposing the things many knew existed and even more wished not to acknowledge: race, class, privilege, cavernous health and income disparities; poverty amidst opulence..."  (Effect Measure)

The Commons: "60 percent of New Orleans residents are black, but it has been little noted that a third of those black families do not own a car -- nor do 15 percent of white families. It is these people who were left behind when those with cars evacuated."

"We all have seen over the years images depicting the horrors faced by refugees in third world countries.  But the images of people in our own country, rich as it is in so many ways, without any food or water for days, using the floor as toilets, sitting among rotting cadavers, or women with infants (in one report I read) being given two diapers and told to scrape them off and reuse them, are hard to accept.

[... This] not only raises questions about how we treat the poor among us, but forces us to confront some difficult issues about race in this country. Ann Althouse asks over on her blog, "Were the provisions for flood prevention and for evacuation and shelter so inadequate because mostly black people were affected? Would the rescues have come more quickly if the victims were white? Would viewers and reporters express more utrage at the pace of relief if we were seeing white victims?"  Good questions." From Susan Stabile at Mirror of Justice (Catholic legal theory blog)

As New Orleans journalist Mark Schleifstein and many others had forewarned, the levee failure was predictable and predicted so "either the President doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's not telling the truth" when he claimed otherwise. (Mark Kleiman)

Surely the dreadful emergency response will be investigated. Maybe the delay was caused by the deal to hire Halliburton has been hired for storm cleanup in Louisiana and Mississippi?! Or maybe the Federal Emergency Management Agency was busy directing donations to Rev. Pat Robertson!? (Courtesy of Hungry Blues coverage of justice aspects) Even Newt Gingrich criticized the relief effort (Timnah, with more tales of injustice in New Orleans.)

Why the foot-dragging, why the dreadful responsiveness to those who were left behind?

Arguably, BusinessWeek noted, the Bush Administration had us "mistakenly lulled into thinking" that terrorism is the most urgent threat. Homeland Security? (Dubious public health measures?) Perhaps hurricane Katrina will wake us up. Too many people are threatened at home by economic and social injustice, by environmental and health risks, by political invisibility. Hurricane or not, their vulnerability is real. In a world of complex risks, it is our responsibility not to get too distracted.

Certainly, the resourceful Jewish community should be taking care of our own displaced families and children. At the same time, I suggest that our tzedakah (charity) also reach those with far less resources, who are most exposed in a structural economy of prejudice and uncertainty.

 

Kaspit

Previous posts on Katrina: where to donate (and global warming), social justice, looting for food under Jewish law, toxic pollution, Mark Schleifstein, and BusinessWeek noted.   

Social justice and Katrina

Is the suffering brought about by Katrina distributed evenly in our society? I received this email: "In the Boston Globe sports section today, Bob Ryan made a chilling comment:

I fully realize that there were always two New Orleans, the one I and other tourists saw, and the other New Orleans, the one inhabited by the thousands of poor people, mostly of color. Judging from the shots we see of those who were herded into the Superdome, the white people mostly managed to get out. The others weren’t so fortunate.

Shouldn’t we be guided by the Talmud’s direction not to build a tannery in the city?  Isn’t this exactly what we’ve done in New Orleans -- at least for the people who don’t have the means to get out when a catastrophic event hits?"  -- sent by an anonymous reader, thanks.

I do sense that the poor and people of color are most likely to not be properly evacuated. Along with sick and elderly, they may lack the money and/or vehicles to leave. Furthermore, they may have less means to cope with the hurricane's aftermath.

Blacks may also be portrayed by the media as "looting" rather than coping with a desperate situation. See Ben's telling photos at Hungry Blues.

This disaster also makes it difficult for people to get their drugs, whether meds for mental health or narcotics. (Plus, more stress for caffeine and nicotine addicts). Not certain how the pharmacolization of society is distributed, but again the poor are disadvantaged.

As Ulrich Beck wrote in Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity:

Some people are more affected than others by the distribution and growth of risks, that is, social risk positions spring up. In some of their dimensions these follow the inequalities of class and strata positions, but they bring a fundamentally different logic [than wealth] into play. Risks of modernization sooner or later also strike those who produce or profit from them. They contain a boomerang effect, which breaks up the patter of class and national society." p23 trans.Ritter

Beck points out the complexity of social justice. In a natural catastrophe, like Katrina, a wide swath of people are harmed. Certainly, many wealthy folks will suffer physically and economically. The boomerang strikes those invested in the development of New Orleans, Biloxi etc, in the concentrated petro-chemical industries of the region. Nevertheless, before the boomerang, hurricane Katrina strikes hardest and first at the poor and disadvantaged. In a risk society like ours, social justice issues may be more obscure and difficult to ferret out.

Kaspit

Also writing about the poor and/or people of color: Larry James and J-wild. Jack Shafer in Slate. Larry James writes: "Hurricane Katrina ravaged the poor. Almost 30% of the population of New Orleans lived below the national poverty line before she hit. As is usually the case, the poorest citizens in the city lived in the worst places in terms of vulnerability to a storm like Katrina. .... Politicians and preachers take to the stages of America to pray and to pronounce. The following day the poor continue to suffer. Just once I wish we were honest enough to link this call and its promise to our out-of-control materialism, to our systemic national injustices and to our failure to care for the weakest among us."

[UPDATED NEWS] Jewish environmental journalist as Jonah: Mark Schleifstein on catastrophic hurricane risk

Prophecy was not the intent of Pulitzer-prize winning Mark Schleifstein, an environmental reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Still, Schleifstein hit the nail on the head when he warned that a hurricane could have a catastrophic impact. He co-authored: "Washing Away: How south Louisiana is growing more vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane" (Eye-opening journalism. Awards for the series listed below.)

{ADDED} Mark Schliefstein is Jewish and non-partisan. He tells me that he serves both as the gabbai in his Conservative shul (Shir Chadash, Metairie) and "I try to be as available as I can, considering my work schedule, for filling in at evening minyan at the Orthodox shul around the corner on Canal St. in New Orleans." Here's his understated precis of the last few days:

My house has about 10 feet of water in it, based on satellite photos I've seen, as does Beth Israel [DovBear]. Don't know yet about my synagogue. We stored our torahs in a third floor room in our Jewish Community Center, across the parking lot from us, and expect they survived. We stayed at the paper during the storm, safe place, and ended up evacuating the next day when water was rising a bit too quickly around the building. Loaded into the back of newspaper delivery trucks, I went to Houma, La., 65 miles southwest, where we put out our web edition of the paper the next two days, and my wife went to Baton Rouge and then flew out to her dad in Atlanta. He's in the Jewish Tower. I'm now in Baton Rouge, sharing a dorm room with 10 staffers at Louisiana State University.

{ADDED} Of course, now Mark's series is getting a storm of attention for exposing the danger and the flaws and negligence with preparedness efforts, e.g., Cox News, SLC editorial, Ronda Hauben on the negligence of prevention, Eric Zorn, and The Wall Street Journal (HT Romenesko on journalism).

Gristmill reports on what Mark says the press should cover now (i.e., coastal wetlands not yet the questionable global warming connection).

Transparent Grid recaps the "Washing Away" series' worst case scenario, see also TG's part II and part III (Bush budget cuts).

Mark Schleifstein is a splendid journalist and environmental hazard investigator. I couldn't find on the web all his excellent earlier work, e.g., on chemical industry pollution in Louisiana. His prior articles and accomplishments include:

Have evacuation plan, will travel  (Dec 2004)

Biggest mercury polluter in La. to clean up its act  (August 5, 2005) (You can be sure I wouldn't skip his work on quicksilver, which PPG uses in Lake Charles, Louisiana to make chlorine. More on mercury air pollution here.)

Washing Away: How south Louisiana is growing more vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane, notes the SJE bio, "won the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2003 Excellence in Media award and the 2003 National Hurricane Conference media award. It also was a finalist for the 2003 Edward J. Meeman Award for Environmental Reporting for newspapers with over 100,000 circulation. He also recently received the Governor's Award from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, presented annually to the person or organization deemed to have made the most outstanding contribution toward the protection and wise use of the state's natural resources."

Mark's "2001 series, Unequal Opportunity: How local programs to help disadvantaged businesses are enriching wealthy entrepreneurs, won the 2002 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism ...  The 1998 series, Home Wreckers: How the Formosan termite is devastating New Orleans, was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and won awards from the [AAAS] .... A 1996 series, Oceans of Trouble: Are the World's Fisheries Doomed? won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service .... The 1994 series, Stacking the Deck: The Birth of Louisiana Gambling, won .... The 1991 series, Louisiana in Peril, was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. .... Before joining The Times-Picayune, he worked for the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger, the Norfolk, Va., Virginian-Pilot, and the Suffolk, Va., News-Herald. He is married and has two children." Source: Society of Environmental Journalists w/ Photo credit.

Katrina, hurricanes and global warming

I caution against blaming Katrina on global warming, as does Ross Gelbspan (generally a good environmental journalist). Granted, oil and energy policies should change, but Arthur Waskow overplays the Katrina card.

See the analysis, links and debate at RealClimate. Here's a scientific paper on hurricanes and climate change courtesy of Prometheus. Gristmill debates this connection, too. (Cp. enviro law who sees a connection.)

My 2 cents is that there is a macro relationship but we are too prone to articulate a spurious correlation.

You can donate via UJC, the Orthodox Union, or see Miriam's list. A Chabad effort. Prayers...

Kaspit

For a halakhic argument regarding climate change, see Eliezer Diamond's paper. The Harvard publisher claims:

He convincingly argues that halakhic reasoning about notions of conventionality and equity in environmental matters could be applied meaningfully to the problem of global warming. Such application requires a careful analysis of concrete human situations as well as a creative analysis of Jewish legal sources.

My own tongue-in-check post on energy policy and halakhah here.

While here I've looked the global warming connection, other Jewish bloggers properly compare Katrina to the tsunami (Mystical Politics) and refute Jews who connect hurricane Katrina's refugees to divine punishment for Israel's evacuation of Gaza (DovBear, Hirhurim, Miriam at Bloghead, and Orthomom).  Cp. Christians who say that Katrina is divine retribution New Orleans and gays. Hat tip Gristmill.

[UPDATE] Israeli Knesset passes an environmental right-to-know law

UPDATE: Text of law below.

MK Dr. Lea Ness and the environmental caucus in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) successfully maneuvered for the last minute passage of an environmental information law. The right-to-know law amends Israel’s freedom of information act, see Ynet and Walla articles (Hebrew). The new (July 28) law is intended to make public the type of toxic pollution information already freely available through right-to-know laws in the U.S. and Europe. This is terrific! But…

A word of caution. The right-to-know law’s specifics will be left up to Israel’s environmental ministry. The ministry has six months to propose regulations. Israel’s environmental minister, Shalom Simhon, knows how to play political hardball. Will Simhon issue strong regulations to give Israelis an effective right-to-know about toxic materials? Or will the freedom of information rules be saddled by loopholes etc?

Kudos to the Jewish (and Arab and Druze) activists who pioneered the new toxics law, the Citizens For the Environment (CFE) in the Galilee, directed by Liora Aharon. Email CFE your congratulations, send them a donation, and urge them to keep the pressure on the environmental ministry to promulgate a strong right-to-know law.

Kol tuv,

Kaspit

PS Besides writing 3 linked articles above, Zafrir Rinat, the environmental reporter for Ha’aretz, also gives us an update on a lawsuit to clean up the toxic Yarkon River.

Photo sources: Lea Ness and Liora Aharon.

UPDATE: The language of Israel's new environmental information law is indeed broad and vague:

Thanks to the Sagit Porat of the Israeli Life & Environment coalition, below is the Hebrew text of the gist of the new law. (Full text here.) It requires the public authority (the environment ministry) to publish on its website (and in other ways as the Minister's will set up). It stipulates that "environmental information [includes] information on released, spilled, emitted and discharged substances and the results of smoke, odor and radiation measurements, not in the private domain."  Porat says that  "includes" was discussed in committee, omitted from the text, and will (hopefully) be reinserted.

רשות ציבורית תעמיד לעיון הציבור מידע על איכות הסביבה שיש ברשותה, באתר האינטרנט של הרשות הציבורית, אם קיים אתר כאמור, ובדרכים נוספות שיקבע השר לאיכות הסביבה; לענין זה, "מידע על איכות הסביבה" – מידע על חומרים שנפלטו, שנשפכו, שסולקו או שהושלכו לסביבה ותוצאות של מדידות רעש, ריח וקרינה, שלא ברשות היחיד