Disasters happen. Human beings have no control over it. Disasters are also unpredictable and despite great advance in science and technology no amount of human ingenuity can decipher the power of natures’ fury. It so happens that on Nov. 1, 1755, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, was flattened by an earthquake that killed thousands of its inhabitants. Like the Katrina hurricane that inundated New Orleans last week, the 1755 calamity inspired not only awe at the power of nature and sympathy for the helpless victims but also all kinds of moral explanation. To the French philosopher Voltaire, the destruction of Lisbon was proof that we do not live “in the best of all possible worlds”. Quite interestingly, the Associated Press reported that Islamic extremists “rejoiced in America’s misfortune, giving the storm a military rank and declaring in Internet chatter that ‘Private’ Katrina had joined the global jihad. With ‘God’s help,’ they declared, oil prices would hit $100 a barrel this year.”
Leaving aside such emotional outbursts there is now; inevitably a big debate building up particularly with environmentalists portraying the storm as a reckoning for the Bush administration’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The argument—put across to US mandarins every time a global summit on climate change take place—is that our consumption of fossil fuels causes global warming, and global warming leads to more frequent “extreme weather events,” not to mention rising sea levels. The question then is, would the Americans now sit up and realize how their actions are contributing to global warming.
Not surprisingly in Germany—which obviously does not see eye to eye with the Bush administration on climate change politics—Hurricane Katrina is big news for German commentators, whatever their ilk. For some, the powerful storm which slammed the US Gulf Coast is an example of environmental terrors awaiting the world thanks to global warming. And the proof of their pudding is simple: America needs to quickly reverse its policy of ignoring the grave issue of climate change.
Germany’s Environmental Minister, Jürgen Trittin, insists that global warming and climate change are making it ever more likely that storms and floods will plague America and Europe. “Greenhouse gases have to be radically reduced and it has to happen worldwide. Until now, the US has kept its eyes shut to this emergency. (Americans) make up a mere 4 percent of the population, but are responsible for close to a quarter of emissions.” He adds that the average American is responsible for double as much carbon dioxide as the average European. “The Bush government rejects international climate protection goals by insisting that imposing them would negatively impact the American economy. The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies.” As such, Trittin also calls for a reworking of the Kyoto Protocol and insisting that the US be included.
While the politics of climate change will continue, the reality is, of course, that natural disasters just happen, and we can never exactly predict when or where. In 2003 — to take just a single year — 41,000 people died in Iran when an earthquake struck the city of Bam, more than 2,000 died in a smaller earthquake in Algeria and just under 1,500 died in India in a freak heat wave. Further statistics point out that such disasters have killed many more people than international terrorism that year (according to the State Department, total casualties because of terrorism in 2003 were 4,271, of whom precisely none were in North America).
In the understanding of a philosopher like Voltaire, such phenomenon as the Katrina hurricane, should serve to remind us of our common vulnerability as human beings in the face of a pitiless nature. On the other hand, the great science debate to come out of Hurricane Katrina will be, without a doubt, whether global warming is to blame.
