From TIA Daily:
While people are still dying in Louisiana and Mississippi, the New York Times comes out with an appalling editorial and this article, gloating about how the destructive power of Hurricane Katrina is nature’s “revenge” against man for the hubris of believing that he can control nature. Keep these on file as a reminder of the real meaning of environmentalism: hatred of man.
“Since the 18th century…, people have been trying to dominate the region’s landscape and the forces of its nature…. Although early travelers realized the irrationality of building a port on shifting mud in an area regularly ravaged by storms and disease, the opportunities to make money overrode all objections. When most transport was by water, people would of course settle along the Mississippi River, and of course they would build a port city near its mouth. In the 20th century, when oil and gas fields were developed in the gulf, of course people added petrochemical refineries and factories to the river mix, convenient to both drillers and shippers. To protect it all, they built an elaborate system of levees, dams, spillways and other installations…. In the last few decades, more and more people have realized what a terrible bargain the region made when it embraced–unwittingly, perhaps–environmental degradation in exchange for economic gains.” [“After Centuries of ‘Controlling’ Land, Gulf Learns Who’s the Boss,” Cornelia Dean and Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times, August 30]