As the new home of Arizona PIRG's environmental work, Environment Arizona can be contacted with any questions regarding this news release.
As residents of the Gulf Coast clean up in the hurricane aftermath and rebuild their lives, it is important that Americans continue to support their efforts. And, as surely as our government lost little time pursuing terrorists after September 11th, we owe it to our nation, and to the hurricane victims, to consider what steps we can take to prevent the repeat of such a national tragedy.
In recent days, there has been earnest talk about whether flood plans were fully funded or levees engineered to withstand such a storm. And while such matters are worthy of further consideration, there are other issues and available solutions receiving little attention in the daily deliberations. There are sure to be more extreme storm events in our lifetimes. But by burning less fossil fuel, preserving more wetlands, using less toxic chemicals, and curbing sprawl, our nation might set itself on a path to prevent the worst aspects of Katrina from revisiting us.
Cutting our dependence on fossil fuels: America's over-reliance on fossil fuels was a problem well before Katrina made landfall -- threatening the nation's economy, our environment and our national security. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on the nation's energy infrastructure points to the urgent need for improved energy efficiency to shield consumers from the impact of higher energy prices and for conserving oil and diversifying our energy supply with clean, renewable sources of energy.
Mitigating Storm Intensities by Reducing Global Warming: The unprecedented destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina should lead to questions about whether human-induced global warming could lead to more intense storms more often. The single greatest step that we, as a nation, can take to address that challenge is to enact strict fuel economy standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cars and light trucks (including SUVs). Second, we need meaningful policies to ensure that any expansion of our energy resources comes from renewable sources, like wind and solar, not more burning of fossil fuels.
Reducing Flood Surges by Preserving Wetlands: A lot of the damage done was exacerbated by the stripping of natural buffer zones that had surrounded the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, for centuries. Before billions of taxpayer dollars are spent to fortify levees of the past, we should think carefully and creatively about how to also ensure preservation – and restoration - of the storm buffers that nature has already provided us. We also need to stop the rampant destruction of the remaining wetlands. As it authorizes billions of dollars in flood relief, Congress should also start to address flood prevention by reinstating federal protection for all wetlands.
Minimize Toxic and Sewage Exposure. There are several steps we can take to ensure that heavy storms do not inundate our cities' streets with a foul brew of toxic substances and fecal bacteria. Safe and effective alternatives exist for many of the chemicals we use, and already, a handful of states have acted to phase out some of the worst ones. State and federal officials must renew efforts to reduce the use and storage of toxic chemicals wherever possible. And, it is time for our nation's chemical producers and users to take responsibility for toxic clean up; Congress should reinstate the polluter-pay provision that put the "fund" in Superfund, so we can clean up these hazardous sites before their essence winds up on our city streets. As for sewage overflows, the root of the problem is that our landscape's ability to absorb stormwater has been lost as rampant sprawl has replaced filtrating soils with impervious asphalt. We must rein in developers' penchant for strip malls and massive parking lots.
The problems exposed by Hurricane Katrina are not new. But perhaps, in the wake of the worst natural disaster in recent U.S. history, decision-makers and the public will find the will to finally begin to address them.
