[IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)
Begin forwarded message:
From: Marc <marcaniballi@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 20, 2005 7:55:58 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)
Let's also not forget that the primary cause of the deaths in France
during
the 2003 heat wave were dehydration and dehydration related illness. Air
conditioning is not a very common appliance in France, the climate
does not
really warrant it (coastal temperate zones aside, let's remember that
Marseille (the most southern major center in France) is the same
latitude as
Toronto! The "heat wave" would have been considered temperate by Texan
standards.
Reports have shown that the majority of deaths occurred in elderly
retirees
who lived alone and had no support network. This brought about a lot of
questions about how the elderly are sometimes "abandoned" by their
families
and how to better handle the situation in the future. The most
notable thing
to come out of this was that the general public is now aware that you
can
die of dehydration without ever feeling "thirsty," and that the
elderly are
especially at risk due to the higher probability of a dysfunctional
internal
thermostat. In effect, the disaster could largely have been averted
had the
victims simply drank a bottle of water a day, whether they were
thirsty or
not.
Now while the tragedy is all the more poignant for the simplicity of its
solution - I do not see how a strong industrial complex would have
saved the
day. Mr. Todd did not blame the Katrina disaster on America (or Bush, or
neo-cons, etc.) - he (IMHO) simply pointed out that a country with a
strong
industrial complex (such as post-war America) would have been better
prepared to weather the crisis, and manage its aftermath. Whether he is
correct or not is immaterial - it seems to be a well thought out opinion
that offers a different perspective on the larger situation and may
hopefully get a few creative minds thinking along different lines and
possibly coming up with some innovative solutions to America's troubles.
Where's the harm in that?
Marc
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 7:12 PM
To: Ip Ip
Subject: [IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rahul Tongia <tongia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 19, 2005 6:57:00 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)
Dave,
I would tend to agree with <chodge5@xxxxxxx> that no matter how
advanced a society is, it can face failures. However, two reactions:
1) The US was dealing with a "point-source" problem, where more
precise effort would have been important, while in Europe, you had
tens of millions of homes to "protect." They need different
thinking, planning, and intervention. Not all natural disasters are
the same.
2) It is possible to admit that BOTH screwed up. Given humankind's
general (and well-documented) overemphasis on acute instead of
chronic problems (e.g., a plane crash instead of poor kids starving,
which kills many, many more), NOLA stands out as a failure even when
there was extensive modeling and recognition of the threat. In
contrast, while there was the knowledge that many people were at risk
in Europe, it was not known who, where, and exactly when. A somewhat
different problem (but with commonalities).
Rahul
--On Monday, September 19, 2005 6:35 PM -0400 David Farber
<dave@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: chodge5@xxxxxxx
Date: September 19, 2005 6:17:18 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [IP] more on Katrina, view from afar (Figaro) (fwd)
And, BTW, much less than the more than 35,000 killed by a heat wave
in Europe two summers ago.
You recall the debate that set off about European heartlessness,
racism and discrimination? No, neither do I.
IPers might be interested in Philip Klinkner's recent post at PolySigh
http://polysigh.blogspot.com/2005/09/overstating-katrina.html
I think Klinkner is at Hamilton College. The post has a number of very
good links, but the passage I thought worth noting was:
Compare the Katrina tragedy to the heatwave that struck Western
Europe in
the summer of 2003. We still don't know the death toll from
Katrina, but
most indications are that the early prediction of 10,000 plus
deaths were
wildly off the mark and the actual toll will be less than half of
that.
In
contrast, the 2003 heatwave led to the deaths of 35,000 Europeans. In
France there were nearly 15,000 dead and in Paris alone, 1854 people
perished. Thus, looking only at deaths, the heatwaves were a much
great
disaster for Europe than Katrina is likely to be for the U.S.
And like the Bush administration, the French government was
criticized
for
its laggard response to the calamity--including the fact that the
prime
minister and health minister were away on vacation when the disaster
struck. According to the Economist, the health minister was criticized
because (shades of President Bush strumming his guitar in Crawford):
His first reaction had been a television interview showing him, in a
T-shirt in the garden of his holiday home in the Var, arguing,
unworried,
that all was under control.
Nor, like Katrina, was this disaster unforseen. One Paris doctor
said at
the time:
Last summer the situation was catastrophic and this year it is
worse; we
were not at all prepared. The hospital system is failing.
Finally, most of those that died were from the most vulnerable
segments
of
European society, the elderly, particularly those who were poor
and lived
alone. This is despite the fact that for several generations, most
European nations have constructed social safety nets to provide for
the
care and well-being of their citizens, especially the elderly.
What's the upshot of all of this? The lesson of Katrina and the
European
heatwave is that natural disasters can have a devastating impact on
even
the most advanced and wealthy nations, and that this impact has
little or
nothing to do with the governing structure, ruling party, or political
culture of those nations. It is no more accurate to claim that the
heatwave deaths in France are the result of unworkable welfare
state or
the indifference of morally lax society, than it is to claim that the
Katrina victims are the result of conservative social policy,
racism, or
free market economics.
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