The hurricane Katrina disaster in the South is extraordinary, perhaps the worst natural disaster in the United States for centuries. Citizens everywhere wonder and worry about those folks trapped by the water, without food, water, cell phones, electricity and only heaven knows what else. Now third world diseases appear to be distinct possibilities.
Those compassionate environmentalists, always concerned about the problems of human health, the state of the poor, the deprived, and the less fortunate, are tooling up to spend their billions in helping the disaster victims. Right? Well, not exactly.
Even before the people are rescued, before the bodies are collected, before everyone is safe, one of those environmentalist lawyers has gone to press with the blame game. No real help appears to be forthcoming from this crowd either. As the British anthropologist Benny Peiser recently wrote, “Instead of supporting the rescue efforts, demagogues are using the human tragedy in a futile attempt to score points.
One of those demagogues is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In his let-them-eat-cake rush to publication Kennedy shows a spectacular indifference to the on-going suffering.
The NRDC has been around for 30 years whose leaders are wealthy, Beltway insiders and predictably have opposed nearly all major sources of energy which have made our nation strong. Kennedy has even opposed wind energy projects in the Cape Cod area, not wanting to spoil his view from Martha