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Special Issue: the Collapse of America Paul Craig Roberts gives CounterPunchers the definitive data on what is happening to jobs in America. Not just blue collar jobs. Middle-class, white collar jobs. Roberts' stunning probe is the first true picture of what the U.S. economy is fast becoming and of the savage class wars that lie ahead. Plus Mike Ferner on what it really means to investigate war crimes in Iraq. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories July 27, 2006 Richard
Harth July 26, 2006 Norman
Solomon Barbara
Olshanksy David
Nally Jonathan
Cook Patrick
Cockburn William
Blum Joshua
Frank Gabriel
Kolko Daniel
Cassidy Michael
Dickinson Robert
Fisk Uri
Avnery Website
of the Day
July 25, 2006 Harry
Browne Marjorie
Cohn Robert
Bryce Sharat
G. Lin George
Bisharat CounterPunch
News Desk Zena
El-Khalil Larry
Lack Mike
Mejia Ashraf
Isma'il Website
of the Day
July 24, 2006 Mark
Levy Robert
Fisk Maher
Osseiran Paul
Craig Roberts Patrick
Cockburn Website
of the Day
July 22-23, 2006 Jonathan
Cook Paul
Craig Roberts Gilad
Atzmon Robert
Fisk Ralph
Nader Fred
Gardner Christopher
Reed Dr.
Susan Block Najla
Said Uri
Avnery July 21, 2006 George
Galloway P.
Sainath Aseem
Shrivastava Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day July 20, 2006 William
S. Lind Robert
Jensen John
Ross Tom
Hayden Paul
Craig Roberts July 19, 2006 Patrick
Cockburn Trish
Schuh Jonathan
Cook Vicente
Navarro July 17 / 18 2006 Mike
Whitney Kathleen Christison Atrocities in the Promised Land
July 14 / 15,
2006 Alexander Cockburn Tanya Reinhart Robert Fisk Daniel Cassidy Winslow Wheeler Hugh O'Shaughnessy M. Shahid Alam William S. Lind Ramzy Baroud Gilad Atzmon Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Samar Assad Ron Jacobs Lee Ballinger Walter Brasch Dave Lindorff Clifton Ross Tom Crumpacker Ricardo Alarcon William Hughes Susie Day Farrah Hassen Poets' Basement
July 13, 2006 Rev. William
Alberts Ramzi Kysia Rep. John P. Murtha Radford / Santos Stan Cox Saul Landau José
Pertierra Website of
the Day
July 12, 2006 John Ross John Stauber Robert Boston Wayne S. Smith John Graham Kevin Prosen Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
July 11, 2006 Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin Mokhiber / Weissman Amira Hass Clare Hanrahan Brian Cloughey Felice Pace Raed Jarrar Website of the Day
July 10, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Roger Burbach Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn
Stephen Green Paul Craig
Roberts Greg Moses Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Conn Hallinan John Chuckman Fred Gardner Dr. Tod Mikuriya Pierre Tristam Lucinda Marshall David Swanson Heather Gray Dave Zirin
/ John Cox Mark Engler Michael Lettieri Ron Jacobs Jamal Juma' Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
July 7, 2006 John Ross July 6, 2006 Nick Dearden John Stanton Ralph Nader Laray Polk Saul Landau Joshua Frank William S. Lind Adelman / Lindorff Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
Mike Whitney Saul Landau Ramzy Baroud Missy Comley Beattie Arthur Neslen Vincent Maruffi Paul Cantor Paul D. Johnson David Price
Col. Dan Smith Chris Floyd Marjorie Cohn James Brooks Medea Benjamin Matt Reichel Elisa Salasin Rick Wilhelm Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
July 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Dr. Bouthaina Shaban Julia Olmstead Dave Lindorff Andres Gomez Alan Singer Alexander Cockburn
Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen T.
Banko Daniel Cassidy Fawzia Afzal-Khan Jeff Taylor John Ross Greg Moses Laura Carlsen Justin E.H.
Smith Brian Cloughley Anthony Papa Mike Ferner Jerry Tucker Jane Goodall / Rick Asselta Phyllis Pollack Poets' Basement
June 30, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Heather Williams Burbach / Cantor Nick Dearden Michael J.
Smith Brian Concannon Virginia Tilley
Bill Quigley Ron Jacobs Paul Craig
Roberts June 28, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff William S.
Lind Mike Ferner Zoltan Grossman
Marjorie Cohn Benjamin /
Jarrar William Hughes Doug Giebel Uri Avnery Alexander Cockburn
June 26, 2006 Don Santina Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Rafael Rodriguez-Cruz Evelyn Pringle Jonathan Cook
June 23, 2006 Youmans / Erakat Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Col. Dan Smith
June 22, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Winslow T.
Wheeler Tanya Reinhart Mike Marqusee William Blum
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July 28, 2006 Half-Hour HurricanesWhere were the Warnings About St. Louis's Ultra Storm?By DON FITZ As clips of hurricane-strength winds uprooting trees across St. Louis in late July made national news, many commentators spoke of the awesome power of nature. But this storm was not an act of god. It was an act of Exxon-Mobile and its friends. And they are not gods, even if they are treated as such by the White House.
At 6:30 pm the evening of July 19, I get to the Green Party office. As I suspect, no one has turned on the air conditioner and the thermostat is at it maximum reading of 95 degrees. I plug it in and head outside to eat in the shade. By 7 pm, it's cooled to 89 degrees and people have arrived to discuss our strategy on lead poisoning. About 30 minutes later, Jasmine looks out the window, asking, "Have you seen that? I think we need to go to the basement." Peering out, I see that blue skies with fluffy white clouds have turned to dark grey in a matter of minutes. Trash is blowing in a weird way not in a whirlwind but in a big circle, maybe 30 or 40 feet in diameter. Rick's daughter, Bethany, is scared and wants to go to the basement too. "Okay, here's my flashlight for everyone who wants to go downstairs." I hand it to them, glad that enough are staying to complete the letter to Lead Safe St. Louis. Ziah comes in, apologizing for being late. "Sorry, but I had to drive around branches that were all over the street. Just a few blocks from here, a tree fell right behind my car. It would have hit me if I had come a few seconds later." As we talk about potential allies against lead poisoning, the air conditioner and one light go out. A few minutes later the last light goes out and there is a general exodus. I gather up the Greens' newsletter, the Compost-Dispatch, that we were going to mail and head to the first floor. Jasmine, digger and I sit in the doorway folding and stapling newsletters. Tinker, an eight year old from the neighborhood, comes in and shows us her skill at putting on stamps. Cops go by asking if anyone has been hurt while city chain saw crews remove trees from Cherokee street. The storm didn't seem real until it was over, maybe 30 minutes later. Needing to know if my organic garden needs water, I carefully watch the weather reports. But I couldn't remember any storm warnings. At home with no electricity, I look through the paper for the forecast for that day: "Humidity will be very high and the excessive heat warning remains in effect." Nothing about the possibility of a storm, not even a mention of rain or wind in the forecast. Talking to Roger Hill, a meteorological consultant for Weathering Heights in Worcester, Vermont, I said that, during my 30 plus years in St. Louis, I had never seen such extreme weather with no warning at all. He jumped in, "If you are wondering if it's part of global warming, the answer is yes." He explained that storms are a balancing of energy between the rising of low-lying, humid warm air and the sinking of colder air. Extra warmth makes the balancing more extreme. The ongoing warming of the earth causes stronger upward and downward motions of air masses, which results in more violent wind and rain. Hill, who does weather forecasting for five radio stations, expects that global warming will result in more erratic fluctuations between the extremes of drought and excessive storms. Even though my house was left without power by Wednesday's storm, nothing was damaged. That changed as the second storm swept through Friday morning. As I was paying bills on the front porch, the sky again changed from blue to grey and rains started with little warning. I grabbed my checkbook as the increasing wind tried to pull it away from me. Shutting my windows, I saw that two enormous branches had fallen from the maple tree into the garden. In a few seconds, months of planting, weeding and tending was gone. Beans had been growing on one of the three fences that were torn down. Heirloom tomatoes, peppers, chard and carrots were under branches. My five types of basil well, I won't be giving too much pesto to friends this year. My woes were small compared to those who had roofs torn off, suffered from heat exhaustion, or were electrocuted from dangling wires. The original estimate of 490,000 customers losing electricity on Wednesday had been increased to 570,000 by Thursday. That day, the electric company received over 40,000 calls per hour. After Friday's storm, the electric company estimated that 1.1 million customers lost power at some point during the three days. On Wednesday, 55% of St. Louis was without power. By Friday, over 75% of the nearby communities of Florissant and Granite City had lost power. In Jennings, it was over 90%.
Everyone agreed that it was the most damaging storm system ever to hit St. Louis. And there was zero warning 12 hours before the first blast arrived. The second most destructive storm in St. Louis history saw 217,000 people without power. That was in August, 2005. Though the two worst storms in St. Louis history happened within the last 11 months, the phrase "global warming" did not appear in corporate media. I did not hear it on the radio or see it in dozens of newspaper stories or TV broadcasts. The single explanation of the storm was that it was a "gust front" resulting from a combination of hot, moist air from south of St. Louis and cool air pooled in north central Illinois. No media analysis probed why it was so intense, unpredicted, and the second in two years. Media stories were limited to human suffering and relief efforts. What permeated every media story was the incredible number of downed trees. Everywhere you looked, trees limbs were all over the streets and on cars and houses. Devin Ceartas is a long time activist with the Heartwood Alliance who has an amazingly broad scientific understanding. He confirmed my suspicion that the tendency for cities to have higher temperatures than surrounding areas is that they have fewer trees and more concrete, asphalt and brick that absorb heat. But he added something important about forests. Ceartas pointed out that when strong winds hit a forest, the edge is damaged far more than the center. Trees act as a break on strong wind. Like a forest, a city could have stronger protection from high winds if it had dense growth of trees. This suggests that global warming feeds upon itself in cities. Cities not only suffer the increased heat that the rest of the world does, but, accumulate heat because of their high concrete to tree ratio. As storms down urban trees, the concrete to tree ratio rises even more, making the city hotter. With fewer shade from trees, there is more reliance on air conditioning, which spews hot air outside as the interior of the building is cooled. The greater heat contributes to more storms that fell more tree, increase the temperature, and so on. This can be very personal. Our maple tree whose branches fell on the garden still towers above our house and above electrical wires. To protect our home and our electricity, we have a good reason to have the tree cut down. Though one maple tree would have little effect on heat and wind in St. Louis, a million people making the choice to cut down one tree each could well impact the urban climate. While one type of protection from storm damage would be to create as dense tree coverage as possible, a couple of factors weigh against it. Hurricane-force winds such as St. Louis received create a powerful incentive to cut down trees anywhere near a power line. Second, one of the casualties of the St. Louis storm was the large number of 50 to 100 year old trees that came down. Politicians who are anxious to boast that "Everything's back to the way it was!" seem incapable of comprehending that it takes 50 to 100 years to replace a 50 to 100 year old tree. During the week following the storm, several themes were noticeable by their absence in the St. Louis press. Of course, the phrase "global warming" has been more studiously avoided than during discussions following Katrina. Similarly, there has been an exclusive focus on the danger of trees with no mention of their value in diminishing the effects of storms. An interesting change occurred in the reporting of water main breaks. An early listing of storm damages described how bursts and cracks in water supply pipes had been caused by electrical fluctuations after power returned to pumping stations. This explanation was curiously absent from reports of a massive water main break following the second storm. On Friday evening, water flooded the basement of the St. Louis Science Center and forced the closure of Interstate 64. Coverage of motorboats being used to survey the damage reported it as an unrelated story and made no effort to explore whether it could be related to the storms.
Let's go over some of the storm-related events in St. Louis, but not as something in the past which is over and done with. Instead, visualize them in the present, as what is likely to happen in cities during the more intense and more frequent events caused by global warming that could be called "ultra-storms."
Something very important for St. Louis is left out of the above list because it may not happen in future ultra-storms. Though over 100,000 people are still without power a week after the first hit, the repair that has occurred is due to electrical company employees from at least nine states coming to St. Louis. As ultra-storms become more common, it is very likely that there won't be nine states able to send in repair crews because they will be doing repairs for their own ultra-storm. At precisely the time that we need to be talking about fundamentally new economic courses to stop global warming, the media is downplaying the source of the problem and politicians are offering frivolous lifestyle changes like fluorescent light bulbs and hybrid cars. We need to be discussing and adopting dramatic new modes of home design with 90% reduction in heating and cooling needs, a massive decrease in automobile existence, and, most important, a reduction in wastful energy consumption by basic industry. (i.e., Do there really need to be huge insurance company buildings?) Nowhere is this more apparent than the War for Oil. The US squanders massive energy in military production and transportation of troops across the globe to steal oil from Iraq so that massive amounts of fossil fuels can be fed to US cars. Meanwhile, New Orleans is flattened by a hurricane intensified by the heating of the Gulf of Mexico caused largely by burning fossil fuels and the National Guard can't help because its off stealing oil to feed cars that will increase global warming. The negative feedback loops are never ending. Agreeing that the international plundering of oil should be the top priority of the US, the main thing the Republicans and Democrats argue about is whether it should be done unilaterally by brute force or done diplomatically by sharing the booty with more allies. The St. Louis ultra-storm is the latest proof that the corporate parties are unable to conceptualize, much less implement, actions that are needed to keep this planet alive. Don Fitz is editor of Synthesis/Regeneration:
A Magazine of Green Social Thought and producer of Green
Time TV in St. Louis. He can be reached at fitzdon@aol.com
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                    |
