Naomi Klein: Climate Change and Disaster in Montana

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 by NaomiKlein.org
Climate Change and Disaster in Montana

by Naomi Klein


"We're a disaster area," Alexis Bonogofsky told me, "and it's going to take a long time to get over it."

Bonogofsky and her partner, Mike Scott, were all over the news earlier this month, telling the world about how Montana's Exxon Mobil pipeline spill has fouled their goat ranch and is threatening the health of their animals.

But my conversation with Bonogofsky was four full days before the pipeline began pouring oil into the Yellowstone River. And no, it's not that she's psychic; she was talking about this year's historic flooding.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "It's like nothing I've experienced in my lifetime. It destroyed houses; people died; crops didn't get in the fields…. We barely were able to get our hay crop in." ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/27-4

[SpiralHawk]

1. The k and the r

Thanks for posting, marmar...would probably be appreciated in GD, too...

[xxqqqzme]

2. good article

Was just wondering yesterday why that spill had disappeared from the news.

[femrap]

3. I read everything Naomi

writes. Now their ranch is ruined w/ this spill?

How do you get away from these pipelines, coal mines, refineries, etc?

[Uncle Joe]

4. A Montana "chicken or the egg" riddle.

Government and company officials have also speculated that the flooding may even have caused the spill in the first place. Recent testing showed the pipeline was buried five to eight feet under the riverbed, but officials suspect that raging water may have exposed the pipe, leaving it vulnerable to fast-moving debris.

So the flooding may have caused the pipeline spill. But here is the really uncomfortable question: Did the pipeline cause the flooding? Not this one particular pipeline, of course, but all the pipelines, and all the coal trains, and all the refineries and the power plants they supply? Was the flooding that has made the oil spill so much worse caused by the burning of oil and other fossil fuels? Put bluntly, do these dual disasters have the same root?

This is an unanswerable question, since no one weather event can be traced to climate change. Still, in Montana, it's hard to deny that global warming is happening. The state is home to Glacier National Park, which had 150 large glaciers in 1850 and now has just 25, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.