the connection between the film "Hurricane Katrina" and climate debt

      Hello, I am jielei mei in ENG101. In this assignment, I am responding for an assignment, which asks me to watch the film Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans Lower 9th Ward and discuss the connections between it and our course discussions. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss what happens in the film and how is connected to climate change and climate debt of our course discussions.

     From the film Hurricane Katrina, we can see how climate change affects the United State and what the United State owns Lower 9^th Ward. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans City of United State in Aug 29^th, 2005.Lower 9^th Ward is one of the communities of New Orleans, which is near the Mississippi River. Lower 9^th Ward suffered serious flooding during Hurricane Katrina because of the rising water. According to the film Hurricane Katrina, “the rising water turned the contents of the homes upside down” (TRyanNovac). The rising water destroyed the homes severe. There are a few ways to interpret this. New Orleans is near the Mississippi River. As the water level rising, it is easy to suffer flooding and the homes were destroyed seriously. On one hand, this is the problem of climate change. It is connected to our textbook the Global Warming Reader. Flooding is a phenomenon of climate change, which is mainly caused by global warming. In James Hansen’s article Global Warming Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near, he wrote that “global warming initiated sea-ice melt, exposing darker ocean that absorbs more sunlight, melting more ice” (277). As the oceans’ temperature becomes higher, more glaciers will melt into water gradually. As a result, the water level will rise. It leads to flooding. Therefore, climate change makes United State suffer the threat of flooding.

     The United State government didn’t do enough to control the global warming so that they suffered serious threat during Hurricane Katrina. On the other hand, the United State government owns the Lower 9^th Ward residents “climate debt”. As the economy of United State develops, the industrials produce more and more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. It makes the global warming increase rapidly and the process of climate change speeds up. However, the government didn’t carry out enough measurement to deal with it. It leads to climate change threaten the Lower 9^th Ward heavily. So it is the government owned the residents of Lower 9^th Ward “climate debt”. It is connected to the developed countries own the developing countries climate debt because the developed countries produce more greenhouse gas and lead to the climate crisis due to the development of economy.

    Therefore, what happens in the film is connected to the climate change and climate debt in our course discussions.

bibliography

Hurricane Katrina. TRyanNovac, 16 July, 2006. YouTube. Web. 8 December, 2012.

Hansen, James. "Global Warming Twenty Years Later." The Global Warming Reader. United State:Penguin Group, 2012.277.Print.

 

 

blog 6

        Hello, I am Jielei Mei in ENG101. In this blog, I am responding to an assignment which asks me to discuss whether or not there is connection between Zeitoun’s detention and the indefinite detention of the NDAA. However, I believe Zeitoun’s detention is related to the indefinite detention of the NDAA.

        The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 is a United States Federal law signed into the U.S. law by President Barack Obama. It was passed by the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. It was responsible for the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense specifically and other provisions. The detention sections of the NDAA begin by "affirm" that the authority of the President under the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terroriosts(AUMF), a joint resolution passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. It gives the president the power to hold any person (including U.S. citizen) who support al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that against the United States or its coalition partners in aid of such enemy forces. According to the article National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, “the Act was strongly opposed by the American Civil Libeties Union, Amnesty International, Human International, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, The Center for Constitutional Rights,The Cato Institute, Reason Magazine and The Council on American - Islamic Relations". The controversy was to prevent the abuse of Presidential authority and protect the U.S. citizens’ benefit. For instance, they opposed that they shouldn’t be held indefinitely. In my opinion, the indefinite detention is not an appropriate policy. It is easy to cause the abuse of presidential authorization.

     Personally, Zeitoun’s experience has strongly connection with the indefinite detention of NDAA. During Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun was arrested into the prison without knowing any reason and didn’t allow make phone call to connect with anybody. In the book Zeitoun, Eggers wrote that “only Todd had been told why they were being held – possession of stolen goods was the only charge mentioned and none had been allowed to make a phone call” (221). Zeitoun and three friends were arrested into prison but only one of his friend Todd knew the reason he was arrested. Three of them were held without any reason. As far as I am concerned, it is a phenomenon of indefinite detention. Because the reason of people being detained is uncertain, the U.S. government and under the president’s power can arrest any person in American soil without any legal reason. Obviously, it is caused by the detention indefinite of NDAA. Therefore, I think there is strongly relationship between Zeitoun’s experience and the detention indefinite.

post other's tweet in class

 Andrea tweeted that Zeitoun was missing kathy and thought that it was a bad idea to leave them and stay in the city.. Now it was too late(235-236) . I post it in my blog because i think it is interesting. It can cause many debeat about whether Zeitoun's thinking is late or not. In my opinion, Zeitoun's thinking is also too late. He has made Kathy worry about him so much. Even Kathy doubted whether Zeitoun was live or not. If he leaves the city with Kathy and his children, maybe he will not be in prison and Kathy don't need to worry about Zeitoun.

my experience on Hurricane Sandy

     In this blog, I will talk something about my experience on Hurricane Sandy.
     It's crazy that we are studying climate change and  reading about hurricane and Hurricane Sandy happen in New York City. After I experience Hurricane Sandy, I can know more about how does climate change affect New York City.
     Hurricane Sandy hit New York City at about 7p.m. in October 29th when I was reading Zeitoun. It reminds me that I should leave as Kathy asked Zeitoun leave during the storm. But finally I though hurricane at level 2 has little effect on New York City, so I didn't do any preparation for Hurricane Sandy. However, the result was so severe that we couldn't image. There was strong wind and rain outside. Suddenly, the electricity service was broke off. All of near houses were dark. We had to light candles to emblaze our house.  My house is near the sea so it's easy to be affected by flood. Until 9p.m., the water level rised to about 8 feet. The cars parked on the road were drowned.  When I woke up the next day, I saw the water has receded. But many dopant was piled up on the cars and the cars were moved by flood. Some cars were moved onto the middle of the road and some were moved and collided another cars. Scores of trees toppled down on the road. Many areas were lack of electicity and water. The subway system was shut down during the hurricane. It is still recovering. 39 people died during the storm. New York City suffered huge economic loss. I have never seen such severe result affected by hurricane in New York City. In other words, climate change has great effect on New York City and New York is not ready for climate change. It fits with my first assignment.
     If I were Mayor, I will shut down the subway system at first. Because the railway rail is easy to accumulate flood, the subway couldn't run on it. Then, I will demand people who were in flooding area to evacuate and settle them to a safety place and supply them with enough food and water. It is important that a Mayor should try to make sure residents' safety during the storm.

Blog4: the Lower Ninth Ward

   In this blog, I want to summarize my findings on the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans during Huricane katrina.
   The Lower Ninth Ward  is a poor area of New Orlean. It was hit by Hurrican Katrina in August 2005. Many people suffered serious threat during Hurricane Katrina. On the one hand, scores of people suffered hunger because of lacking of money. "There are convenience stores closer to home, but the prices are high; For a person on a fixed income, with no food stamps, it's hard" (McGill). Food is necessary for people's survival. But the prices of food were so high that many people couldn't afford it. It indicated that many people suffered hunger due to the high price of food.
   On the other hand, the Lower Ninth Ward suffered the threat of flooding. "The rising water turns the content of homes upsite down; as the water receded, homes and possessions were forever destoryed"(Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans Lower 9th Ward). Because the Lower Ninth Ward is under the sea level, it's easy to be covered by flood. During the Hurricane Katrina, the power of the rising water was so strong that the homes and possessions were damaged seriously.
    In addition, the Lower Ninth Ward still could not recover from the Hurricane Katrina after 6 years. "In New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward, the grasses grow taller than people, many buildings are shuttered"( Burdeau). Because of the serious threat of Hurricane Katrina, a great amount of people have evacuated the Lower 9th Ward and didn't go back. There were fewer people lived in Lower 9th Ward, so the grasses grew exuberant. Though many area of New Orleans is being rebuilt, Lower 9th ward isn't. "Some of the data shows that New orleans is rebuilding better than before, Plyer said, Lower 9th Ward is among a number of low-income communities that have had difficulty rebuilding since Katrina's flooding"(Burdeau). Because Lower 9th Ward was a poor area, it has no enough money to rebuild. So it has to wait for the support of government. But it was a low-income area and there was a narrow market for business in Lower 9th Ward because fewer people lived there after Hurricane Katrina hit there. So the government didn't pay attention to Lower 9th Ward.
    All in all, the Lower Ninth Ward suffered seriously threats but it hasn't recovered from the Hurricane Katrina because of lacking of money. Money plays an important role in the Lower Ninth Ward during and after the hurricane.

Bibiography:

McGill, Kevin. "New Orleans Nonprofits, Activists Try to Build Up City's Food Deserts." Coogle. N.p.,November 3, 2012.Web.November 3, 2012.

"Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans the Lower Ninth Ward." You Tube. TRyanNOVAC, June16, 2006. Web.November 3, 2012.

"Aftermath." Laguardia Library Media Resources Center.Web.November 3, 2012.













   

In-class Zeitoun blog

In DAVE EGGERS book, Zeitoun, he maintains that Kathy cares more about their family rather than their property during the storm. "Kathy wanted Zeitoun to forget their house and property and was determined to get him to leave the city" (EGGERS106). Because she knows Zeitoun doesn't want to leave their properity, Kathy askes Zeitoun to leave the city without considering their property. But he wants to protect their properity. He thinks their properity is everything.  Rather, Kathy thinks her husband's safety is more important than anything else. She wanted to make Zeitoun safe. So she asks Zeitoun leave the city. Apparently, Kathy cares more about their family's safety than anything else. What's more, when Zeitoun called Kathy, "she almost screamed and said now get out" (EGGER107). Obviously, Kathy is so worried about Zeitoun that she screams. She is afraid that something will happen to Zeitoun. So Kathy asked Zeitoun to leave the city again. From this, we can see how Kathy worried and cared about Zeitoun. However, Zeitoun determines to stay and protect their properity. Moreover, he wants to help people who were in trouble because of lacking money during the storm. Therefore, Kathy is concerned more about their safety than anything else during the storm.

personality of Zeitoun and Kathy

  Hi, I am jielei mei in ENG101. In this blog, I want to show what I have learned from Zeitoun and Kathy and  how their personality affect their decision as the storm approached.

      When Kathy knew the storm would come to their city, she told Zeitoun that they should leave but Zeitoun decided to stay and watch their house and let Kathy leave with their children (Zeitoun, p50-54). At first, Kathy didn't leave because she thought they couldn't leave their properties. But she decided to go after she heard the contraflow would affect the city. Rather, Zeitoun was busy in securing all his job sites.

      From the above, we know that Zeitoun and Kathy are hardworking, responsible and considerate. Firstly, their properities were the result of their effort. They worked hard every day. It was not easy to own these propotities.They respected and cared more about their properties. Therefore, though they knew the storm would come to their city, they considered the security of their properity at first. Secondly, their responsibility affected their decision as the storm approached. They are responsible for their clients. They though their equipments would do harm to clients' property if they didn't secure their job sites (Zeitoun, p50). Also, they are responsible for their family and their properity. Thirdly, their consideration has a great influence on their decision. On one hand, they considered the security of their clients property. On the other hand, they consider the security of their own properity and their children. As a result, Zeitoun went to secure all their job sites and let Kathy leave the city with their children as the storm approached.