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.