Let me quickly discuss the looting. It's sad, but predictable that the looting would happen. It's a mentality that has been fueled by desperation, group psychology, and the already terrible situation of many of New Orleans's poor. Those who have read Lord of the Flies or Shirley Jackson's story The Lottery can find parallels in the group psychology. Only today are we starting to see front page coverage focusing on the racial and economical imbalance of the dead and victims. There were hints for days along the lines of "many of these people did not have the means to leave." There was little that I saw or read that explained that line. Perhaps I missed things, and if I did, please feel free to let me know. More importantly, you will find several pictures where whites are "finding" food floating in the water, while blacks are "looting" that food. Take from that what you will.

On the other hand, I have been searching in vain for a public discussion of the natural contributors to the disaster: the loss of the wetlands protection (mentioned a few times) and globabl warming (stuck on the editorial pages). Several editorials have pointed out that the strength of hurricanes has increased and will continue to increase with global warming, which the administration has ignored. But putting that point in an editorial means that only those who are sympathetic with the paper's point of view (often a liberal one in this case). The same goes for how the disappearance of the wetlands buffer strengthened the force of the hurricane that hit New Orleans. The only news story I've seen focusing on these things was a report on the German environmental minister's comments in the back pages of the Washington Post. It should be a primary concern of the media to enlighten the public on just how this hurricane was so strong. Instead, they decide that they'll ignore any possible political ties and report the other stories. These deserve just as much coverage, but I hope to see better coverage of the envrionmental factors, so that Americans can actually learn something from this tragedy.