Politicize Hurricane Harvey
There's no avoiding politics when talking about Hurricane Harvey and its tragic aftermath.
Texas National Guard soldiers conduct rescue operations in flooded areas around Houston, Texas 27 August, 2017.Lt. Zachary West / Flickr
Hurricane Harvey has devastated southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, with floodwaters still dominating the landscape, thousands of residents stranded, and a future of disaster capitalism seeking to rebuild the city according to the logic of capital. Houston was left to drown, and the region is now vulnerable to a number of environmental disasters, with petrochemical and Superfund sites contaminating the area, posing unknown health effects to the population.
Jacobin’s Daniel Denvir sat down with Emily Atkin, a staff writer at the New Republic, to discuss why Hurricane Harvey is already political thanks to climate change and the potential for petrochemical disaster in Houston. This interview was conducted for The Dig, a podcast on Jacobin Radio.
Daniel Denvir
The disaster in Houston is an environmental crisis because global warming makes these storms more frequent and more intense. What specifically can we say about the role played by global warming and the resulting warmer seas and higher sea levels in the case of Harvey?
Emily Atkin
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