Updated: Sep 10, 2005

Environmentalists Destroyed New Orleans By Charles Kubach

I have always said that the ill informed, malicious, self serving environmental movement in the USA has cost this country, its taxpayers and industry countless millions of dollars for the misguided legislation requiring hundreds of millions of dollars be spent performing pointless tasks, destroying entire industries, and causing hardships for millions of our citizens in their everyday lives, would one day go too far and the public would see it for what it is. Well, that day is here. The environmental movement is responsible for the destruction of the city of New Orleans, and the deaths of the thousands of its citizens that recently perished in the tragic hurricane Katrina. In 1965, the Army Corps of Engineers designed the so-called Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Barrier Project. It required a complete reworking of the levees and two massive storm gates that could close off the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass if a hurricane was approaching. It was passed by congress and signed into law by then President Lyndon Johnson. This massive flood prevention project by the Army Corps of Engineers, the foremost authority on watersheds, storm drainage and flooding in the United States, the President of the United States and the House of Representatives and US Senate were all overruled by a bunch of ignorant alarmist environmentalists, wanting to strike a blow for a few plant species and amphibious species, having blatant disregard for the most important species there, the Human Species. This project, if built by the Corps of Engineers, would have prevented the disaster that recently caused the destruction of the entire city of New Orleans. But instead of considering facts, scientific evidence, and the recommendations of the most credible source in this country, the Save Our Wetlands group and others, filed a massive lawsuit to block the construction of this project. They managed to keep the Corps of Engineers tied up in courts for about 10 years, until the Corps was forced to give up on its life saving plan to protect the people of the city of New Orleans. At the time the projected cost was $85,000,000. The estimated cost of the hurricane is currently placed in the range of $150,000,000,000. There have been thousands of lives lost, due to the breach of the dam around Lake Pontchartrain. "The project was stopped on Dec. 30, 1977, by U.S. District Judge Charles Schwartz Jr., who said the corps' environmental impact statement had failed to satisfy federal environmental laws. Schwartz ruled that the region "would be irreparably harmed" if the barrier project was allowed to continue. He chastised the Army for its inadequate environmental impact statement, which was based in part on a single biologist who never submitted a written report." 1 This is how the environmental movement functions, they provide reactionary babble to refute scientific facts, in this case, submitted by the most credible source in the country, the US Army Corps of Engineers. Their well financed, and heavily promoted legal battle against the efforts of the Corps of Engineers to protect the People of New Orleans finally succeeded to stop the project. In my opinion, this would make the environmental movement, and all those that contributed financially to this heinous effort, criminally libel for the needless destruction of the City of New Orleans and the needless death of thousands of its citizens that perished as a result of the horrendous flooding that occurred as a result of the breach of Lake Pontchartrain. Statistically, the storm was predictable, the only question was when would it strike the area. (A scientific fact) The Corps of Engineers had used the best, most reliable principles of hydrology, and civil engineering to arrive at their conclusion that the drainage structures including the lake and the canals, needed to be rebuilt to handle a large storm event. (scientific fact) The environmental movement used some half baked vodoo "scientific experts" and reactionary, inflammatory rhetoric to whip up a legal case to block the actions of the Corps of Engineers. Their commenting on the Corps of Engineers plan, would be like a deranged crack addict laying in the gutter rendering a "professional" opinion on Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. While the drug addict might have an opinion, I am certain that any rational person of average intelligence could see that it would be pretty much worthless. Unfortunately the US District Judge in this case was not that bright. Are we going to let the environmental movement continue to push their left winged, crackpot pseudo science down our throats until all humans are extinct? I hope not. It is time to reign in these lunatics and call them what they are, criminals, murderers and frauds, whose main interests are preserving their lofty salaries, organizations and fund raising machine. 1 Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, LA Times