Re: U. S. Carbon Sink:
"Despite the fact that land sinks help remove carbon from the atmosphere, the U.S. continues to emit more carbon than it removes. In 1990, for example, the country released 1.337 billion tons from fossil fuel emissions, making it a net source of between two-thirds and 1 billion tons of carbon per year.

"However, America's forests won't soak up the greenhouse gases forever. The sink will begin to diminish and eventually disappear as the forests reach maturity. Even if the country could slow fossil fuel consumption and maintain current levels of carbon dioxide emissions, says Pacala, the U.S. net contribution to atmospheric accumulation would continue to rise as the benefit of the sink goes away."

http://www.unh.edu/news/news_releases/2001/june/sk_20010621carbon.html

I live on the tx gulf coast and when katrina entered the gulf coast all area school buses were fuled up and ready to evacuate if need be and we werent even in area it was headed but we were ready so wassup with louisanna

i totaly agree with u even though i dont live there i makes me devisated.

I ONLY HAVE 2 THINGS TO SAY TO YOU JASON,
1) (THESE PEOPLE)- AS YOU STATED IN YOUR PARAGRAPH WERE ALL HUMAN BEINGS AND DESERVE NO LESS THAN YOU WOULD.

2) YOU PUT OUT YOUR RACISM FOR THE WORLD TO SEE BY PUTTING A NAME ON THE VICTIMS: A- FEW- THOUSAND- POOR- PEOPLE! I GUESS THAT MEANS DIDDLY SQUAT TO YOU, IF IT WAS A FEW THOUSAND POOR WHITE PEOPLE, YOU WOULD HAVE WORDED IT DIFFERENTLY, NOW WOULDN'T YOU? I DO AGREE THERE WAS MAJOR FAILURE ON THE PART OF LOUISIANAS GOVERMENT. BUT YOU MY FRIEND ARE NOT AT ALL THE RIGHT PERSON TO BE WRITING ABOUT IT. BECAUSE YOU COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE SOULS THAT DIED AND THE FAMILIES LEFT SUFFERING BEHIND THIER DEATHS. I WILL NOT READ YOUR BLOG AGAIN, BUT I WIL LET PEOPLE THAT I KNOW LIVING IN NEW ORLEANS, ABOUT THIS MOST TENATIOUS PEICE YOU WROTE ABOUT THEM, AND HOW YOU USED SUCH HEARTLESS WORDS TO DESCRIBE THEM AND THIER PAIN...............

Earth Child,

Thank you for taking the time to comment on a post on my blog. I'm curious however, did you read the post? It doesn't appear that you did.

Here's the link to the post you commented on so perhaps you can actually read what you tried to criticize.

http://www.jasoncoleman.com/BlogArchives/2005/09/hurricane_katri.html

Now I'll respond to your comment.

I ONLY HAVE 2 THINGS TO SAY TO YOU JASON,
1) (THESE PEOPLE)- AS YOU STATED IN YOUR PARAGRAPH WERE ALL HUMAN BEINGS AND DESERVE NO LESS THAN YOU WOULD.

Firstly, the "these people" mentioned in the post was NOT, I repeat NOT, referring to those who perished in New Orleans, or elsewhere as a result of Hurricane Katrina. If you take the time to actually read the post, the phrase "these people" refer to those who seek only to paint this event with a racist brush.

Here is the first instance of the use of "these people"

"Others try to blame Bush by saying he's racist, wants black people to die and somehow delayed efforts to get the poor out of New Orleans. It doesn't matter to these people that it was actually President Bush that prompted the evacuation[1] after local officials refused to do so"

As you can see, the reference to "these people" does not refer to Katrina victims. The phrase "these people" refer to those who would blame Bush first by saying that he is racist. They are the pundits and politicos and partisans who from before the storm even struck decided to view Katrina through a racial lens. The phrase "these people" in this case does not in any way shape or form refer to those who were abandoned by Mayor Nagin in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

I also use the phrase "those people"

"Delaying the evacuation isn't all of it though. Mayor Nagin also miserably failed to implement the Hurricane Evacuation Plan for the city of New Orleans. He failed to evacuate those people that collected at city shelters via the buses he had at his disposal (ironically, within 24 hours of the levee breach,"

In this case, I'm referring to those people who collected at city shelters. I'm not referring to black people. I'm not referring to white people, I'm referring to people who went to the designated shelters as the Hurricane Evacuation plan instructed them to and who expected at this point to be transported out of the city. There was an exercise the previous year in New Orleans, called "Hurricane Pam" in which the citizens of New Orleans were instructed and practiced travelling to designated shelters for evacuation. In the run up to Katrina, people did as they were expected and collected at these shelters awaiting busses to transport them out of the city. Nagin failed to implement the plan and the busses never showed. Leaving "those people that collected at city shelters". I should tell you that black citizens of New Orleans were NOT, I repeat NOT the only ones to gather at such shelters, and for the record, it doesn't matter one whit to me whether those people who were abandoned by Mayor Nagin were black, white, hispanic, Korean, Indian, Somali, Vietnamese or other. "Those people" were the ones who followed the city evacuation plan, which they had previously practiced in the Pam exercise.

In both cases, I do not denigrate the positions of "these people" or "those people" by using the phrases as an indication of race as you assert. In the first case "these people" are NOT the victims of Katrina, and in the second case, "those people" refers to those who were abandoned by the Mayor of the city who failed to enact the Hurricane Evacuation Plan of the City of New Orleans.

Your assertions are off base, incorrect and show that you failed to read or even attempt to comprehend the written word.

Moving on. . .

2) YOU PUT OUT YOUR RACISM FOR THE WORLD TO SEE BY PUTTING A NAME ON THE VICTIMS: A- FEW- THOUSAND- POOR- PEOPLE! I GUESS THAT MEANS DIDDLY SQUAT TO YOU, IF IT WAS A FEW THOUSAND POOR WHITE PEOPLE, YOU WOULD HAVE WORDED IT DIFFERENTLY, NOW WOULDN'T YOU? I DO AGREE THERE WAS MAJOR FAILURE ON THE PART OF LOUISIANAS GOVERMENT. BUT YOU MY FRIEND ARE NOT AT ALL THE RIGHT PERSON TO BE WRITING ABOUT IT. BECAUSE YOU COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE SOULS THAT DIED AND THE FAMILIES LEFT SUFFERING BEHIND THIER DEATHS. I WILL NOT READ YOUR BLOG AGAIN, BUT I WIL LET PEOPLE THAT I KNOW LIVING IN NEW ORLEANS, ABOUT THIS MOST TENATIOUS PEICE YOU WROTE ABOUT THEM, AND HOW YOU USED SUCH HEARTLESS WORDS TO DESCRIBE THEM AND THIER PAIN...............

Again, you've completely misrepresented the words you seek to criticize.

"Go ahead Lefties, blame Bush, harp over and over how it's all Bushitler's fault that he created the hurricane, then broke the levees, then plotted to get rid of a few thousand poor people. Keep ranting your pink heads off, keep being chicken little and looking for your equivalent of the blue dress, we don't buy your "false but accurate" thinking anymore."

Notice here that I am not using the phrase "a few thousand poor people" to describe the victims of Katrina, I'm referring to the partisan leftists who characterized those who were stranded in New Orleans that way. At the time this post was written, numerous figures were characterizing those left behind in New Orleans as "too poor to leave", "too poor to understand what was happening" or "thousands of poor people". Those who sought to criticize the federal administration and hold the Mayor and Governor of New Orleans and Louisiana respectively harmless for their failures to administer their end of the evacuation plan.

Those words were bandied about throughout the storm and the aftermath, not by me, but by others. READ THE PARAGRAPH Earth Girl, because if you do, you'll see that the words "a few thousand poor people" is a statement I fervently DISAGREE with, it's not a phrasing I'm using to describe what happened, it's phrasing I'm disagree with. The Katrina conspiracy crowd tries to characterize this as an assault on "a few thousand poor people", I'm disagreeing with that assessment.

Your attempts to paint me as a racist are simply incorrect. Throughout this post you commented on with out actually reading or comprehending I'm on the side of those who were abandoned in the aftermath of Katrina by their local and state government who had the legal responsibility to evacuate them. You chose to make this racist charge against me because you didn't read or comprehend the words. You see the phrase "these people" and you assume it's a racial statement, when in reality it only refers to the group mentioned in the previous sentence.

I'll also point out to you that it WAS white citizens of New Orleans who were disproportionately affected by Katrina. A greater per capita percentage of white New Orleaneans died as a result of Katrina and the aftermath than did black New Orleaneans. Yes, Earth Girl, go look at the list of those who died and their race. You'll see that there was a vast disproportion of white citizens killed in this event than black citizens given the demographic makeup of New Orleans.

As for me not being the one to write about it. I really thank you for your suggestion that I should not have the right to speak about an event that greatly affected me and my family. Perhaps you didn't realize that I'm from New Orleans, that much of my family still lives there, and that they too lost their homes, their possessions and many were abandoned in shelters waiting for the evacuation the city told them would be forthcoming, but which never came. Perhaps you've missed the other posts I made on the day the city was reopened to civilians (I was there that morning, among the first to re-enter the city. But of course, since you chose to mis-read and fail to comprehend and only choose to see words in racial context, you now want to claim that I can't write about my experiences and my thoughts on the event. Thank you for being so stand up in your desire to seek censorship and paint others with a racist brush.

The only racist behavior here is your characterizations of me and mis-characterizations of what I've written. Next time, take the time to read before you comment.

You've chosen the wrong target. These people left abandoned in shelters were members of my family, like my 79 year old grandmother who sat for 4 days staring at a wall with no food and little water, waiting for the evacuation that local officials promised and did not deliver. Those people include other relatives of mine who spent weeks and months at my home and other family members homes while they came to grips that their homes were destroyed, their lives irrevocably changed, their pets dead, their friends dead and their future uncertain.

Next time you decide to go fight racial wars, be sure your target is appropriate, in this case, it was not.

Unlike you, however, I welcome your opinion even if I disagree with it, I would never propose that you don't have the right to speak out, I'm just going to call you on it when you're patently incorrect.

--Jason

UPDATE: Unfortunately "Earth Girl" left a false email address, so I had to post this response here. I always find it funny when people leave a false email address but try to make it appear real as "Earth Girl" did. When "these people" do this, it speaks volumes on their motives.