Katrina aftermath published by DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe, whose high resolution images are a foundation for Google Earth, have published a series of hi-res satellite images showing before and after Hurricane Katrina hit the southern USA.

The New Orleans before and after images are especially shocking, and the BBC in their extended coverage of Hurricane Katrina have also created a series of minimised images of before and after of specific locations.

The images of New Orleans under water are sobering. But what is all the more sobering is that Global Warming researchers have long warned that rising sea levels and localised storms are going to bring far more flooding to large urban areas across the world. And this includes increased severity of hurricanes.

The point isn’t to point the finger of Global Warming at Katrina - as much as indicate that while our eyes are focussed on the catastrophe that was New Orleans, we should be very very aware that we could be looking at a future scenario for our own cities in our own countries - regardless of where we are.

Global Warming has become a nasty propaganda issue in the USA, where the power of money ensures that science is exonerated against Creationism, but denigrated in the face of funding by oil dollars on public opinion.

The lack of planning in response to the flooding in Lousiana should not be a warning just to America, but to the world’s governments.

If there is any truth whatsoever in Global Warming - and it would be sheer folly to believe otherwise - then New Orleans is a promise of the future.

I hope other government are taking notes on the humanitarian response. One day many are almost guarranteed to need to have learned the important lessons of today’s tragedies, for dealing better with tomorrow’s.