To the editor:

…You are absolutely correct in stating that Katrina [WWF Oct. 05] was the most predictable tragedy ever to occur in American history. The other shoe – business and residential development along the San Andreas Fault – will likewise hit the deck (or the fan) one day also.

While I am concerned with global warming, the data from the scientific community do not support the notion that it was more than a tiny contributor to the ferocity of Katrina, or for that matter, the severe storms to come in the current cycle of severe meteorological events that are part of a 40-year recurring pattern of such massive tropical depressions…

By all means, let us mitigate greenhouse gases and noxious emissions for health reasons and reduce our dependence on petroleum-based fuels while there is still some of it left. But let us not use the bungling of local officials in Louisiana that turned a severe natural event into a catastrophe as an excuse for involving the national government in panic measures that may prove counter-productive in the long run…

Bob Jorgensen
Brunswick