Disasters always are framed in the media as wholly "natural." But

• if there had not been a massive petrochemical industry concentrated in Katrina's path,
• if the people who lived there all had all had equal access to transportation and decent housing,
• if the National Guard and other first responders had been up to full strength instead of being sapped by a criminal war,
• if grassroots communities were empowered and organized rather than atomized by television,
• if the media had not spread, and leaders had not bought into, racist lies about violence by the victims of the disaster,

those same powerful winds and rain would have brought a very different "natural" disaster. (If it even had to happen -- if Katrina isn't in part fueled by climate change...) In other words, in its most horrific human impacts, this was a preventable event. The Katrina disaster happened the way it did to who it did in large measure because we have organized our society in the way we have.

The environmental impact is probably the worst and certainly the most preventable impact of Katrina. The Gulf coast and the lower Mississippi are sites of hundreds of petrochemical plants that produce and/or use toxic material. (Benzene, a component of gasoline, is a carcinogen -- just one example, and not the worst. Louisiana's plants "normally" release a few pounds of deadly dioxin into the environment annually.) There is no way that these industrial sites have been or will be fully staffed and protected during the actual storm or during the ugly aftermath now underway -- especially since 54% of the major ones are already in violation of Louisiana's very lax regulations. (Learn more about Lousiana's environment, and grassroots efforts to respond, from the statewide Louisiana Environmental Action Network.)

Just as with 9/11 in Manhattan, just as when floods hit the hog factory farms of North Carolina a few years ago, any disaster or attack in the U.S. today creates a critical problem of toxic chemical and toxic byproduct release-- because in the U.S. we use toxic materials and toxic concentrations of otherwise safe substances daily as a matter of course. When our complex modern lives are disrupted, our already tenuous control of these materials is lost. The resulting toxic effects have longterm impacts in terms of cancer, reproductive damage, and behavioral and other impacts on children and adults . And our government and industry actively avoid tracking these effects, because they do not want to know about them and thus be responsible for them.

Even before Katrina, Louisiana ranked second in the nation in the release of toxic chemicals to surface water, according to the US EPA. About 25 percent of US petrochemical facilities are in the area that Katrina hit, and that means not just refineries and oil rigs but plants making polyvinylcholoride and using a devil's brew of organic compounds.

Human beings, especially those who lead industry and government, have created a highly dangerous situation. What has happened/ is happening with Katrina is in fact only an exaggerated version of what is now normal.

We cannot afford to have a society which environmental repair, community solidarity, and human safety -- and even the literal biological future of humanity -- are side issues, while making money is the main event.

Not sustainable means not sustainable. Sustainable is not a buzzword for "nice eco-thing we wish we could do."

G*d bless the volunteers and those who give to it, but the Red Cross can no longer be the main way we respond. First, we can't wait until after the disaster, and second, the worst problems are ones the Red Cross will never deal with, and isn't even able to recognize.

If you are serious about making a difference, you must be about prevention. Choose today to support and give energy to an organization that is committed to building a real structure for sustainable living, like Greenpeace, Women's Action for New Directions, the Climate Crisis Coalition , the Black Radical Congress, Sojourners, the Green Party, the social justice components of most mainstream and liberal religious denominations -- the list is long and any one of us can find a home.

Any one of us can help humanity keep our home.

Or we can each look forward to waiting in the stadium, while Air Force One does its flyover and then tips a wing in farewell, and the toxic waters rise silently around us.