Hurricane Helene: Catastrophic storm created by capitalists’ priorities
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With a death toll over 230 and rising, Hurricane Helene is the worst regional catastrophe to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, killing nearly 1,400 people and displacing tens of thousands more in 2005. After making landfall as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 26, th

Scientists and politicians will call Hurricane Helene a “natural disaster,” but in many aspects it was human-made, fueled by deregulations of environmental protections, expansion of fossil fuels and coal extraction and reductions in funding for climate change concerns on state and federal levels. Climate-related projects under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act won’t take place until 2025.

Scientists point to extreme rain falls impacting communities across the U.S. in recent years. Warmer ocean temperatures, along with moisture from rain-saturated soil, created the 20 trillion gallons of rainfall that this hurricane dropped in its path.

Experts are already finding evidence that climate change fueled Hurricane Helene’s destruction that included 30 to 35 inches of rain, falling in less than three days across steep mountainous terrain. The sudden rainfall caused rivers, creeks and streams to spill over their banks and carved new watery paths that wiped out roads, bridges, homes and businesses.

North Carolina was once a national leader in renewable energy and climate change resiliency policies. But beginning in the early 2010s, pro-big business lawmakers and corporate interests in North Carolina fought climate control measures and sabotaged projects designed to cut heat-trapping emissions and help communities withstand hurricane-force winds and widespread flooding.

In 2010, the legislature slashed the operating budget for the state’s Department of Environmental Quality responsible for protection standards. In 2012, Pat McCrory, a former executive at Duke Energy, North Carolina’s largest public utility, was elected governor.

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In contrast to [neo]imperialism’s abandoning the environment, [the People’s Republic of] China has established long-term plans to reduce carbon emissions by funding the production of electric vehicles and low-energy rapid transit and designing green cities to absorb carbon pollution. And [the Republic of] Cuba’s planned economy allows the island nation to maximize plans to deal with the ramifications of major hurricanes, with evacuation plans that minimize death tolls.

In the U.S., where capitalists’ profits are always prioritized over people’s needs, potential victims of major storm damage are left on their own to cope.