The "blame game " has already started. People are blaming the Bush administration for the scope of the disaster along the Gulf Coast. I heard one European government official say that the United States refusal to sign on to the Kyoto Treaty adds to the global warming crisis and therefore the increase in these killer hurricanes. The earth may be going through a cyclical warming pattern that is causing a change in weather, but to blame this on governmental policy, of any nation, goes down the wrong path.

Human technology and human habits are not that powerful to change the seasons and cycles of the natural weather patterns that are designed into the Earth's ecosphere. We need to back off from some of the rhetoric surrounding these issues and realize it is another subtle effort to exalt man above God. God has designed the forces of this earth and as we can see they are some amazingly powerful forces. A study of history shows that natural catastrophes are the norm. The periods of calm in between the storms are the exception not the norm.

Nature's forces know no political, ethnic, social, religious or racial bounds. To use the Biblical phrase, "it rains on the just and the unjust". Nature is not something to be worshipped as a substitute religion for the worship of the one true God.

There is also talk that the Bush administration diverted funds for building the river levees in the New Orleans area off to other projects, such as the war in Iraq. That will no doubt the subject of extensive investigations in the aftermath of this tragedy. This is not the first time New Orleans and south Louisiana have had water problems. For some history and context to the problems of broken levees and what holds the waters back in this city you can read  this excerpt of an interview with John Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America.

It will help you get an understanding of the powerful forces at work on our planet.