As the clean up continues along America's Gulf coast from Hurricane Katrina and Rita,

Since the first Hurricane struck, America has woken up to some pretty unpalatable truths. The first is the incompetence of the Republican administration that is great at looking after its own elite, but not the poor in its back-yard. The agonising delay in the administration’s response shocked the watching world. Tens of millions of Americans believe the response was far too little, far too late. They believe that their president Bush failed them in their darkest hour.

Millions of African Americans also believe that if the disaster had struck the affluent suburbs of New York rather than New Orleans, help would not have taken so long to come. The sick would not have been left to die in their beds. Public opinion polls taken since Katrina show that two-thirds of African Americans believe that the government's response would have been faster if those trapped in New Orleans were white.

In a belated move to address his falling popularity ratings, President Bush made a TV appearance in New Orleans. He tried to address some of the underlying issues exposed by the disaster, such as the gulf between rich and poor and the prejudice between black and white. What has shocked so many is that millions of African Americans live below the poverty line. You earn less money if you are black compared to if you are white: The average African-American income was 65 percent of white income in 2000, falling further in 2003.

To win back the public relations initiative, President Bush had to look like he cared about the poor. “Poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America,” he said. “We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action”.

This “bold action” is likely to cost $200 billion, with Katrina’s legacy altering the agenda of the remainder of the Bush presidency. Many of his key initiatives, such as eliminating the estate tax to the benefit of the Republican’s rich backers, now look politically impossible in light of the poverty exposed by Katrina.

There is no doubt that Katrina will have a deeply lasting cultural impact on the consciousness of the United States. But it will also leave an environmental disaster. It is well known that the flood waters created a “vast toxic soup” containing rotting bodies, industrial chemicals, and some 7 million gallons of crude oil. These waters have now been largely pumped back into the Gulf of Mexico, with unknown consequences for the wildlife. 

But Katrina’s legacy will impact other regions of the US, such as the northern state of Alaska. For over a generation there has been a battle to drill for oil in what is seen as America’s last wilderness, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, called ANWR. Ever since it was created in 1980, there has been a battle between those who want to drill for oil in ANWR and those who believe it should be protected at all cost. The area is home to the 150,000 Porcupine Caribou herd and over 180 bird species. It is home to the Gwich’in Indians who oppose oil drilling.

With the Republicans in power and controlling the Senate, oil drilling in ANWR was beginning to look more likely. Now after Katrina it looks inevitable. One of the longest proponents of drilling is the Republican Senator for Alaska, Ted Stevens: "ANWR (drilling) will have greater support than it would have had before Katrina," he says “I would say woe onto him or her who really opposes the actions that are going to be necessary to restore our energy pattern".

A pro-oil drilling website – http:www.anwr.org -  points out that the Gulf of Mexico, which supplies 28 per cent of America’s oil production is “in the line of fire” of future hurricanes. In Katrina’s wake “the frailty of America’s energy supply has become all too apparent” it argues. The one message to tell the government is “that diversifying one’s supply of oil is the best way to prevent price spikes and fuel shortages and other national energy worries”. That diversification is “now before Congress: open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration. ANWR has the potential to be America’s largest oil field and is in an area not susceptible to natural disasters”.

The irony of this is that the development of ANWR will be a natural and cultural disaster in itself. The even greater irony is that even the drilling of ANWR will make no significant difference to the amount of oil the US has to import. A recent US government report argued that opening ANWR, only “reduces oil import dependence by 4 percentage points in 2025.”

Last Tuesday in Washington, there was the Arctic Refuge Action Day in Washington, where scores of environmental groups came together to protest at the drilling of ANWR. It was the largest demonstration held in support of protecting the reserve. "The U.S. simply cannot drill its way to energy security" argues Dan Lashof, from the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups.

So the US can’t rely on AWNR for future energy security. After Katrina, it cannot rely on the Gulf of Mexico, either. This can only mean one thing. There will be “growing US reliance on oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Angola, Nigeria, Colombia, Venezuela and other conflict-torn producers in the developing world,” argues Michael T. Klare, author of the book, Blood and Oil. “This means that the United States will become even more deeply embroiled in foreign oil wars, with an attendant increase in terrorist violence”.

Therefore Katrina’s legacy will be felt deeply in the Middle East, with the world’s thirstiest oil nation ever more dependent on Saudi Arabia, with its vast reserves. This is likely to increase tension and violence in the region.  But there is a problem for the Americans – ever since 9/11, Saudi Arabia has been seen as a source of anxiety not a source of security.

 Katrina will accelerate a process that the United States started after 9/11 – looking to diversify its energy supply away from the Persian Gulf to other regions of the world. One of these will be the Gulf of Guinea in Africa. Since 9/11, there have been repeated calls from the influential think-tanks in Washington to declare the Gulf of Guinea an area of “Vital Interest” to the US”.

In July this year, an influential right-wing think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, recommended that the US should “make security and governance in the Gulf of Guinea an explicit priority in US foreign policy”.

When you read the word “security” you know that means protection by the military – so the US is advocating more American military intervention in the region. This will heighten tensions between locals who live in the oil producing areas and the oil companies. It will lead to more violent conflict. It will be a repetition of the Middle East, where violence will become the norm.

Just as America seeks to exploit Africa’s oil for its own ends, it also seeks to condemn its people to poverty. And in that sense, Katrina has not changed America’s contempt for the poor, no matter what you read. This was evident at the United Nations summit in New York last week. Before the meeting started, the American Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, demanded that the UN’s own Millennium Development goals – that are trying to end hunger, poverty and disease - be struck out from the text. Only after outrage from various countries, were they reinstated.

Still due to US influence, the Summit was a complete failure. Development groups gave the UN Summit marks of two out of ten on aid; four out of ten on debt; and zero out of ten on trade. According to the Guardian, “there is no prospect” that America “will pledge to spend 0.7% of its GDP on development aid, the target agreed by Europeans. That is a depressing step backwards”.

Katrina’s legacy will affect us all. It will be devastating for many Americans, but equally for people in the Middle East and Africa. In the hurricane’s wake, the US will be more interventionist and aggressive. Whilst Bush says he will address the root causes of poverty in America, we know he will not. We also know that because the US sabotaged the UN meeting last week, millions will die. That is not just Katrina’s legacy, but that of George. W. Bush. We should not let him forget it.