While I was going through the readings for this week, climate reductionism and Vergès’s comment on the way the responsibility that systems of power have to planetary well-being is displaced onto natural forces came to mind. What Katrina perhaps casts most harshly into relief is the way these increasingly severe natural disasters are not the product of forces far removed from our understanding or beyond our control. Beyond the correlation between more extreme weather events and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, Katrina also teaches us the importance of relief efforts. While it is a noble effort to reduce emissions, as tragedies continue to strike, directing efforts towards aid after the fact is just as important. Something that also struck me was the emphasis on who is viewed as worthy of saving or being safe from climate crises, not just along racial lines but also citizenship. In both the Dimock piece and When the Levees Broke (Act III), there is the assumption that citizenship should afford a level of dignity and protection, with news outlets causing an uproar over calling the Katrina victims “refugees.” Given the way the United States government prioritized the Iraq war over keeping New Orleans safe demonstrates the way physical climates are intimately intertwined with the political climates. This is made more apparent by the way local input was not valued in plans to recover and the blatantly eugenicist and racist language used to describe Katrina. One thing that struck me about Woods’s account of the blues and Katrina is how Blues gave the victims a voice, a path forward. Given the history of sound and imperialism, the Blues could be considered a movement that is anti-colonial in its words but also by its sonic quality. It is not something that can be readily controlled and exploited in the same way voting can, for instance. In a climate of racism and neglect, the ability to persevere and sustain people through song is incredibly powerful. It asserts the right for one’s voice to fill the air. Music has a profound effect on people’s emotions, a feeling intangible yet so tangible at the same time. I think of Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” or “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell or “Eyes Wide Open” by Gotye. Music, like in any social justice movement, will always have a place in climate justice. It is interesting in our current climate to read how Woods almost appears surprised that something like Katrina, in all of its neglect and obvious bigotry could happen in a nation like America. I feel like many people all over the country do not have that same blind faith in America that we perhaps used to have.