Climate change and disaster in Montana

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Op-Ed
Climate change and disaster in Montana
The flooding of the Yellowstone River and the oil spill in the riverbed are connected, and the burning of fossil fuels is the key.

By Naomi Klein

July 7, 2011

"We're a disaster area," Alexis Bonogofsky told me, "and it's going to take a long time to get over it."

Bonogofsky and her partner, Mike Scott, are all over the news this week, telling the world about how Montana's Exxon Mobil pipeline spill has fouled their goat ranch and is threatening the health of their animals.

But my conversation with Bonogofsky was four full days before the pipeline began pouring oil into the Yellowstone River. And no, it's not that she's psychic; she was talking about this year's historic flooding.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "It's like nothing I've experienced in my lifetime. It destroyed houses; people died; crops didn't get in the fields…. We barely were able to get our hay crop in."

~snip~

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/comm...1774.story