They're tryin' to wash us away...Louisiana

The song quoted in the title, Louisiana 1927, by the great songwriter and musician Randy Newman, was originally written about the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 and was trotted out again after the engineering disaster that was Hurricane Katrina, seems to be more prophetic than ever.

New Orleans' daily newspaper, The Times-Picayune recently ran a three-day series that explains in painful detail the potentially dire consequences for South Louisiana if global warming, sea level rise and land subsidence are allowed to continue unabated. We go under. Water that is. A 3 foot rise in sea level means that most of Southern Louisiana goes under and if all the ice on the planet melts, sea levels rise 328 feet and most of the Southern United States goes under along with many other places around the world.

The series offers up some hope for our future as well. Read it here:
http://www.nola.com/coastal/

Don't think that the Times Picayune has the truth about one very possible future for our state locked up. The excellent blog badastronomy.com at (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/) reports that "scientists have just announced they have found strong evidence to support..." the link between global warming and stronger storms.

Read more here:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/12/19/linking-global-warming-and-severe-storms/

The only consolation for us is that the worst case scenario might not happen for another 100 years or more. Then again it might happen sooner. Let's hope we still have time to do something about this.

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The Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book is now available.

The Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book has just been released. It was produced to educate Louisiana legislators on environmental issues in our state that affect us all. Even if you are not in the Louisiana legislature, it is worth reading because it is chock full of timely information about environmental issues in our state that every concerned citizen needs to be aware of.

The Environmental Briefing Book was produced by:

• Sierra Club, Delta Chapter


• The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN)


• Coalition to Restore Costal Louisiana


• Alliance for Affordable Energy


• The Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN)


• Louisiana Bayoukeeper


• The Atchafalaya Basinkeeper


• The Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper


• The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation


• The Green Zone Task Force


• The Louisiana Audubon Council (LAC)


• MQVN Community Development Corporation (MQVNCDC)


• The Land Trust for Southeast Louisiana


• Say Yes to Clean Energy and No to Coal and Nuclear Coalition


• Mercy Corps

Read the Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book at the Louisiana Environmental
Briefing Book Website: http://labriefingbook.org/ or download the large PDF file (2.89 Mb). It's a huge file but well worth the download time, only a couple of seconds on a broadband connection.

New Orleans: Going Green in the Big Easy

Going green in New Orleans is featured in the latest issue of:

The Latest Environmental Buzz

which is one of the Sierra Club's online newsletters. Read the rest of the story here:
http://sierra.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=44141.0

Historic Green is one of the groups behind the post-K "greening" of New Orleans.

An update on what's happening in the Lower 9th Ward:

From March 8-23, the Sierra Club will be participating in the 2008 Historic Green event to rebuild a sustainable New Orleans. Hundreds of students and young professionals in the construction industry—architects, engineers, planners, landscape architects, interior designers, and contractors—will converge on the Crescent City to work hand-in-hand with residents of the Holy Cross Historic District, part of the Lower Ninth Ward that was among the city's hardest-hit areas during Hurricane Katrina.

More >>

Recycling guide book newly released for the New Orleans area

Get the new region wide recycling resource guide book (PDF 730 Kb - not small but worth it). This comprehensive Guide book lists 39 categories of items that can be recycled in the New Orleans metro region and where to bring them.

Flyer for next recycling dropoff event (PDF 340 Kb) on March 8th, 2008.