Free Trees!

Entergy Corp. has joined with the Arbor Day Foundation to provide free trees to residential customers in Louisiana, aiming to conserve energy through "strategic tree planting," to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Customers are required to care for the trees and plant them in spots expected to reduce their energy consumption. Customers can determine the most strategic planting locations using a tool that allows them to map a house, select a tree with energy saving potential, view the best energy saving locations to plant and recieve an estimate of the expected annual savings.

To Sign up, go to: www.Entergy.com/arborday

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.

The Rise and Disappearance of Southeast Louisiana

If you ever wanted to learn more about the geography and geology of Southeast Louisiana, The New Orleans Times-Picayune has created a beautifully clear and easy to understand interactive presentation to help you.

The link below takes you to the excellent primer on how Southeast Louisiana was created by the Mississippi River and also why and how it is eroding away.

This was created by TP Staff Artist Dan Swenson and is a supplement on nola.com to a printed version that the TP ran recently.

http://www.nola.com/speced/lastchance/multimedia/flash.ssf?flashlandloss1.swf

“GLOBAL WARMING, FAITH AND ‘WE THE PEOPLE‘”

MIKE TIDWELL
Noted Author, Travel Journalist, Environmentalist
In town recently to promote his book

“GLOBAL WARMING, FAITH AND ‘WE THE PEOPLE‘”
Mike Tidwell is the consummate storyteller. Knowing nothing of the disappearing Louisiana coast, Mike came to Cajun Country to chronicle the lives of people living in coastal Louisiana. With the evidence all around him, he wrote Bayou Farewell, The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast, a part travelogue, part environmental expose’ published in 2003. Speaking of that experience, Tidwell said,” It’s an open question whether New Orleans will exist in 15 years or 50 years, especially if a strong hurricane hits in a certain way.”

Tidwell’s 2006 book, The Ravaging Tide, Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities” issues a call to arms about global warming and the impending lethal forces threatening every coastal city on the globe. With a predicted rise of up to three feet in sea level by 2100, the danger is clear.

As founder and director of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council, based in Takoma Park, Maryland, Tidwell lives an example of the fossil-fuel free live at his suburban Maryland home. His approach is surprisingly optimistic, as he offers trend-setting examples of how to reduce greenhouse gases. He argues for global political will, not just for the U.S. government, but individuals and local governments.

A former grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts, Tidwell has won four Lowell Thomas awards for his travel journalism. Among his three previous books is Amazon Stranger, which details efforts to save the Ecuadorian rain forest and In the Mountains of Heaven, travels to exotic lands. His articles can be found in the Washington Post, The National Geographic Traveler and the Reader’s Digest.

OUT OF BALANCE: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change

"Out of Balance: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change" shows the influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media and citizens and what can be done about global warming. While the Earth’s climate is pushed further out of balance by increasing use of fossil fuels, ExxonMobil continues to assert undue influence around the world— making record profits while ignoring climate science for which there has been overwhelming consensus for over ten years.

A useful next movie if you’ve seen Vice President Al Gore’s film, “Out of Balance” does not just critique ExxonMobil, it also offers challenging, large-scale ideas for the global social changes that must take place if there’s any chance of having a livable planet for future generations.

At a recent New Orleans Group program, The Sierra Club, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and film-maker Tom Jackson discussed the movie, recent news attention that ExxonMobil has received for announcing their acknowledgment of human caused climate change, and how we can work effectively to confront an issue that challenges the Gulf Coast as no other region. Tom is touring the country with his film in a biodiesel vehicle to facilitate dialogue and action on this critical issue.

http://www.worldoutofbalance.org/
http://joepublicfilms.com/