Hot topic on tap: City Park wants to replace green space with golf courses

City Park attempting to replace its newly found green spaces with golf courses.

That's right, City Park is attempting to cover its newly found green spaces with new golf courses. Read about it right here at our new City Park page.

http://louisiana.sierraclub.org/neworleans/citypark.asp

Take a free trip to South Africa at our March Program

SIERRA CLUB PROGRAM, SUNDAY, MARCH 8!

A free trip to South Africa! Take the trip vicariously with John Sevenair, world traveler. Come see his fabulous photos and interesting narrative of "Creatures of South Africa." During the summer '08, he explored that country on a birding trip; there were also spectacular mammals, reptiles, insects, and fish. John is a professor of chemistry at Xavier University and an avid birder and photographer.

Sunday, March 8. Door open 6:30 with refreshments and socializing; program 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Audubon Zoo, Dominion Auditorium. Enter gate to far right of main gate. Parking plentiful and safe. Bring friends to this free program. Open to all.

Program Sunday, February 8th Tulane geographer Richard Campanella, author of "Bienville's Dilemma" and "Geographies of New Orleans,"

Program February 8th

Sierra Club Program
Sunday, Feb. 8, 7pm
Dominion Auditorium, Audubon Zoo

Tulane geographer Richard Campanella, author of "Bienville's Dilemma"
and "Geographies of New Orleans," will present:

"Early European Accounts of the Louisiana Environment,1519-1699"

This graphical presentation relates the observations and impressions of French and Spanish explorers as they first laid eyes on the Louisiana environment, and highlights the various transformations occasioned upon that environment in subsequent years.

Meeting is on Sunday, February 8 at 7 PM at the Audubon Zoo auditorium. Refreshments and socializing at 6:30. Parking is free and secure in the Audubon Zoo Parking lot.

Refreshments at 6:30PM.
Program starts at 7 PM.

Location: The Dominion Auditorium at Audubon Zoo, off Magazine Street.
Plenty of well-lit parking.

Guests are welcome. Call 504-861-8465 if you have any questions.

Upcoming NO Group events

MERCURY HAIR TESTING EVENT A SUCCESS

Sierra Club’s Stop the Coal Rush field organizer, Jordan Macha helped organize a great event last week at an Uptown hair salon to help women find out about levels of mercury in their bodies. As folks may know, coal-fired power plants are the largest source of industrial mercury emissions into the environment, turning our fish toxic, and threatening public health. As Louisiana wrestles with new coal power plant proposals, the Sierra Club is keeping our eye on public health and making sure you are too!

Check out the great coverage in the Times-Picayune:

http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/living-2/1227939665172780.xml&coll=1

Special thanks to NOLA Sierra Conservation Chair, Dr. Barry Kohl, Gulf Restoration Network, and Paris Parker Salon.

SAVE THE DATES

Friday April 3rd – Saturday April 4^th – Tulane Environmental Law Conference – New Orleans. http://summit.law.tulane.edu/

Sunday, April 5^th – the New Orleans Earth Day Festival presented by our friends at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and featuring music on the Coastal Lines of Defense stage (brought to you by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Gulf Restoration Network and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation). Music, food, beer, speaker’s tent, kid’s tent, and energy savings workshops. 10 am until dark. Lineup Just Announced: Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Anders Osborn w/Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Kirk Joseph & friends, Country Fried.

Friday May 8th – Saturday, May 9^th – Gulf Gathering 2009 – Camp Beckwith, Weeks Bay, AL Gulf Gathering: A Gulf-wide conference for coastal advocates and organizers concerned about the Gulf of Mexico. To receive agenda updates and further information, contact Briana Kerstein, briana@healthygulf.org (504) 525-1528 ext. 208

Tuesday, May 26th (note date change) - Environmental Voter Lobby Day in Baton Rouge. We need as many members as possible to join with our coalition of environmental groups to show our Legislators in Baton Rouge that voters care about the environment. The day will feature briefings from environmental and legislative leaders, lunch, and a training on how to lobby by the Sierra Club’s lobbyist extraordinaire, Darrell Hunt. Aaron Viles is the contact person at 504-525-7534 ext 207.

Tuesday, April 21st - John Muir’s birthday

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.