This is a post about science, economics, human rights and talking to the press. A word to the wise: Don’t stand at the confluence of all of this when severely sleep-deprived. Follow.
Yesterday
John Lopez, formerly of the Army Corps of Engineers, is now head cheese of coastal sustainability at the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (a.k.a. Save Our Lake), which “works in partnership with all segments of the community to reclaim the waters of the Basin for this and future generations.” Yesterday, I read a NOLA.com article on a map being constructed by Lopez which contains information on “lines of defense” against land loss due to urban sprawl and hurricanes. In detail, the map will contain land-resource trouble areas and the geomorphological nuances of southeastern coastal Louisiana. With the interest of his city and wetlands in mind, Lopez would like to see this map used in the plans for rebuilding neighborhoods and levees after Hurricane Katrina.
It may also become a starting point for the controversial decisions about which areas will be ringed with levees and open for development and which areas will be targeted for wetland restoration outside the levee system … “[The map is] not just a question of identifying what we’re defending against, but determining how to get the most out of the restoration program,” Lopez said. “If you don’t understand the architecture of the coast in geologic or hydrologic terms, you’re planning for marsh acreage here or levee heights there without really knowing how one will influence the other.”
My immediate thoughts: Were the state and various local rebuilding organizations planning to go about their task without any understanding of the interplay of hydrogeology of an area mostly below sea level and its urban planning? Why are we even having a dialogue before this data is available? Any debate between the promoters of redevelopment for homes or business and green space must already contain such a caveat.
On the Mardi Gras Marathon website, I noticed that proceeds from registration will go to the Back To The Big Easy fund. I mused out loud to a colleague, “Look at the myriad and disconnected foundations and non-profits in response to the hurricane. Which ones are of any real effect? And which use hard data to demand ‘progress’ and money?” Back To The Big Easy, Bring New Orleans Back, One Voice For New Orleans, Citizens For 1 Greater New Orleans, The Katrina Foundation For Recovery, People’s Hurricane Fund, Defend New Orleans, Rebuilding Green, Saving Ourselves, the list goes on …
Never will I begrudge the human power and right to organize as we see fit, but the non-profit equivalent of spam is a modern reality. Which appeal for attention do you take seriously?
Today
This afternoon, Henry of Radio Open Source contacted me for my opinion on the Bring New Orleans Back Foundation’s recent announcement. I’ve mentioned the foundation in a previous post, and even commented on its severe shortage of humanitarians and, more importantly, scientists. The brain not firing on all cylinders, I confessed little to no knowledge of this organization and partially confused it it with the Back To The Big Easy fund. However, I reiterated my earlier point: Any organization or plan that purports to rebuild southeastern Louisiana has to take into account our extremely tenuous relationship with the Gulf and the hurricanes which threaten it. As a scientist, I fear uninformed and uncoordinated efforts to create New Orleans v2.0, full of bugs, holes, temporary patches and a faulty infrastructure.
What happens when you don’t keep up with the news for one whole day: the Bring New Orleans Back Foundation has put forth “a controversial recovery plan giving residents four months to prove they will rebuild in the devastated city before their neighborhoods could be declared off-limits to redevelopment.”
This, in no uncertain terms, has pissed off a number of residents who want to return to their former neighborhoods.
The shame, the shame! Hope this insomniac didn’t come across as a complete dingbat to Henry for not knowing that at the time, even though he has some of my other words on the front page of the Radio Open Source website right now. Oh well, I represented my personal perspectives well enough. Live and learn.
Back to the anger at the rebuild deadline: I understand that not everyone appreciates the importance of not rebuilding on sensitive land that should have remained undeveloped in the first place.
Two years after the Del Sud’s inaugural journey [in 1963], the [newly-widened MR-GO] channel funneled Hurricane Betsy’s storm surge into St. Bernard and parts of New Orleans, exacerbating flooding that killed dozens of people and swamped thousands of structures. In coming decades the channel would alter delicate coastal ecosystems across the region, as marsh-killing saltwater coursed through the channel and into Lake Pontchartrain via the Industrial Canal.
Speaking from experience, you live through a mistake, learn from it and move on. I myself lost a home a long time ago and consider Rebuilding Invincibility to be complete folly. Indiscriminate habitation, with no regard for its effect on the environment and future generations, has consequences.
Living directly in the shadow of a blossoming volcano, an active fault zone, a flood zone or hurricane bullseyes are mistakes that need not be repeated due to sentimentality or spontaneous obstinacy.
Even so, all of this is easy for me to say. Having known home and migration, I respect the power of both.
Science, nature and human settlement can co-exist and advance one another if their practitioners see each other as colleagues rather than competitors. Some things are worth protecting – in this case, is it Louisiana’s marshlands or coastal communities? How can both benefit simultaneously? I hope that the BNOB foundation’s cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers, in turn working with John Lopez, will frame the overall problem as such.
This is precisely what I meant to tell Henry.
With that, VatulBlog will take two aspirins and a movie to the match the mood, and call you in the morning. Live and learn?
Even you are capable of brain spasms, M. All fabulous all the time is a tall order.