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What Now? Post-Katrina Musings

23, 2005

29-Aug, Katrina makes landfall at New Orleans; 31-Aug, 200,000 citizens evacuated by bus, air and rail; 10-Sep, Sierra Summit delegates commit to energy issues as Sierra Club’s top priority; 13-Sep, in Palatka, the St. Johns Water Management District approves Freedom Commerce Permit; 17-Sep, at Sierra Club Florida Chapter meeting, your Northeast Group reaffirms commitment to wetlands protection.

Important dates and facts. Needs arise unexpectedly. Important consequences are realized. But you may wonder, how are these related?

It’s personal and global, community and national, family and friends, strangers and acquaintances. It’s been a mix and a blur. I’ve been working in support of emergency response efforts with my company, a major transportation service provider, since mid-August – every day, long hours, until this weekend [a month later]. I’ve met dozens of folks on the phone, during three days in Washington, D.C., and by many e-mails, finding and arranging ways to rush buses, airplanes, trucks and equipment to the scene.

Katrina was devastating, changing many lives forever. Many who survived will stay where they landed, whether in Houston or Portland, embarking on a new life. For them, their lives will go on, changed but hopefully better. We don’t know in what form New Orleans will arise, but it will, and it will be different too.

In the midst of this time, my dear partner Janet flew off to San Francisco as part of the Florida Delegation to the Sierra Summit, one of the largest convocations of environmentalists ever to assemble (sadly I had to miss the meeting). Florida’s delegation was the largest of any Sierra Club chapter!

The Sierra Summit was exciting for our delegation and has changed some of the directions and perspectives of the Sierra Club – forever as well. While the Club has many objectives, helping to guide our nation to a better energy future was decided to be a focus.

Wetlands and our lives in their midst, and the abuses we lay on them, are believed to have been among the factors that led to deep troubles in New Orleans. Urban sprawl, wetlands destruction and energy demand in our city and daily lives equally are threatening. That the St. Johns Water Management District would approve the destruction of the headwaters of our Pottsburg and Julington creeks is just one more turn in the screw that is pressing on the River and its natural balance. It is shocking to see this happen at the hands of the local stewards of our river. The Feds disagree too: the Army Corps of Engineers denied the federal permit in May, citing potential for great ecological harm. There is something wrong at the SJRWMD. I couldn’t go to the Board meeting, due to the Katrina emergency, but many dozens did go to Palatka to make their disapproval known.

This weekend, during my first days off in almost a month, the Northeast Group hosted the quarterly Florida Chapter meeting at Talbot Island (many thanks to the Sarabay Center!), in the midst of one of the best wetland preserves on the East Coast. We reviewed the business of the club and many issues pertaining to Florida and to man. Wetlands is high on the list of concerns. Whether in New Orleans, in the Everglades, at the Sierra Summit or along the St. Johns River, in the press of our daily lives we’ve got to find time to do a bit to make this world a better place than as we found it.

What now? We’ve got to keep on these opportunities! If the WMD Board says they have to permit Freedom Commerce Centre, then we must change the law so they must vote to protect the wetlands. Since New Orleans is on the delta and the wetlands it supports are dependent on the river, maybe "New" New Orleans should be made different, to protect the wetlands and the city. Our nation’s and our world’s future – our children’s future – is dependent on the choices we make for our energy future. We need to examine how we live and our energy consumption – as a community and as families.

What now? Tell your congressman, your state representatives, your senators, the governor that the law must be changed, that wetlands must be protected. Tell the Army Corps of Engineers to hold firm on its denial of the FCC permit. And look at your lifestyle – let’s change how we use energy, get more fluorescents, carpool more, consider a solar panel for the roof of our place of work or your home. We can reduce usage of electricity by 30 percent with relatively minor changes. Get involved in your neighborhood, your town, with your Sierran friends.

Carpe diem!

Tom Larson