I'm sure with all the challenges this overactive hurricane season has presented, the New Orleans race for Congress is probably the last thing you have been thinking about. But that doesn't change the fact that election day is fast approaching. October 4th is the primary - do you know who you'll be supporting?
GRN is excited to invite you to come out Saturday to hear directly from the candidates on issues related to responding to global warming, building a green energy economy, and creating green jobs now! Given New Orleans vulnerability to the effects of climate change such as rising sea level and stronger storms, as well as the opportunity that our recovery represents, we think the next member of Congress from Louisiana's Second District (your district) should be a leader in advocating for the transition toward a cleaner, greener New Orleans.
Please come out and hear from the candidates yourself!
The forum will be moderated by WWL News Anchor Dennis Woltering, and we have confirmation from 6 of the 7 candidates (unfortunately, Representative Jefferson will be unavailable).
The forum is the capstone event in a day of New Orleans activities for the National Day of Action for Green Jobs Now, so please go to www.greenjobsnow.com to find out details for all the other great events being planned. For questions about the forum, please contact Jonathan Henderson.
With just a few months left in office, it looks like the Bush Administration is angling for a big legacy: a legacy of increased extinctions! We need your help to get Congress to prevent the Bush extinction plan from becoming law.
The Administration is proposing drastic changes to the Endangered Species Act that threaten to undermine our nation's commitment to endangered fish, plants and wildlife. The changes would massively weaken one of the most important measures of the Endangered Species Act-the responsibility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service to ensure that federal agencies, like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, do no harm to endangered species such as the Louisiana Black Bear, Florida Panther, West Indian Manatee and other endangered species throughout the Gulf states and the nation.
Using backdoor, regulatory changes, the Bush administration is working to implement their extinction plan, despite the fact that Congress and the American public have already rejected these proposals in the past!
Four days ago, Hurricane Ike swept ashore across Galveston Island. The enormous storm whipped up the Gulf and brought massive storm surge destroying coastal communities along Texas' northern coast and into Louisiana. While millions swelter without electricity and begin to clean up and repair their homes, the full extent of the damage is just beginning to be revealed.
Once again we are students in the 'School of Big Storms.' We hope we will learn from our mistakes as we begin to rebuild for our future. GRN supporters and member groups in the impacted region need our help to ensure our coastal wetlands and barrier islands are protected. Our natural storm defenses must be spared from continued development and allowed to do their job of reducing storm surge and absorbing rain and runoff.
Today, the Houston Chronicle featured an important article on limiting development and the need to follow building setback requirements proposed by the state. You can also read this article from The New York Times about the potentially harmful toxic sludge left behind by receding floodwaters. And, Dr. Jeff Masters has been contributing to his Weather Underground blog with updates on the damage including photos of the destruction and more details on how individual communities were impacted by Ike. Check out this assessment of the damage in southern Louisiana from LEAN, a GRN member group. And you can read this article from the Houma Courier on the fisheries disaster in the Gulf declared by the NOAA Fisheries Service.
GRN will continue to work across the Gulf to ensure our natural storm defenses are protected and restored. We will get back to our supporters on opportunities protect our natural defenses and protect ourselves. We wish our supporters and member groups in the impacted area a safe and healthy recovery.
This past week has been difficult for many of us in the Gulf. However, I have some great news to share! On September 2nd, the EPA took the final step to veto the Yazoo Pumps Project, an antiquated Army Corps of Engineers project that would have destroyed over 200,000 acres of wetlands in Mississippi, including habitat for the endangered Louisiana black bear.
Last March, we asked you to send a message to the EPA urging them to veto this project, and you answered our call. This victory would not have been possible without you, and we thank you for your support!
These are anxious times with hurricane season upon us, but please join us in celebrating this victory. This is only the 13th time in history that the EPA has used its veto authority to protect wetlands, and this is by far the most destructive project ever stopped. You can read the news story here.
Thanks again for your efforts to protect the Gulf of Mexico.
AS GUSTOV POUNDS GULF COAST, TIME TO BRING OIL COMPANIES TO TABLE
I hope everyone is safe, and staying dry. I'm typing this from my evacuation-vacation in Seattle, safe with my family.
We're all on pins and needles as we watch the storm batter our coast and communities. Instead of just being glued to cnn/weather channel, GRN friend and collaborator Walter Williams put his nervous energy to work and cut a new film which captures our coastal crisis, and hopes to help inform the teachable moment that Gustav is presenting to the nation.
Take care,
Aaron
Here's Walter's blog and film:
No one understands the stress New Orleanians live under. No one else in this country has to stare down total annihilation not only every year, but often several times a year, while trying to rebuild their lives. We’ve been in the bull’s eye for seven days now and it’s time for us all to leave home.
Can anyone out there really relate to this? An entire major city having to flee from their homes, not knowing if they’ll see them again…not knowing if they’ll see their family and friends again…not knowing if they’ll see the city they love again… From my talking to people around the country, they evidently can’t.
And the shame is that this did not have to happen. They would not have built the oldest Cathedral, a US Mint, the biggest federal building on the beachfront facing utter destruction every year. That’s because we were 80 miles from the coast and never worried about flooding from the gulf. Now our protection has been eaten away and we sit here living under a strain that few could endure.
And the people proven to be responsible for fifty percent of our land loss continue to deny their culpability. They’ve known about this dirty little secret for decades, have the money to rectify it, but thumb their noses at us, because the state and federal government refuse to take them to task. That’s because they appear to all be one in the same. As far as I’m concerned, they all have Katrina blood on their hands and unfortunately may have more coming this week, by refusing to fix what they broke.
We have one of the largest land building machines in the world, the Mississippi River, to build new land to regain our protection. It’s not rocket science, it’s mud and gravity. They’ve tried to convince us that levees are the problem. We didn’t even need levees just forty years ago when Betsy slammed directly into us, because we used to have the state of Delaware between us and the sea. There were no seawalls on the 17th Street canal or the others, yet they didn’t overtop. Something has changed drastically in the last forty years, coincidentally the height of oil and gas activity in southern Louisiana.
I hope we survive this one and the one following close behind, but regardless, Americans should not be forced to live like this particularly when there is a viable solution. Please watch the video I cut together today about this, before high-tailing it. It’s called “Blood and Oil” and is on YouTube.
COMMIT TO THE COAST AND GET A CHANCE TO SEE REM AND OTHERS AT NOLA'S VOODOO EXPERIENCE
What ifI told you that you could help GRN protect and restore the natural
resources of the Gulf region for less than a cup of coffee a day?! Making a monthly giftto the Gulf Restoration Network is the easiest way to have a large and lasting impact on our organization and not on your finances.
And now, thanks to our friends at the Voodoo Experience, we will be drawing from our universe of sustaining membersfor two FREE passes to the music festival on August 31st, and September 30th.We will also award the grand prize of 2 LOA VIP 3 Day passes tothe sustaining member who gives largest monthly donation between now and September 30th.
This year's headliners are R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, and Erykah Badu. You have the opportunity to hear some of your favorite bands and help save the Gulf coast at the same time! Only GRN could offer a deal like that!
Last year, we had a fantastic time at Voodoo, setting up a great tent, educating Voodoo goers about the coast, and getting rock stars and radio djs to help us pitch our coastal text messaging campaign. This year will be even better, with a "NO COAST, NO MUSIC" promotional CD in the works that will feature Voodoo artists and some great ideas about other ways to educate fans about the coast. You're going to want to see what we come up with.
Now, we pride ourselves on having some pretty savvy supporters and we understand that your decision will not be taken lightly. I just wanted answer a few more questions that you might have, so you can make an informed decision. Donations are entered into a secure online account and once entered only the last four digits of the account are visible. Charges will appear as the company that processes the transactions for us, Democracy in Action.
For just $1 a day or $30 a month you can provide a sustaining stream of funding for GRN to accomplish its goals. Become a sustaining member today!
United for a Healthy Gulf,
Cynthia Sarthou
Executive Director
P.S. On this third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav looming in the Gulf is a poignant reminder of the importance of our coastal lines of defense, our wetlands. Louisiana continues to lose a football field's worth of coastal wetlands every forty-five minutes. This loss threatens our nation's energy resources, fishing, and most importantly is leaving New Orleans and other coastal communities more vulnerable to future storms like Katrina. We have a long road ahead of us to ensure the protection and restoration of the Gulf's natural resources. Please consider a sustaining membership for the health of the Gulf coast, our home.
MR. BILL GIVES SHELL THE BILL FOR COASTAL DESTRUCTION
As lunchtime foot traffic filled the halls of One Shell Square, a fantastic group of concerned citizens and activists carrying signs and shouting “Shell Fix the Coast You Broke!” followed a major celebrity and his entourage into Shell Oil’s New Orleans headquarters. The star carried an oversized invoice charging the company $361,984,000 for the cost of restoring wetlands that the company has destroyed.
Who was this Hollywood star, using his megawatt smile to help ensure a sustainable response to hurricane Katrina? Brad Pitt? John Goodman? Harry Shearer?
Oh nooooooo! This cause has been championed by the one, the only, the play-doh, Mr. Bill of classic Saturday Night Live, and a current national MasterCard “priceless” commercial. Mr. Bill (seen below with security detail and starlets in tow) waltzed into One Shell Square to hand Shell the bill, and helped kick off a new campaign aimed at holding oil and gas companies responsible for the role they have played in wetlands loss.
Working with a fantastic coalition that included Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Rodnreel.com, the Sierra Club, United Houma Nation, the Alliance for Affordable Energy and of course, Walter Williams, New Orleans Filmmaker & Mr. Bill Creator, GRN fired a shot across Shell's bow that even the massive energy corporation can't ignore.There is solid evidence that forty to sixty percent of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands loss can be traced to oil and gas activities, and it is only fair that companies like Shell pay for the cost of the damage they have caused.
While Shell’s fortunes continue to rise, coastal Louisiana’s marshes are disappearing at an astounding rate and thus leaving the whole region more vulnerable to future hurricanes. According to records from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Shell Oil has dredged 8.8 million cubic yards of wetlands while laying pipelines since 1983. These activities alone have caused the loss of 22,624 acres of wetlands in the last 25 years. “I am very optimistic that the oil industry will step up and do the right thing,” said Walter Williams, at our press conference “because it is in their own self interest. The wetlands not only protect New Orleans, but they are the only thing protecting their oil infrastructure. Pipes that used to be underground are now exposed to open water and are being battered. What will the price of gas be if the strategic oil reserve suddenly starts emptying into the Gulf?”
We feel the current situation in southern Louisiana informs the national debate around expanding offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific Coast. Increased off-shore drilling would be detrimental to coastal communities, which is clear in the case of Louisiana. Decades of oil and gas activity along the coast have left the Mississippi River’s once mighty delta a pale comparison of its former glory.
Restoring Louisiana’s coast would benefit the state and nation’s economy in countless ways. Every three to four miles of wetlands reduce storm surge by one foot, so reversing the land loss crisis would help guard thousands of homes and businesses from future devastation. “The recreational hunting and fishing industry in Louisiana is a major driver of the state’s economy, but it is increasingly threatened by coastal land loss,” stated Mike Lane, publisher and co-owner of RodNReel.com. “Irresponsible corporations such as Shell Oil have made billions of dollars in profit from the resources of our state and it is time that they gave back to the coast.”
The state of Louisiana and Governor Jindal recently made a laudable commitment to spending more than a billion dollars in state funds on coastal projects in the next four years, but even this massive sum of money is only a down payment to fix the problem of coastal land loss. To truly restore the coast and protect South Louisiana communities will likely require a commitment of upwards of $50 billion dollars, a burden which outstrips the currently identified state and federal revenue streams.
While significant projects have been authorized by the federal government, appropriating these funds will be far more challenging. To ensure Louisiana’s coastal needs are met, parties responsible for the coastal wetlands crisis must be brought to the table. Oil and gas companies like Shell have played an integral part in creating the problem, so it only makes sense for them to help to fix the coast they broke.
REM, PEARL JAM, 90 OTHER MUSICIANS SOUND CALL FOR COAST TO CANDIDATES - GET TO NOLA AND DEBATE!
I never really expected we would get such an amazing response to our request to musicians to help us ask the two men who would be Prez to get thee to NOLA and talk about the coast.
I'm really thankful that VOW helped get the ball rolling, and that the folks from Pearl Jam's PR shop helped us spread the word. Of course the question remains as to whether John McCain has any idea of who REM, Pearl Jam, the Meters, Jackson Browne, NIN or Indigo Girls actually are (let alone My Morning Jacket or Ok Go or other shorter discography groups). Unfortunately, my outreach efforts to Lawrence Welk were ultimately unsuccessful...
Of course the big ask in the letter, which is to get McCain and Obama to commit to the New Orleans Google/YouTube debate, seems to have been written off by the Times-Picayune and one of the event's main sponsors. I personally think we should be making an even louder stink about this, and folks who support NOLA and a more active and engaged democracy need to push hard to get the candidates to debate MORE not less. Do that here.
Here's the question they should answer:
Also, big thanks to Walter Williams for shooting Amanda at her 18th Birthday Party, Stanton Moore, Rueben Williams, and Clint Maedgen, Nicole and Sarah at Vandenberg Communications for outreach assistance, Harry Shearer for feedback, and Trevor Fitzgibbon for making the whole thing possible.
THIRD KATRINAVERSARY APPROACHES - HELP US BUILD A NATIONAL COMMITMENT TO THE COAST
As we near the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina we are reminded of the importance of our coastal lines of defense, our wetlands. Louisiana continues to lose a football field's worth of coastal wetlands every forty-five minutes due to erosion caused by oil and gas canals, subsidence and rising sea levels. This loss threatens our nation's energy resources, fishing, and most importantly is leaving New Orleans and other coastal communities more vulnerable to future storms like Katrina.
On Friday, August 29, 2008 we are asking you and all of our supporters to host houseparties to commemorate the storm and ensure that the nation learns its lessons.
Last year we organized over thirty houseparties that were both informative and a lot of fun. This year we would like to organize fifty! We will send our hosts a series of short documentary films by filmmaker Walter Williams (the creator of Mr. Bill of classic Saturday Night Live) which detail our coastal crisis and the steps necessary to avert it.
We really need you to step up and open your home, church or community center to build the support necessary to make coastal restoration a national priority. It's easy, just head to our website, fill out the form and instead of sending an e-mail, you will be signed up to host a houseparty. Then, invite your friends, family, colleagues, church group, bowling team, whoever!
As the nation's memory of Katrina fades, so too does our opportunity to teach the nation about the importance of our coastal lines of defense. Please help us remind our friends and neighbors through these events.
Once again, the Dead Zone has reared its ugly head in the Gulf of Mexico. Last week, Dr. Nancy Rabalais from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMOCON) made her annual cruise to measure the Dead Zone and despite high seas caused by Tropical Storm Dolly, the Dead Zone measures about 8,000 square miles this year, which makes it the second largest ever recorded! In my time at GRN it has been frustrating to see so little done to fix this ecological nightmare. Think about it...we have an area in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey where there is so little oxygen that shellfish and fish must swim away or suffocate.
The Dead Zone is a national catastrophe that has been overlooked for decades and it is time for EPA to step up and bring the Gulf of Mexico back from the brink of ecological disaster. Recently GRN and conservation groups that border the Mississippi Riverpetitioned EPAto take decisive action. Please join us in this call!
It is important to let EPA know that the citizens of the Gulf and the United States want EPA to utilize its authority to make sure that the Dead Zone does not continue to grow. Please take a moment to send a letter to EPA to tell them to clean up the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico!
Matt Rota
Water Resources Program Director For more information on what the Dead Zone is and what causes it, visit our website
RIVER OIL SPILL PAINTS MESSY PICTURE IN OFFSHORE DRILLING DEBATE
With 100 miles of dark, slick oil covering its surface, the Mississippi River winds its way towards the Gulf of Mexico, leaving citizens across the nation once again reminded of the many reasons why we must move beyond our dependence on oil. As a 600 ft. tanker crashed into a barge spilling almost a half million gallons of diesel fuel oil into the river on Wednesday, Hurricane Dolly approaches Texas and prevents Senator John McCain from visiting a “clean” oil rig off the coast of New Orleans. All too familiar with the costs of natural and human disasters along the Gulf Coast, such snapshot events speak loudly to the offshore drilling debate.
Cynthia Sarthou, Executive Director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), explains, “The costs of opening up new areas for drilling along the Gulf vastly outweigh the benefits. Gas prices will be virtually unaffected, but future spills, wetlands destruction and increased pollution are guaranteed.”
Ultimately, increased drilling means more oil spills. The Mineral Management service predicts one spill of at least 42,000 gallons a year in the Gulf with at least 420,000 gallons expected to be spilled every four years. While the oil industry is justifiably proud of increased safety in drilling procedures, there is still great risk in transporting that oil from sea to land. These incidences not only create economic crises for small businesses and cause property damage, but they also make humans and wildlife more vulnerable to toxic fumes, contaminated drinking water, and serious illness in the short and long-term.
A recent report from the Journal of the Human Environment explained that the storm protection value of America’s coastal wetlands are $23.2 billion annually—Louisiana is currently losing a football field of this valuable protection every 45 minutes due to coastal erosion caused in part by the oil & gas industry. By committing to expanded oil and gas development these ‘horizontal levees’ are jeopardized in the short run by pipelines and offshore oil field support infrastructure, and in the long term by the global warming fueled sea level rise a continued reliance on oil will cause.
“The supply of oil off the coast is peanuts compared to world demand for oil, and any benefit at the pump pales in comparison to the costs of drilling, such as decreasing tourism and Hurricane protection, and the loss of the natural beauty of Florida beaches. In addition, new drilling means new pipelines, oil barges, storage facilities, refineries, and the pollution and public health threat they inevitably bring,” said Joseph Murphy, the Florida Program Coordinator for GRN.
SOUND A CALL TO THE CANDIDATES: DEBATE IN NEW ORLEANS FOR OUR COAST AND COMMUNITIES
Outrageous cartoons, foreign policy differences, oil drilling flip-flops, the fight for
the White House is really underway. With Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal in the running for the McCain veepstakes the Republican contender seems to spend a lot of time in Louisiana, but it is time that we put the issue of the Gulf Coast environment and recovery front and center in this race.
In the almost three years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast we've seen significant steps from federal leaders towards a more sustainable coast and safer communities, but these efforts will need substantial resources, funding, and time to succeed.
Now is the time to make sure that the future president of the United States commits to the Gulf States. Help us ask the candidates to commit to: tackling the Dead Zone, a hurricane recovery that includes safe and sustainable communities and rebuilt coastal lines of defense, and spotlighting their plans for recovery at the Google/YouTube debate in New Orleans.
Head here to sound the call for the coast and send that message to the candidates: http://action.healthygulf.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24937The Google/YouTube event should be a fantastic opportunity to see our coastal issues put on display - but we need the two candidates to commit to the event now. Thanks for helping make that happen.For our coast and communities, Aaron Viles Campaign Director
Summer along the Nature Coast of Florida is defined by movement and change.Manatees leave the spring fed rivers that provide them warmth in the winter and wander up and down the coast.Swallowtail Kites are here for the summer nesting and they swoop and soar over the landscape.If we get the rains we need the black water rivers swell and rise, and flow strongly out into the coastal marshes that separate the land from the sea.In this landscape defined by the pronounced lack of white sand beaches it is not the summer of tanning and beach postcards so common in the rest of Florida, it is a summer of nature at its most grand and most intimate.
Stretching from just north of TampaBayto ApalacheeBay in the Big Bend region, the NatureCoast is one of the longest, wildest coastlines left in America.It is the embodiment of nature at the landscape scale, a powerful reminder of what once was along the gulf coast and what still could be if we summon the grace and wisdom to keep it as it is.This is the Florida that John Muir walked through in 1867.This is the Florida of William Bartram.This is the Florida of my childhood, and I hope and pray it will be the Florida of my grandchildren.The Gulf Restoration Network, working with our allies and partners in the region and across Florida, is working hard to ensure that this happens.
This is has been an exciting and challenging summer thus far for the Nature Coast of Florida.The environment has seen victory and loss, and the challenges remain great.
The GRN was proud to have been one of the groups that spearheaded a successful campaign to convince Florida Governor Charlie Crist to veto a bill passed by the Florida Legislature that would have weakened protections for seagrass beds in Florida.This successful call for a veto was a major victory to protect the coastlines, fisheries, and marine species of the gulf coast of Florida.Stretching the length of the NatureCoast is the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve.These world class seagrass beds are essential to the life cycle of hundred of gulf species.Governor Crist, in vetoing this bill, ensured that protections for Florida’s seagrass beds and for the NatureCoast would not move in the wrong direction.In the 2009 session of the Florida Legislature a coalition of conservation groups is committed to passing strong legislation would protect Florida’s seagrass beds.
While we had a victory in our work to protect seagrass beds in Florida, efforts to protect the NatureCoast suffered a setback when the Suwannee River Water Management District approved some of the early permits for the Reserve at Sweetwater Estuary in the northern NatureCoast.We have been fighting this massive development project since it was Magnolia Bay.We continue to believe that a development of this size, that would involve the loss of coastal wetlands and would set a dangerous precedent for the NatureCoast, is the wrong project in the wrong place.And while the first permits were granted, we believe progress has been made.This project still needs local, state, and federal permits and GRN is continuing to organize a coalition of groups to stop this project (over 40 Florida conservation groups called for these permits to be denied).We won some of the early rounds, and we’ll win the next ones as well. Stay tuned to keep up with the latest developments with this and other FloridaNatureCoast issues.
Summer along the NatureCoast continues as it has for thousands of years.Tides come and go, the sun and moon rise and set, and the next generation of life bursts forth in the woods, wetlands, and wilderness of the special place.Florida Black Bears seek solace from the heat, and powerful thunderstorms form daily in dazzling testament to the power of nature.It is an amazing time to be out and about along the NatureCoast, and it is an amazing place.GRN is committed to ensuring that all that is wild and free along the NatureCoast stays that way.
Scientists now believe this year’s Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico may be the largest on record due to the high water levels of the Mississippi River. Yet, the Dead Zone Task Force continues to avoid taking firm steps to pressure upriver states to reduce their fertilizer runoff – the leading cause of the Dead Zone.
The Dead Zone forms as high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution pour into the Gulf and create a massive algal bloom that consumes the water’s oxygen. Sea life is forced to swim away or suffocate.
Check out this video and interview with Cyn Sarthou, GRN Executive Director for the full story.
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee featured not only one of the most eclectic line-ups you were likely to find this summer (Sigur Ros! Kanye West! Metallica!), but it was also home to a veritable wonderland of non-profits and green resources aimed at heightening the global consciousness of concert goers. Among those groups was the GRN.
With Stephanie Powell as our intrepid leader, seven interns and volunteers packed into a cramped mini-van with cardboard crabs and a life-size poster of Mark Twain, making the granola-filled 8-hour journey to the Fest. Over 1,750 people stopped by the GRN booth to fill out a postcard asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set numeric limits to Dead Zone-causing pollutants nitrogen and phosphorous.
As politicians make attempts to relax animal waste discharge standards and the corn-based ethanol boom poised to unleash record amounts of nitrogen pollution; it’s important now more than ever to secure a commitment to protect the waters of the United States.
New Orleans favorite radio station WWOZ was also out in full force at Bonnaroo to record and broadcast from the “Something Else New Orleans” stage. In addition to memorializing the live performances of artists like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Morning 40 Federation, WWOZ broadcasted a call to text for the coast! Have a cell phone handy?Take a second and text COAST to 77007 to urge the Presidential candidates to make restoring and protecting the GulfCoast a priority.
While Louisiana currently loses coastal wetlands at a rate of a football field every 45 minutes, record temperatures are warming the Gulf of Mexico, ready to fuel an already active hurricane season. Your text will tell the Presidential candidates to prioritize coastal defenses. Thanks to our friends at WWOZ and their live-streamingbroadcast to the internet for making our message global!
Be sure to check out our Flickr site and let us know your name if you are featured in our Stop the Dead Zone photo campaign! If you were lucky enough to chat with one of the kind folk from GRN, we’d all like to extend a hearty thank you for both helping stop the Dead Zone and making our experience at Bonnaroo truly a wonderful time. Thanks, ya’ll!
Also, a big thanks to the Planet Roo folks for giving us the opportunity to be at Bonnaroo!
Check out the latest video from the GRN video team. This documentary short gives an update to Washing Away, the documentary shown at last year's Katrinaversary parties, on the issue of wetland loss in coastal Louisiana and the need to halt this coastal crisis. Features Kerry St. Pe of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, the late Shea Penland of the University of New Orleans, and Carlton Dufrecheau of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. This short was created by GRN intern Lorraine Anton and Gino Kalkanoglu of NOLA Image Works using footage shot by Gino and Peter White. Produced by Aaron Viles. Dedicated to the memory and legacy of Shea Penland. Go check it out, rate it and share it with your friends and family to spread the word.
While you're at YouTube, Levees.org just released a new PSA calling for the congress to investigate the hurricane protection system failures during Katrina - we agree, so go watch it.
This Summer, the Gulf Restoration Network crew has been expanding -- kind of like the Dead Zone, except focused on a HEALTHIER Gulf of Mexico. We've set up an outreach office in the University area of New Orleans, and hired dozens of college students from LSU, Tulane and other campuses to fan out through the Baton Rouge, New Orleans and North Shore area, and alert the general public to the critical state of our coastal wetlands and build support for GRN and our Defend Our Coast, Defend Ourselves campaign. But if you're in one of the other Gulf states, don't worry, we're working to get to you too. We just sent a crew to Pensacola, Florida, and plan on sending folks to Houston/Galveston, Mobile/Fairhope, Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and maybe even Tampa.
So, if you get a knock on your door and open it to find a slightly sweaty young adult on your porch in a "United for a Healthy Gulf" t-shirt, take a second and listen to what they have to say. By spending a few minutes of your evening with GRN you'll get an update on our coast, and be presented with a couple of opportunities to help out. Whether you respond by joining GRN as a monthly, sustaining member, or writing a letter to the Governor and your member of Congress, urging them to act quickly for the coast, it will be time well spent, I promise.
In addition, we're still hiring for the outreach office. If you, or someone you know is interested in helping create the groundswell of support we need for immediate action on the coast and needs a full-time job this summer, ask them to give us a call. We are really excited to offer this opportunity to college students and others. Personally, I got my start as an environmental campaign organizer on a similar outreach effort many summers ago. The experience was invaluable and taught me how grass-roots organizing can really deliver results and win concrete victories for the environment. This summer's effort will give students a life-changing experience while making significant gains towards a sustainable coast.
If you're lucky enough to get that knock on the door, go out and have a great conversation about what we need to do to save our coast and communities. And offer the canvasser a glass of water, it's hot out there!
United for a Healthy Gulf,
Aaron Viles Campaign Director
p.s. While we're excited to sign up members at the door, there's always a chance you won't be home the night we stop by. To make sure you don't miss your opportunity, sign up today!
It was the most successful environmental lobby day in Louisiana history!Over fifty citizen activists were in attendance for the release of the Environmental Briefing Book (www.labriefingbook.org) which each activist was to deliver to their Legislator.The book was prepared by “a coalition of groups and individuals who are passionate about providing good air to breathe, protecting our rights to clean sweet water to drink, and advocating for the rights of all of us to live in healthy sustainable communities.”
A few of the priorities for Lobby day were to educate our representatives about protecting the coast, re-fund the enforcement division of the Department of Environmental Quality, and support the fuel efficiency standards for state vehicles bill.The coalition of Louisiana’s best environmental groups is also asking the Legislature for a Green Caucus.The Legislature needs a Green Caucus that is funded and staffed to handle environmental legislation that will benefit the economy, protect Louisiana’s natural heritage, and safeguard the public health of our citizens from preventable exposure to health risks.
Though the Legislative schedule for our Lobby Day was not ideal, it gave many citizens from across the state an opportunity to see how laws are made.Every citizen activist wore their Environmental Voter pin and got the opportunity to see their government in action.It is important to remember that each citizen has the right to be heard!
Casey DeMoss Roberts is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Gulf Restoration Network.
A disgusting odor has been permeating the city of Hattiesburg, MS lately. For awhile, the city public works department claimed it didn't know the cause, but most everyone who smelled it knew that it smelled a lot like sewage. It turns out that the city's sewage lagoons are to blame.
There is more to the story, though. The lagoons, which are a very basic type of sewage treatment most commonly used by very small towns, are in violation of the Clean Water Act, polluting the nearby Leaf and Bowie Rivers. Sewage lagoons are basically a series of ponds which, under ideal circumstances, treat sewage using bacteria that live in the ponds. The Hattiesburg lagoons are truly massive as you can see from the satellite photo I included (the four polygons make up the south lagoon). In fact, by my estimate, the total size of the lagoon is about 330 acres, or roughly half a square mile. As I argue in the letter I wrote in the Hattiesburg American, the city has not properly planned for growth and is sticking with its outdated sewage treatment lagoons rather than upgrading them to a modern treatment system. Why is this important? What Hattiesburg puts into the Leaf River, ultimately flows into the Pascagoula River and the Gulf of Mexico. In order to protect the Gulf of Mexico, we have to look upstream.
If you live in Hattiesburg, it is time to let your local leaders know they need to do better and should start by raising the money to replace the smelly lagoons. In the meantime, if you use the Leaf or Bowie Rivers, you may want to think twice about swimming or fishing near where the lagoons empty into the rivers. Jeff Grimes is Assistant Director of Water Resources.
New Orleans native, and creator of the most famous Play-Doh figure this side of Gumby, Walter Williams is a documentary filmmaker, frequent GRN collaborator, and perhaps best known for Mr. Bill of classic Saturday Night Live fame. Walter and GRN worked together on our "Hear The Music" campaign targeting Shell at Jazzfest. Here's Walter's post from the fest:
The final Sunday of the last weekend of Jazzfest 08, as sunset approached on a beautiful day, our native sons the Neville Brothers returned home to perform for the first time since Katrina.
Suddenly, up in the air…is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes, actually it is and towing a banner reading “Shell Hear The Music Fix The Coast U Broke.” I heard many exclaim, “I don’t think that’s supposed to be there.” Thanks to the Gulf Restoration Network, who did a similar Shell protest two years ago, for taking my idea seriously and financing it, there it was. And thanks to Tab Benoit and his Voice of the Wetlands organization, it stayed up an additional hour and closed out one of the most beautiful closing days in memory. The T-shirts were a big hit also. Two girls at the ticket booth wanted them and wore them and you could spot people all around making it feel like the official theme of the Fest. Once again, before any feels too sorry for Shell, saying they provide jobs and pay taxes. Well, all of the real jobs have moved to Houston and they’ve been using that line for decades and getting away with it. Now people are starting to wake up to the reality that Shell and the other oil companies involved in southern Louisiana have made us vulnerable to total destruction every summer and fall by eating away our natural defense; coastal wetlands.
And besides, before Shell took over it cost about 25 bucks to get into the Jazz Fest...I paid 50 on Sunday. I guess they are passing on the cost of all of those Shell flags to the customer. Please present the idea of the oil industry paying to restore our coast to your representatives and let them know that rebuilding our coast is a national issue.
Thanks to Michael Sustendal for taking the picture of me when we bumped into each other and for Alycia Daumas for taking the close up from her house. I think the whole event was awesome and everyone’s talking about it.
Throughout the month of April, Aveda salons across the Southeast have been busy raising money for the GRN. The funds raised will support our work to protect clean water. Please visit your local Aveda salon and thank them for their hard work and commitment to a healthy Gulf.
These are just a few photos from the hundreds of events that were held across the region:
Joe Murphy of the GRN joins staff from the Aveda Institute St. Petersburg, Florida for a beach clean up.
Staff from the W. Daly Salon and Spa in Newman, Georgia donated their time for Cut-A-Thon. The event raised $2000 in just one day!
Jessica Netto of the GRN joins staff from the Avalon salon group in Dallas. Avalon salon held a crawfish boil and silent auction that raised over $5000 in one day!
Gary Lambert's Salon and Spa of Winter Park, Florida hosted a 'Brunch of Clean Water' and silent auction that raised over $6000 for the GRN.
Carol Lociano of Drew James Salon in Ft. Lauderdale, hosted a table at the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Science and Discovery's Earth Day event. They gave out blue water beads to children who committed to saving water by turning off the faucet as they wash their hands or brush their teeth.
This is the third year that Aveda distributors, the Neill Corporation and The Salon People and their salons have chosen the GRN as their Earth Month partner. We're honored that so many people are willing to donate their time and money for the GRN. Aveda is a unique company that not only talks about protecting our environment, but takes every step they can to live by their commitment.
Thanks Aveda!
Briana Kerstein is the Director of Organizational Development
Heading to Jazz Fest today? If you're there or in the neighborhood, keep an eye on the sky and check out our message to Shell, the sponsor of the event. We're going to have a plane flying a banner over the festivities, reading: Shell, hear the music. Fix the coast you broke!
I'm sure with all the challenges this overactive hurricane season has presented, the New Orleans race for Congress is probably the last thing you have been thinking about. But that doesn't change the fact that election day is fast approaching. October 4th is the primary - do you know who you'll be supporting?
