Though Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration initially was vague on whether it would continue to have an Office of Environmental Affairs during the nation’s largest oil disaster, the position has now been filled. Charles Allen, formerly at Tulane University in the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, started running the office two weeks ago. Allen is a […]
Category: Environment
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Imagineering an oil disaster
I drove my wife and daughters to Florida to see relatives and have a little holiday in the sun. Tomorrow we’ll visit Disney World, where we’ll delight in sterile fantasies and admire the Magic Kingdom’s “Imagineering”. Don’t worry. We’ll take a lot of pictures, just in case. In the meantime, I wanted to recommend this […]
Posted inEnvironment, Land Use
Old Earhart plan causes new concerns among neighbors about appropriateness
Residents question whether the $8.9 million project to widen a section of Earhart Boulevard serve the needs of post-Katrina New Orleans
Posted inEnvironment
Despite commandeering boats, officials losing island oil battle in Barataria Bay
Signs of the siege were scattered across East Grand Terre Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay: a pile of rakes crusted with oily mud, drenched absorbent matted into the sand, baby pools filled with greasy mud-colored water, wooden scrub brushes that looked more appropriate for a bubble bath than the cleanup of the biggest […]
Posted inEnvironment
Q&A with Landrieu staffers
Landrieu The Lens contacted Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office recently to discuss her role in the oil spill response. In an interview with Tom Michaels, the senator’s legislative director, and Aaron Saunders, her communications director, we discussed campaign contributions from BP and from the maker of the dispersants and whether drilling for oil continues to be […]
Posted inEnvironment
Scenes from the spill: Grand Isle
As Louisiana experiences week eight of the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe, globs of crude continue to wash into Grand Isle. Instead of fishers and sunbathers, workers hired by the oil giant raked contaminated sand occupy the shore, raking the toxic sand and removing it in plastic bags. Wetlands scientist Michael Massimi of The Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Oil companies tax our coast; it’s time we tax them back
Bienvenue en Louisiane! We’re still calling ourselves the Pelican State, but who knows what the future holds? Louisianans identify with pelicans because they are unique, non-extinct birds that seem to coast through life and eat lots of fresh seafood. We admire them because when times get tough, pelicans will prick their breasts and feed their […]
Posted inEnvironment
Alternative for dispersants to break up oil hampered by politics and bureaucracy
Fewer controversial oil-spill issues exist right now than the use of dispersants. Specifically, environmentalists, residents and clean-up workers are concerned about BP’s use of petroleum-based Corexit brand, which is more toxic than many of the alternatives approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is only 55 percent effective on the type of oil gushing […]
Posted inEnvironment, Government & Politics
Defend Plaquemines
Diane Sawyer’s person of the week wants to show the world just how hospitable Plaquemines Parish can be. At a town hall meeting this week Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who is to be anointed by Sawyer during a Friday night appearance on the ABC newscaster’s show, implored residents in attendance to be “hospitable.” “The […]
Posted inEnvironment
Shaking a fist at Monkeyfister
The end is near, or at least that’s what the blogger Monkeyfister would have you believe, based on his marathon live blogging of the oil spill as seen through the video feed from the ocean floor. Witness these updates from Sunday: UPDATE 1:20pm CDT: While watching, ANOTHER major “explosion” occurred. ROV Cam now covered in […]