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As a participant in the NOLA Anthropocene Campus, I have gained insights on how communities, stewards, and managers of ecosystems in New Orleans have rolled out forms of interspecies care vis-à-vis ongoing environmental changes, coastal erosion, climate catastrophes and their deeply present and current effects (i.e., the 2010 BP oil disaster). Whilst much analytical lens has been given to geospatial changes in the study of the Anthropocene, here, I focus on how relations to non-human beings, also threatened by the changing tides of NOLA’s waterscapes, can enrich our understanding of such global transformations.

After disasters like Katrina, urban floodwaters harbored many hidden perils in the form of microbes that cause disease. Pathogenic bacterial exposure occurred when wastewater treatment plants and underground sewage got flooded, thus affecting the microbial landscape of New Orleans and increasing the potential of public health risks throughout Southern Louisiana. But one need not wait for a disaster event like Katrina to face these perils. Quotidian activities like decades of human waste and sewage pollution have contaminated public beaches now filled with lurking microbes. Even street puddle waters, such as those found on Bourbon Street, contain unsanitary bacteria level from years of close human exploitation of horses and inadequate drainage in 100-year old thoroughfares. More recently, microbial ecologies have also changed in the Gulf of Mexico due to the harnessing of energy resources like petroleum. Lush habitats for countless species are more and more in danger sounding the bells of extinction for the imperiled southern wild.

Human-alteration has severely damaged the wetland marshes and swamps that would have protected New Orleans from drowning in the water surge that Hurricane Katrina brought from the Gulf of Mexico. The latter is something that lifelong residents (i.e., indigenous coastal groups) of the Mississippi River Mouth have been pointing to for a  long time. Over the past century, the river delta’s “natural” infrastructure has been altered by the leveeing of the Mississippi River. Consequently, much of the silt and sediments that would generally run south and deposit in the river mouth to refeed the delta get siphoned off earlier upstream by various irrigation systems.

While some actors see it as a futile effort, there have been many proposals to restore the Mississippi River Delta. For instance, the aerial planting of mangrove seeds has even been recommended to help protect the struggling marshes and Louisiana’s coastal region. Tierra Resources, a wetland’s restoration company, proposed that bombing Lousiana’s coast with mangrove seeds could save it. Mangrove root systems are especially useful in providing structures to trap sediments and provide habitats for countless species. Additionally, mangroves have been touted as highly efficient species in carbon sequestration, thus taking carbon dioxide out of the biosphere.

Species diffusion into new environments has been of great concern for the different lifeways these soggy localities sustain, whether human or non-human. Many so-called “invasive species” have been identified throughout the river delta by researchers at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research hosted by Tulane and Xavier University. Such species have disrupted local ecological relations and practices and have had profound economic effects. Some plants have even entirely blocked waterways in the swamps and estuaries where salt and freshwater mix. 

Louisiana’s humid subtropical climate, and the diverse ecosystems therein, also warrant attention in that they can incubate some of the world’s deadliest parasites and other microbes. Of particular concern would be some of today's Neglected Tropical Diseases (i.e., Chagas, Cysticercosis, Dengue fever, Leishmaniasis, Schistosomiasis, Trachoma, Toxocariasis, and West Nile virus) often perceived as only affecting tropical regions of Latin America and revealing the enduring legacies of colonial health disparities.

How and when are seemingly quotidian events and upsets understood as not isolated but rather as produced in conjunction with other anthropocenics worldwide? What roles will interspecies relations and forms of care play as we cope with further anthropocenic agitation?

NOLA’s oldest tree, McDonogh Oak in City Park, 800 years old: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK9YoGpng_c&t=0s

Other trees in New Orleans: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/new-orleans-louisiana/trees

American Red Cross doesn't claim to have or offer new or unique techniques to attending to disaster. Yet in my opinion, The American Red Cross is one of the greatest organizations in terms of disaster response and it is truly made up of people who want to help others. We are lucky to have such a large scale magnitude of volunteers gathered through one organization to answer to both small needs in their community, be it a blood drive or house fire, to large disaster relief efforts after Katrina or 9/11. The American Red Cross has single handedly offered aid to so many families in America and saved more lives than any other single independent organization run by a majority of volunteers. The American Red Cross offers a wide range of coverage in terms of disaster types they respond to and frequency, so in my opinion, they are a very, very unique organization and offer something that I have not seen any other organization offer the way they do.

This policy applies to American law and patients who are in need of emergency medical treatment and is to be followed by all emergency departments and personnel alike. 

I think that adding more evidentiary support such as data analysis r statistics would have enhanced this video's educational value. It would have shown the physical evidence and the magnitude of the disaster. I also believe that citing more government officials and getting statements from more hospital workers, doctors and first responders would have given this film a more well rounded and accurate depiction of all sides of the outbreak. 

This article was published in Public Health Reports, this is the official journal of the US public Health Service and Surgeon General of the United States. Topics and issues of public health law, public health practice and research as well as schools and teaching are published in this journal. Overall, this journal is highly regarded. It is peer reviewed and publishes original work. Being the official journal of US departments reflects its validity. 

"In any number of disaster over the past two centuries, the "disaster investigation," far from proving itself the dispassionate, scientific verdict on causality and blame, actually emerges as hard-fought honest is to define the moment in politics and society, in technology and culture."

"history shows that, with time, a given community of engineers and scientists has generally proven able to explain the technical particulars of a structural collapse."

"By reviewing the history of disaster investigations in the US, we therefore gain a broader context for understanding the early pitfalls and the future prospects for the World Trade Center investigation,"

The EPA has been working to raise funds to launch this ambitious cleanup project. The EPA has also began looking for solutions to cleanup the polluted waterways in the Hudson River.

I would say that a situation where this site would be difficult to work with would be in an urgent, or time sensitive situation. Let's say during a situation where quick medical care is needed, this site would be difficult to work with and not a good source of information during that time. Yet in most situations and settings this would prove to be a good source of data. 

The DRLA works to provide resilience to communities that have been impacted by a disaster according to their mission statement. They do so through leadership, humanitarianism, education and research. They work to increase leadership in these areas and help identify any weaknesses and vulnerabilities like social inequality and poverty. This program prides itself on its unique focus on leadership and providing programs in increasing resilience and leadership development in areas that have been effected.