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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

They calculated the observed/expected (O/E) ratio of thyroid cancer prevalence for residents in Fukushima Prefecture that were below the age of 20. Observed prevalence was calculated by the number of thyroid cancer cases detected by the end of April 2015. The number of detected cases was corrected for screening rate by multiplying the inverse of the age-specific screening rate. The expected prevalence was obtained from another report, which was calulated using a life-table method using national estimates from 2001-10. Age-specific prevalence of thyroid cancer was estimated using the cumulative risk from 2010. The annual percent change of increasing cases of thyroid cancer was taken into account as well. 

The author's name is Miriam Ticktin. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Co-Director of Zolberg Institute for Migration and Mobility. Her PhD from Anthropology is from Stanford. Miriam works at the intersections of the anthropology of medicine and science, law, and transnational and postcolonial feminist theory. She has published many papers and a few books, some of which discuss borders as new forms of political inclusion and exclusion.

Emergency response is discussed more in terms of prevention. While the PIH model was used as a response to the high prevalence of disease in the area, it can be used to show how emergency response may require reaction using a model or system that can be long-term. Prevention is explored using the concept of structural violence and how inherrent structures within our society are causing spread of disease. The paper offers the idea that identifying issues within a society could help response to further emergencies. 

According to Google Scholar, this report has been cited over 130 times. It has been used in various other articles regarding gender identity and discrimination. Many articles are also discussing counseling and support that this community requires. Some news reports have used this as a citing of statistical data. 

This article discusses public health and biosecurity. The authors discuss the need for preparedness and risks that start outbreaks. The article is broken into four domains: emerging infection disease, bioterrorism, cutting-edge life-sciences, and food safety in order to highlight their arguments. Through public health initiatives, it is important to identify security risks and prevent them from negatively impacting the world. 

The methods used in this paper include interviews from 11 different representatives of organizations working in complex security environments, information from research workshops that included researchers and practitioners in the fields of health and humanitarian aid delivery and policy, and overall analysis of organizational efforts made to address this type of violence.

Because this organization works primarily within workplaces, their goal to prevent disasters and emergencies provides them with an interesting outlook. Their focus on ensuring safety for workers gives them a proactive perspective as opposed to one that responds to disasters.