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CITIZEN SCIENCE

Epistemic negotiation

Stakeholders (indigenous groups, activist, scientist, scholars, etc)

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

Agencies have been efficiently trying to prevent and avoid pollution at the Newark Port.First,

These agancies have made efforts by trying to clear idle truck at thses area and these has proven

to eliminate a huge amout of pollution by reduscing the rate of asthma by up to three times the usual amount.

Flood has been and is still a major concern in New jersey because the state is close to or on the 

caost.Whenever an heavy rain falls today , there are flood notifications on everyones phones.

These flood situations lead to traffic,lateness,rise in water levels and all others leading to 

vulnerability in our environment.

James Oluwalanke

Dr. Pedro de la Torre

STS 201

01/29/2018

Q1. The report was basically about the how flood has been affecting newark over the past years and the adequate control measures/techniques (laws Movements,permits)

that have been put in place to ensure the prevention of flood in Newark.Agencies that prevent flood have also proven efective and functional over time as in indicated

in the text "Historically, New Jersey has taken a strong role in the development of a rigorous floodplain management program at the State level while supporting those

same efforts at the Federal level with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "(Floodplain Mapping Unit paragraph 1).This report would make resident feel

at ease knowing the problem of flooding is uder control.

Reacting to this report, Although Its is very reassuring knowing all these Agencies,funding,laws, and concerns are in place, I believe extra effort should be put in not only

in Newark but also in other flood affected areas in New Jersey and The United States as a whole because water levels are rising (major concern in coastal areas)and new methods should be put in place to

avoid major casualties.
. .

Various kinds of vulnerability basically affects our immediate society in diffents ways.

Some include poverty,Illeteracy,natural dissasters and so on.These negative impacts

on our society makes the public vulnerable.

Air polluion involves the introduction of harmful substance into the air.These harmful substances

involves various harmful gases let out by machines, aircrafts and so on.

These pllutions could lead to serious health injuries which could lead to poverty if

too much money is spent in the hospital as treatment could be expensive.