QUOTIDIAN ANTHROPOCENES: NEW ORLEANS
Introduction
This digital collection contains materials related to the Anthropocene as seen from and experienced in New Orleans.
Maka Suarez: thinking about air pollution locally
makasuarezAnnotation of
In response to
I was interested in learning about how air pollution has been talked/researched in the New Orleans area. Mainly, the need to highlight local specificities and historical analysis. A 1950s study on air pollution in New Orleans (Air Pollution and New Orleans Asthma), for instance, documented asthma incidence among black communities (sadly the article still uses the N word), and its relationship to underground fire burning in nearby dumps. The study is more comprehensive and did a census in part of the city as well as a number of medical tests on 84 individuals.
A second study, this one from 2007, documented asthma in children (Prevalence of Indoor Allergen Exposures among New Orleans Children with Asthma). It has a relevant focus of the differences between document indoor allergen exposure in different areas of the US and how subtropical weather in NOLA plays an important role in the kinds of allergies that children with asthma face. One of the main findings of the study can be summarized in the following quote “our data show that asthmatic children in New Orleans may be exposed to a greater number of allergens at moderate to high levels compared to asthmatic children living in other inner cities and to the general population.”
Finally, a third reference, the book Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuild, and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast talks about something, others have already pointed out (@Omar Perez Figueroa for instance) regarding areas that undergo dramatic change and hardship after natural disasters like hurricane Katrina and Rita. This book, particularly chapter 5 (though I can’t access the full text) explains the highly toxic environment that resulted (and remains) in the New Orleans area due to little clean-up action following the disasters. Lack of funding, deference to poorly resourced local authorities, and policy-failure all affect New Orleans (and many of our sites of research) particularly the fate of vulnerable communities.
Big ‘green’ mistake: dumping sewage in wetlands carries hidden costs
This opinion piece by Ed Bodker addresses current debates over a seemingly “greenwashed” way to handle sewage and other kinds of effluent in New Orleans.
Levees.org
Founded in November 2005 by Sandy and Stanford Rosenthal, Levees.org is dedicated to educating the public that that the flooding of New Orleans was a manmade civil engineering disast
Some white people don't want to hear about slavery at slave sites
Online reviews display the aversion some visitors have to museums and other institutions that attempt to give an accurate account of the history of slavery in the United States
Losing Ground: Louisiana
This Propublica piece uses historical data, interviews and other research to look at 80 years of rising tides in Louisiana.
‘Toxic Stew’ Stirred Up by Disasters Poses Long-Term Danger, New Findings Show
By knocking chemicals loose from soil, homes, industrial-waste sites or other sources, and spreading them into the air, water and ground, disasters— often intensified by climate change — appear to
Hurricane Barry and the New Normal
This piece by Andy Horowitz looks at "the new normal" in New Orleans: more rain, more drought, more fire, less predictability.
Louisiana Environmental Action Network
The Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) is a community based not-for-profit organization that has been working since 1986 to resolve the unique environmental struggles present in Louisian
Ludwig, Jason. 2019. “Quotidian Anthropocenes: New Orleans.” In Quotidian Anthropocene, edited by Kim Fortun and Scott Knowles. On Disaster-STS Network.