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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

This article investigates the current state of disaster mental health research. They look at the presentation, burden, correlates, and treatment of mental disorders following disasters and look at the challenges surrounding those aspects of research. 

The article discusses major psychopathology that is found in populations affected by disasters. They investigate disorders such as PTSD and MDD and pre-disaster risk factors associated with them. They discuss vulnerable groups, such as women and children. They also look at during and post-disaster factors and how they correlate to an increase in mental health disorders. 

This report then discusses current interventions utilized and their effects on the prevalence of mental health issues. An issue they address is that many victims or those suffering do not seek help, making accurate research difficult.

On the iTunes App Store, there is another app called Medical Management of Radiological Casualties that appears to be similar, but costs $7.99 to download, while REMM's app is free. This app appears to serve a similar function with providing support for healthcare providers, but also includes psychological support information, which REMM does not provide. This app also appears geared toward EMS responders, while the other is primarily made for physicians. 

1. "But with every explosion that shook the Japanese plant it became clearer: there was nobody -- not in Japan, nor Russia, nor the United States -- who had the relevant know-how, equipment, or strategy to handle a nuclear disaster. No international nuclear emergency response group exists today." pg 194

2. "But in the interest of sustainable, socially legitimate solutions, arguably deisions about even the technical responses to disasters should not be left to scientists and engineers alone." pg 196

3. "While national and international disaster relief organizations have refined their response techniques over the past decades, nuclear emergency preparedness and response has hardly gained traction." pg 200

Per Bech - Danish Psychiatrist who provided the author with a story about a patient of his. He is an innovator in clinical psychometrics. 

Journal of the American Medical Association - in 1992 published an article about giving weight to the combination of doctor's experience and biological plausibility. 

Hellmuth Kaiser - a teacher to the author and taught him about fictional cases portrayed on stage. 

Oxford University Press - began publishing a journal devoted to case reports of patients. 

New England Jounrl of Medicine - opened an issue with a case history to highlight patient experience. 

Lone Lindberg - coauthor for Dr. Bech, point out that spontaneous recovery from depression late in life is rare

Leston Havens - psychoanalyst - uses an interesting approach with his patients

"The outside world's response to Haiti's continuing cholera epidemic offers a revealing window on this disheartening dynamic"

"The source [of cholera] is clear to public health experts: Cholera was brought to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers quartered in a United Nations peacekeeping camp that spilled its waste into a tributary of the Artibonite."

"The UN has, thus far, refused to acknowledge responsibility for the cholera catastrophe"

The author uses MSF essays and statistics. She also uses information from the WHO and other analysis frome xperts in the field to help frame her argument. 

The main focus of this film is highlighting the need for proper public health infrastructure as a way to contain the spread of disease.