Louisiana’s rapidly disappearing coastline is a problem that affects us all. Southern Louisiana supplies 18% of natural gas for the country and close to 40% of all U.S. seafood is hatched in its estuaries. With the recent B.P. oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it is clear that more work needs to be done for the health and restoration of Gulf residents. The following organizations and individuals are actively involved with saving the wetlands and have links to follow for advocacy. If you would like to know more about the issues in order to donate, volunteer or support groups who are seeking change in this region, follow the links and read the stories:
Write your congressperson here! Get better health and research following the oil spill:
Gulf Restoration Network – United for a Healthy Gulf
Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/template/index.cfm
Voice of the Wetlands
http://www.voiceofthewetlands.org/
Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority of Louisiana
More information and personal web links:
Good NIH Summary of Louisiana’s coastal challenges
Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
USGS National Wetlands Research Center
Martha Serpas, Poet
John M. Barry, Author
Tab Benoit, Musician
Mr. Bill & The Estuarians
http://www.mrbill.com/Estuarians.html
Media links:
USF study finds more sick fish in oil spill area than rest of gulf by Craig Pittman
CBC show, June 29th, 2010, ‘Connect with Mark Kelley‘ at 21:00 mark.
TEDx Oil Spill Conference, first session at the 59:47 minute mark.
“Mourning the Bayou,” Chicago Reader, June 9th, 2010
Since I read Mike Tidwell’s Bayou Farewell (2003) years ago, I have been looking for a documentary to do justice to this enormous, under-reported story. And the story just did not make it out to the general public after Katrina, Rita, or the BP spill…even otherwise admirable writing and films about the environmental injustices of the Chemical Corridor and the NOLA flooding did not make connections to the bigger story of subsidence, erosion, and bayou collapse. I hope it screens widely and connects more of us consciously and conscientiously to the Gulf, as most Americans are connected only at the material, destructive, and unconscious level.