“I expected that a lawsuit taking on the entire oil and gas industry—perhaps the largest environmental lawsuit in the history of the planet—might receive major national coverage.” —Nathaniel Rich * In “Behind the Cover Story,” Rachel Nolan speaks with Nathaniel Rich,...
coastal restoration
Highlights from “The Most Ambitious Environmental Lawsuit Ever” in The New York Times Magazine
“The idea of making the industry live up to its legal responsibility is not going to die.” —John M. Barry Yesterday, Sunday, Oct. 6, The New York Times Magazine published a cover story titled “Waterworld: The Most Ambitious Environmental Lawsuit Ever.” Aside from the...
Louisiana’s Vanishing Wetlands and “Most Ambitious” Enviro Lawsuit Featured in New York Times Magazine
This weekend you’ll want to go to your nearest newsstand and buy a copy of the Sunday New York Times and go straight to the Magazine for an article of major importance. The cover shows an oil industry “shortcut” canal sliced through Louisiana’s Barataria-Terrebonne...
Questions for Coastal Conservation Conversation Panel: Tonight, Aug. 20
Experts to Discuss How to Pay for Massive Coastal Restoration Effort We are raising our hands because we have a few questions for the distinguished panelists at the Coastal Conservation Conversation tonight, Aug. 20, at Loyola University in New Orleans (6:00–8:00...
Join Louisiana’s Most Important Conversation: Aug. 20 at Loyola University
A Coastal Conservation Conversation The Lens, with sponsorship from the Mississippi River Delta Coalition, is hosting a panel discussion—a Coastal Conservation Conversation—on the financing of the $50 billion master plan for coastal restoration at Loyola University,...
Louisiana Flood Protection Agency Sues Big Oil to Repair Wetlands
Historic case is compared to 1990s litigation against Big Tobacco About 100 oil and gas companies must pay to repair the Louisiana wetlands damaged by a century of oil exploration and extraction, according to a lawsuit filed July 24 in civil district court in Orleans...
Conservatives, Please Help Conserve Louisiana’s Coast
“What is a conservative after all but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live?” —Ronald Reagan, 1984 “Louisiana’s voters must find, nominate and elect conservatives (aka, Republicans) who understand there’s...
Rachel Maddow Reporting from Jean Lafitte National Park
When Rachel Maddow broadcast from the French Quarter the Friday night before the Super Bowl (how long ago that feels!), she surely did not imagine she would be back a few months later covering the hugest godawful environmental catastrophe this nation has ever seen....
BP Oilpocalypse Threatens New Orleans’s Very Existence
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlPPFcy-3Vo&feature=player_embedded Steve Wereley [of] . . . Purdue University, told NPR the actual spill rate of the BP oil disaster is about 3 million gallons a day—15 times the official guess of BP and the federal government. . ....
“Break the Addiction” : A New Ad from Greenpeace
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aquaNj9J0l0&feature=player_embedded
“Something Called ‘Volcano Monitoring’ ”
[cross-posted at Daily Kos] “[The Democrats’ stimulus] legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes . . . $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of...
U.S. Employment Grows by Highest Rate in Three Years
Bloomberg reports recovery from worst recession since 1930s is “broadening and becoming more entrenched” Some good news on the employment front: The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that while the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the national economy added...
Mitch Landrieu for Mayor of New Orleans
Mitch Is the Man New Orleanians, the best way to make the Saints lucky on Sunday in the Super Bowl is by casting your ballot early and often (encore, repetez!) for Mitchell J. Landrieu as mayor of the great City of New Orleans. This is also the best way to boost the...
Coastal Conservation Corps:
A New CCC for Coastal Restoration—and Jobs
Levees Not War is pleased to direct your attention to LaCoastPost, where you can read a guest post titled “Why Not Institute a ‘Green’ Corps for the Coast?”, or, “Reinventing the CCC and WPA.” In collaboration with LaCoastPost editor Len Bahr, a coastal science and...
“The Brown Pelican Is Back”
An Environmental Protection Success Story The brown pelican, a species that was driven nearly to extinction by use of the pesticide D.D.T., has grown back in strong enough numbers that the admirable bird has been removed from the endangered species list. The decision...
Levees Not War Meets LaCoastPost
We regretted missing the annual Katrina bloggerfest and live social networking known as Rising Tide 4 in New Orleans this past August—an omission we hope not to repeat. By way of making up for some of that fellow blogger community spirit, last week we took a long...
Obama Welcomed, and Challenged, in New Orleans
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL7aldiQLS0 Maybe he wished he’d planned to stay longer, though there may have been a point when he began to wish he hadn’t come at all. President Obama’s visit was criticized days in advance even by supporters for being too short. The...
Obama Visits New Orleans (Too Briefly)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od2bOkQ4Kf0 President Obama visits New Orleans for about four hours today. He will visit the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower Ninth Ward from about noon till 1:00 p.m., and then will hold a town hall meeting at UNO...
Warming Up for Obama
Senators: Support Public Option, Kennedy’s HELP Committee Plan Tonight President Obama gives a rather important speech to a joint session of Congress. To say we wish him well would be an understatement. We spent most of the day warming up his audience by faxing and...
Coastal Restoration Geeks Unite!
If our travel budget were not already AWOL, we would be landing in Lake Charles right about now for the Chenier Plain Symposium Jan. 8–9 hosted by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Many of the major people in coastal restoration will be there, talking about some technical but very important topics, such as the function of wetlands in damping down hurricane storm surges and about how Louisiana needs multiple lines of defense.