Letters to the Editor
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To Greg in FL
I agree with you about the difficulty for most in understanding the science or even the timeline. And it does take a personal catastrophe to make it hit home. My catastrophe was the flooding of New Orleans, which is as connected to global warming (pace la Paglia) as it is to Bush's criminal disinterest in replenishing Louisiana wetlands.
After the flood I moved back to NO, as did many, partly out of an all-hands-on-deck mindset, but oddly enough because New Orleans suddenly seemed not so far from everywhere else on the climate change scale. That water-rich, absurdly-low city is perhaps no less sustainable than overheated Phoenix, low-lying Miami, dust-bowl plains states, waterless L.A. New Orleans (although it may eventually be Atlantis) is still a viable model of a small, densely-zoned, transportation-friendly city with an enironmentally tuned housing stock that has a fighting chance of dealing with peak oil. And you can eat well while you adapt. The city has rejoined southern Louisiana so that much of the displaced population is nearby and on higher ground. If Amsterdam and Sydney can survive, so can we.
New Orleans' plight made me more aware of the need for urban creativity and resourcefulness everywhere. If we can resurrect the city with quality of life, we may end up a model home. And sell our water to Atlanta.