TP Feature on Disappearing Wetlands

[VWGal]

Have you all started reading this feature series in the TP?

http://tinyurl.com/2exhhm

We know it's a sad situation but the reality is even more unbelievable. I just got a bonus at work and am wondering which organization working on this issue to support.

[Azeater]

Enlightening and Disturbing. I was just about to post a similar thread. I don't really think your donation will do as much as continued letters to our respective representatives outlining both our concern and our amazement at lack of progress. My real fear is the fear that those who will end up either voting for or against the financial undertaking needed to reverse this eroding wetlands issue will see it as a lost cause and decide not to further finance what needs to be done to reverse it. Breambob and others have noted the importance of the wetlands restoration many times over the past months in many posts to this board. The slide show from the TP website makes the gravity of the situaion both clear and easy to understand by anyone. The steps that will need to be taken to reverse this are far more complicated than I am able to understand but time is definitely growing short. If another large storm targets this area in the next few years the timeframe will undoubtedly shrink dramatically. This is not some esoteric exercise in calculating the life span of the sun or the potential overheating of our planet. We are talking just a few years to reverse a situation that will destroy a city.

[VWGal]

I hear ya AZ -- what if it really is too late? If there's no mobilization in the next two years, will everyone decide it's hopeless and stop fightin? I hope the next part of the series has some answers. We need to write letters!

[Orleansnj]

If you haven't already read it - pick up a copy of Mike Tidwell's Bayou Farewell, it details the losses as well.

I think there are a lot of good places to put you $$ for this cause.

One of the oldest I can remember is Save our Wetlands (http://www.saveourwetlands.org/)

There is also Tab Benoit's Voice of the Wetlands (http://www.voiceofthewetlands.com/mainpage.html)

But these are only a few of many organizations working on this issue...

anyone else got more you can add here?

[Cleophus]

We are talking just a few years to reverse a situation that will destroy a city.

Yup -- and not just a city, but serious damage to what some of our people in DC seem to care most about: the oil industry.

Not to mention way-of-life issues like hunting, fishing, seafood production, etc., etc., etc.

[Azeater]

Be sure to watch this animation

http://www.nola.com/speced/lastchance/multimedia/flash.ssf?flashlandloss1.swf

[Zydekitten]

I just watched it too - I hadnt' seen this thread, but I get a daily e-mail newsletter from NOLA.com and they're really featuring it in the newsletter.

It's just frightening what we've been able to do to the wetlands in only 75 years and dismaying that the Feds don't seem to be terribly concerned. I've been really encouraging my Fed reps here in Cali to speak out to support the Gulf Coast and New Orleans - by phone, letter and e-mail - but I think we'll all need to kick it up a notch, especially as we move into a new Presidential election season . . .

[Azeater]

" When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. "

[Corona]

" When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. "
What a wonderful quote Az! So very true. I know this sounds trite but after the hurricane I was so devastated, I couldn't do anything but cry for 3 days. After that I realized I needed to do something so I got involved in 2 fundraisers- 1 did at work and then 1 I helped out with in our community. Man, what a change I felt just by getting involved...it's truly amazing. You're doing good for someone else and it's good therapy for your own self.

[Michelino]

We need leadership from the top down to affect real results in reversing the damage to the wetlands...there are limits to what volunteers can do. If this does not become a national priority then it goes nowhere.

Unfortunately, the same forces (born of corporate cronyism) that deny the truth about climate change also want to avoid the fact that we can devastate the environment and inadvertently shape our geography in the same careless manner.

[ScoopJohnD]

Got the ol email working and put this article and my plea for action to my two senators, NBC Nightly News, W, and since I'm an undecided Democrat, Sen. Obama and John Edwards. (Hillary's web site was having problems with email.) Tomorrow the NY Times.

Maybe it's just a drop in a huge bucket, but it's one more drop than was there before.

[ibjamn]

What a wonderful quote Az! So very true. I know this sounds trite but after the hurricane I was so devastated, I couldn't do anything but cry for 3 days. After that I realized I needed to do something so I got involved in 2 fundraisers- 1 did at work and then 1 I helped out with in our community. Man, what a change I felt just by getting involved...it's truly amazing. You're doing good for someone else and it's good therapy for your own self.

"When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better"

How wonderful to post meaningful articles. But when "feelings" turn to action, that is when things get done! Thank you all for what you have done for us!!
- Scoop, you have been so active in getting people to contact their legislators! Keep it up, we need to be reminded!
- Michelino - thank you for your voice! (and thank the crab for me! ;)
- corona, you and ohio, gris gris, jada, seafood, eat_mo, saturn, Mr.Steve, swag, AmyP & Jeff, AmyLoves, NOLA, Neen, Barry10016, Cisco, the 2fors, LisaRI & Joe, JustaGirl, Windowman, Beadhead, mymecca, kibbie, kinderkitti, NewRonB, have all done so much!
Stynger & Festngator, thanks for the music!

It's not what you say. It's what you DO that counts.

[Azeater]

My prayer would be that New Orleans gets inhabited by a lot more people like you Jen.

[mymecca]

and keep on keepin' on

[ScoopJohnD]

My prayer would be that New Orleans gets inhabited by a lot more people like you Jen.

I second that!!!

[stynger]

reading this thread and the article made me feel mad and sad. reading Jen's post made me feel better and hopeful. true dat Jen.

[Zydekitten]

Well, we're happy to do whatever we can do from wherever we are for people like you, Jenn and my other friends in New Orleans - not to mention all of the friends I have there, whom I haven't met yet.

My heart is in that city, I would do and give anything I can for it and the folks who live there.

[VWGal]

I think I'll follow Scoop's lead and add emails to my local member of parliament and our prime minister, who has recently declared the environment to be Canadian's number one issue. The environment is also likely to be one of the platforms in any re-election platform...as Canadian migratory birds nest in the bayou, I think there's a correlation.

Let's get our government talking to your government...

I wonder when the next installment in this series will be...you know, it's not so much that this is happening as that's been known for a long time, what I find unbelievable is the timeline...in just 10 short years, the Gulf will be at New Orleans doorstep!

[ScoopJohnD]

I think I'll follow Scoop's lead and add emails to my local member of parliament and our prime minister, who has recently declared the environment to be Canadian's number one issue. The environment is also likely to be one of the platforms in any re-election platform...as Canadian migratory birds nest in the bayou, I think there's a correlation.

Let's get our government talking to your government...

I wonder when the next installment in this series will be...you know, it's not so much that this is happening as that's been known for a long time, what I find unbelievable is the timeline...in just 10 short years, the Gulf will be at New Orleans doorstep!

I believe pts 2 and 3 are running today and tomorrow if I'm not mistaken. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

[ScoopJohnD]

Pt 2
http://www.nola.com/printer/printer.ssf?/speced/lastchance/articles/day2losingground.html