Watch the ItsYourNature original video about the still desperate state of New Orleans.
It’s been a full two years since Hurricane Katrina tore threw New Orleans, wrecking homes, takings lives, casting off refugees and leaving neighborhoods trashed and uninhabitable. Two full years, and still the city bears a massive burden, one that’s been fully exposed by a new NRDC report, Katrina’s Wake [PDF link].
A team of our scientists have spent months gathering info about the current state of the Big Easy, and their findings are—to say the least—really, really disturbing. We’ve found literal mountains of trash left behind. We’ve seen blatant and tragic examples of social and environmental injustice. We’ve found levels of pollution in the city’s air, water, and land that are way beyond acceptable. Most alarmingly, we’ve found dangerous levels of arsenic polluting New Orleans schoolyards, playgrounds, and neighborhoods.
Two years on, when the damages of Katrina should be long passed, we’ve found a city whose challenges still stretch before us; a city that’s in desperate need of help.
So how can you help make a difference? Start here.
Read up: Learn all about the current condition and immediate challenges for New Orleans in the new NRDC report Katrina’s Wake. Or, for a toned-down “Clif Notes” version, follow along the ItsYourNature summaries of the report. [Warning: Reading this report may cause outrage.]
Get Active: Got a week to spend making lives better? Get yourself down to the Big Easy and volunteer with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice's "A Safe Way Home" project, which works on soil remediation throughout the city's most polluted neighborhoods
Open Your Wallet: There are dozens of local community groups working around the clock to bring New Orleans back. They need dough. Maybe you’ve got some.
Holy Cross Neighborhood Association
Advocates for Environmental Human Rights
Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Sierra Club, Delta Chapter
People's Environmental Center
