Pre/Post-K: A Project Proposal

1. 1. How has New Orleans’ relationship with the environment, specifically climate, changed from pre-Katrina to post-Katrina? Within that question: How has the city become, if at all, culturally more aware of our environmental circumstances and what effect has it already had on our environment? And finally, how does New Orleans’ relationship with its environment respond with environmental awareness nationally?

2. 2. This question is important because New Orleans is to environmental activism as Global Warming is to the polar ice caps; it’s an extreme environment where we are probably going to be able to see the most change if it occurs. If New Orleans, an American city so publicly laid bare by its environmental dysfunction, cannot improve itself what does that reflect upon the rest of America’s environmental health? Can environmental consciousness productively assimilate itself into the culture? This can be backed up and measured by data as well cultural criticism.

3. 3. I intend to track and compare environmental data pre-K and post-K from the noaa and possibly uno as well as other sources as they become available. I also intend to use local publications and possibly contact with local environmental activist organizations. I will also reference the form and structure of essays from “Acts of Cultural Criticism” by Roland Barthes.

4. 4. I hope that when the project is complete I will have compiled a clear snapshot of the state of New Orleans’s relationship with its environment and how it has changed, if at all.

5. 5. My method for communicating results will most likely be an essay, possibly with pictures. The use of any other media is not currently anticipated but could possibly occur.