The Program in the Environment presents
“Hurricane Katrina and the Flooding of New Orleans:
A Catastrophic Combination of Storm Surge and Levee Failures”
Friday, November 9
1-2 p.m.
1028 Dana Building
On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, one of the three strongest hurricanes on record, made landfall with Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. By the middle of September the city of New Orleans was virtually deserted with over 1 million of its former residents dispersed nationwide. Now two years post-Katrina the New Orleans area is slowly recovering as levees and homes are rebuilt and new floodgates constructed, and plans to reverse the devastating wetlands loss abound.
Dr. Karen Webber is a 20-year resident of New Orleans. She lives in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans that took on 6-10 feet of water. She is an Assistant Professor-Research at the University of New Orleans, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and has been involved in teaching Introduction to Geology at U-M’s Camp Davis field station for 18 years.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute surveyed 100 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. It looked at their policies in the following fields: Administration, Climate Change and Energy, Food and Recycling, Green Building, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorieis, Shareholder Engagement. The Institute assigned grades to each individual field and to the university overall.
The University of Michigan earned an overall B+ grade. This was notably above the C grade that more than half the institutions earned.
The Institute's highest overall awarded grade, A-, went to Dartmouth College, Williams College, Harvard University and Stanford University. When only the campus-related categories were considered, 26 institutions got an average grade of A- or better. The University of Michigan was among the 26 schools labeled "Campus Sustainability Leaders."
Wednesday, March 14, 5:00 p.m. “Scientific Ocean Drilling, International Politics, and Domestic Public Policy.” UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History.
Dr. Steven Bohlen is President of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI) and executive director of the Ocean Drilling Program.
Previously Dr. Bohlen has worked with the U.S. Geological Survey and held a joint appointment at Stanford University as a Consulting Professor. He was also on the faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences.
Dr. Bohlen was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1974 and received a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the University of Michigan in 1979.
Free and open to the public. 763-4928.
Tuesday, February 13, 4:00 p.m. “Land Use, Climate Change and the Changing Landscape of the Navajo Nation.” Dr. Margaret Hiza Redsteer, Project Chief with the U.S. Geological Service, discusses USGS's partnership with the Navajo Nation. The USGS is supplying ecosystem data that the Nation is using in its regional land use plans. 1024 Dana Building. Free and open to the public. 763-4928.
Tuesday, January 23, 4:00 p.m. “Environmental Sustainability in Brewing and Distilling.” Scott Leopold, CEO and Founder of Leopold Bros., will discuss the product and process design issues that went into building and operating the world's first environmentally sustainable brewery and distillery. He will address these issues from a pollution prevention and life cycle perspective, as well as the financial impact of their results. 1024 Dana Building. Free and open to the public. 763-4928.
The Parsons Dance company is known for its athletic and innovative choreography. "Caught," one of the company's signature works, uses strobe lights and the dancers' high leaps to create a performance that appears suspended in midair.
Program in the Environment alumna Julie Blume joined the company in 2005. About its her dual interests she says, "Dance is so often inspired by nature, which leads me to believe that the study and understanding of our surroundings will ultimately heighten our artistry."
Read more about the Parsons Dance Company at www.parsonsdance.org.
Thursday, November 16, 4:00 p.m. “TEMPLE STREAM in time and place: an Annotated Reading”: Bill Roorbach reads from his 2006 book, Temple Stream, with asides and additional backstory. Co-sponsored by the UM Program in the Environment, English Language and Literature and the MFA Program in Creative Writing. 2024 Dana Building, 430 E. University. Free and open to the public. 763-4928.
