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The Nelson Institute Forum featured a NOVA documentary of Hurricane
Katrina called, Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Drowned a City. This is timely, as March 1 is the 6 month anniversary of the disaster.Lawrence Reed, a local who had 22 houses (all including family members) destroyed in the hurricane, and
David Hart, a professor at UW currently teaching "GIS for Natural Disasters"
talked about the hurricane and discussed their experiencesDescription of the film: On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing at least 1,300, destroying over 600,000 houses, and turning downtown New Orleans into an uninhabitable swamp.
In a compelling hour-by-hour reconstruction of the ferocious storm, NOVA exposes crucial failures in preparation and engineering that led to the worst disaster in U.S. history. The film probes the titanic forces behind hurricanes and the latest technology for tracking and predicting them, showing how scientists precisely foresaw the impact of a strong hurricane on New Orleans a year before Katrina struck. NOVA investigates the fatal flaws in New Orleans’ levees and the huge challenge posed by protecting and rebuilding the city. As global temperatures rise, are killer storms like Katrina a growing threat?
Hurricane Katrina: The Storm that Drowned a City presents astonishing storm footage, suspenseful eyewitness testimony, and a penetrating analysis of what went wrong. Viewers relive the storm through the eyes of survivors and the stories of top engineers, hurricane experts, and emergency officials as they grappled with the arrival of the storm and its traumatic aftermath (from Amazon.com).
Spirituality, Environment, and Community: On Creating a Culture of Conservation
We held a panel discussion exploring the role of spirituality in environmental science, public policy, and civic engagement. Can spiritual-based morals serve as a base to engage policy makers and mobilize public interest toward increased sustainability? If so, how?
Panelists included:
Cal DeWitt, professor of environmental studies (Profile ; recent article in Science Magazine about Prof. DeWitt)
Neil Whitehead, professor and researcher on Amazonian shamanism
Travis Tennessen, student member of The Crossing (www.crossingministries.org)
Lynne Smith, Director of Oblates at the St. Benedict Center (www.sbcenter.org)
Defining and Building Community Capacity for Co-management in Belize. Presentation of Master's Thesis research by Scott Bernstein, Land Resources M.S. Candidate, Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. For more information, see https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/sebernstein/web/thesis