Colorlines.com created an amazing infographic to detail Hurricane Katrina a decade later. Take a good look at it. How does this article and image make you feel? How does it inspire you to take action?
Here are some images from the infograhic, but check out the entire article and illustration because it is fantastic!
Yesterday was Earth Day. What does that mean to each of us? Does it mean that for the day, you decided to recycle or read something on the history of Earth Day? Does it mean that you said “Happy Earth Day” to a few people and took the bus to work? Or maybe, will you took a long hard look at what our relationship with Mother Earth looks like and figured out some way that you can routinely change your lifestyle so that every day you are contributing to bettering our planet?
Celebrating the Earth’s existence is one of the most fantastic things that we can do. Unfortunately it has to happen more than one time a year. It has to be in our heads every single day. In the morning… “I have my keys, I have my bag, did I turn off every light in my house and unplug all unnecessary items that don’t need to be plugged in?” At lunch…. “Do I have to drive to lunch? Is there a restaurant that uses biodegradable to go wear? The dry cleaning is from a company that uses eco-friendly chemicals.” After work…. “Do I have to go when there is so much traffic I’m just going to sit in my car while it’s running? Are the ingredients for dinner coming from sustainable locations?” And so on.
I know it’s difficult and I will be honest; I don’t think like this but maybe 30 percent of the time, but we have to work on making this a reflex. If we want any future as a race on this planet, then we have to. Especially on a week that gas is at the highest price it has ever been in our country ever. If you’re not aware, the price for crude oil topped at $112 yesterday. This is also after a year where BP had record profits in the same year as the Gulf oil spill. But I digress. This is an Earth Day celebration and my point is we all have to make an individual effort. While we’re doing that, I hope the best to all of you as w, me included, continue to find the pennies in the cushions to fill our gas tanks.
Here is what I saw while I was in Baltimore. A free bus that covers the greater Baltimore area that runs every ten minutes for majority of the day. It is being used, taken care of and greatly appreciated by the residence of Baltimore.
Today I find myself in Panama Beach, FL shocked that it is Thursday already. Monday I ventured around Beaumont and then that evening we arrived in New Orleans and before I knew it, Wednesday arrived, I had seen and done a ton and haven’t shared any of it with you. By this Sunday, you will see and read about the follow-up in Austin that include an amazing lecture by Arlene Goldbard, some great volunteer opportunities and just a brief bit about the other things that happened that I hadn’t a proper moment to talk about.
After that of course, I was in San Antonio, TX for a few days. I got some great time with my friend Bri and what it looks like to be a modern family on the go. We also got a great chance to check out the Humane Society of San Antonio as well as venture down to the Market Square.
After that, I was picked up by three friends who happened to be road tripping for their spring break. That of course brought us to Beaumont where I checked out how and old historic city survives when a history isn’t enough to stand on. We also got a great example of what happens when the members of a community do not work together.
In New Orleans, I’ll show you life years after hurricane Katrina, the cemetery history and I’ll share a great cab ride with a native who has truly seen it all. New Orleans also showed us the history of the French Quarters and how that really sits in our history as a country.
Once we were on our way to Florida, we decided to get a little closer to Mobile, AL so we could not only get a little more about Katrina, but find out a little about the BP oil spill. That got us to Dauphin Island and a peculiar peninsula that seemed to be where shopping karts went to die. And now, we are almost to Tampa.
I hope this teaser gets your mouth-watering. I promise all this content will be up very soon. Until that happens though, enjoy this great video on leadership.
