Week 12 Reflection!

Lindsay Harris

COMM 3824-01

4/3/19

Comm 3824 Reflection 10

            In this week’s readings, the focus was on disaster planning and resilience tactics within New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. The bare minimum or the information was provided in the Orleans Parish graphic, but made it easier to grasp exactly what New Orleans East could look like if action is not taken soon. It was troubling to read statistics like the potential economic damages from flooding will likely rise to $400 million in the next 50 years, or in that same time frame 100 year flood depths increase to over 15 feet outside the levee system. Additionally, Hardy et. al. pointed out the numerous ways in which race is so deeply intertwined with the socio-ecological formations of our coastal regions. In fact, I found it interesting that this article shows how these formations potential makes way for radical transformation in climate change science not only in coastal areas, but other spaces as situated territorial racial formations. In political terms, Woodruff et.al.’s journal article shines light on the policymaking aspect of resilience planning and adaption. Comparing multiple cities’ programs and resilience plans is a great way to demonstrate the flawed and successful aspects of each plan, making it easier to come up with a more well-rounded plan that multiple cities would be able to implement, hopefully making a positive impact in the fight to end prevent climate change.

            Prior to doing these readings, I had not thought about resilience planning or any form of preparation for floodings. As a California native, I am used to being surrounded by mountains and have always resided high above sea level, making the thought of flooding a distant and unrealistic one. While we have done planning for things like major earthquakes, it was never on a government level, it was only discussed in my home with my family. Additionally, I had no idea that these issues impacted specific racial groups more than others, now I see that primarily African American communities are the ones at risk of losing their land to rising sea levels, which is incredibly disheartening. It only adds to the fear and frustration at observing the rates at which New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast is rapidly losing miles and miles of land each day. All of these things make me hope that someone will be able to enact real change, however I feel as though the only people working at an urgent enough pace are those who are in direct danger of losing their homes.

Color-Blind Adaptation: Vulnerability, mitigation, and adaptation planning that altogether overlook racial inequalities or, the dismissing racial inequalities systemic causes and explains it by attributing racial disparities to non-racial causes.

Social Vulnerability: The characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, and resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard.

Abolition Ecology: The necessary steps to overcome colorblind adaptation planning through anti-racist perspectives, resulting in understanding vulnerability and adaptation to sea level rise in terms of racial coastal formation.