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Matthew D. White - Award of Excellence
The Power of Place - The 8th Annual Grand Isle Juried Exhibition
April 10 - Apr 18, 2010
Grand Isle, La (8/09)
Cheniere Caminada, LA 8/09 - Award of Excellence
Matthew White, is the recipient of an Award of Excellence for works showcased in the 8th Annual Grand Isle Juried Exhibition, The "Power of Place", which opened April 10 and closes April 18, 2010 with a reception and awards presentation from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the Grand Isle Community Center. This was White’s fifth consecutive year to participate in the annual show, which showcases works this year with themes relating to the physical, political and emotional landscape associated with of the only inhabited Louisiana barrier island and its surrounding wetlands. The goal of the exhibition was to showcase excellent visual art from the region and raise awareness of Louisiana’s fragile but rich coastal environment and continuing loss. The two works that were selected for the show were "Grand Isle, LA" and "Cheniere Caminada, LA". In addition to the original photographs featured in the show, White also released these and a third image, "Stormy Summer Day, Grand Isle, LA" as limited edition fine art posters. These may be viewed and purchased online through his website at www.matthewwhitestudio.com.
After reaching orbit, GOES-P will become GOES-15. The satellite will be used to monitor and predict weather, measure ocean temperatures, perform climate studies, and detect hazards with its emergency beacon support and Search and Rescue Transponder.GOES-P was built by Boeing for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
Image above: A Delta IV launch vehicle lifts off carrying GOES-P into orbit. Image credit: NASA/Kenny Allen
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P, or GOES-P, is the
latest in a series of meteorological satellites designed to watch for
storm development and weather conditions on Earth. From its location in
Earth orbit, GOES-P's state-of-the-art instrumentation will supply data
used in weather monitoring, forecasting and warnings. It also will
detect ocean and land temperatures, monitor space weather, relay
communications and provide search-and-rescue support.
Photocredit: Matthew D. White "Deterorating Marsh"
Groups pledge to work with federal and state partners to develop long-term vision
WASHINGTON, March 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six local and national environmental groups praised the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for unveiling the Obama administration's 18-month plan this afternoon to expedite construction of near-term projects, while creating a long-term vision and governance structure for restoring coastal wetlands in Louisiana. CEQ and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are leading an interagency working group created by President Obama last August to step up the federal response to catastrophic wetland loss in the Gulf Coast region that worsened the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.
"The working group's proposals will put this program into gear with strong new leadership, better science and improved coordination among federal and state partners to restore the Mississippi River Delta, as well as to create safe and resilient communities," said a joint statement from the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Environmental Defense Fund, Gulf Restoration Network, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, National Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation. "Last month, President Obama requested more than $40 million in his budget for multiple agencies to restore wetlands in Louisiana. This workplan will ensure that this funding and all future funding are utilized as effectively and efficiently as possible."
The Obama administration and Louisiana officials agree that restoring Louisiana's coastal wetlands is a critical element of an effective strategy for ecosystem restoration, storm protection, and economic growth in coastal Louisiana. Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost 2,300 square miles of wetlands -- an area larger than the state of Delaware -- because of erosion and sinking land, much of it caused by mismanagement of the Mississippi River and its delta. These coastal wetlands serve as a buffer against storms and hurricanes, providing protection for two million coastal residents, and the pipelines and refineries that service one-third of our nation's oil and gas production. They also provide critical habitat for wildlife and play an important role in the region's economy, including the most valuable fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The interagency work plan released today by CEQ is a remarkable step forward for coastal Louisiana," added the groups. "The plan correctly identifies some of the most challenging issues plaguing restoration efforts. More importantly, it outlines a strong and coordinated federal response consistent with President Obama's budget recommendations for the region.""This working group is addressing exactly the right questions: 1) how do we make sure existing wetland restoration projects are built as soon as possible; and 2) how do we plan for an effective, coordinated and comprehensive restoration program moving forward," concluded the groups. "By including the multiple lines of defense strategy, the CEQ working group has connected-the-dots between coastal restoration and flood protection, which is precisely what is needed. We will continue working closely with the working group to achieve the objectives outlined today."
SOURCE Environmental Defense Fund
Thumbs Up. Fast Company featured New Orleans today in part 8 of their series of entreprenurial hubs. Read it here.
Find out more and give it a listen at New York Magazine, here.
This is a visible image of the Cape Verde Islands on Dec. 12 at 14:45 UTC as seen by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Credit: NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team
After crashing onto Mexico's Yucatan
Peninsula the morning of August 21, the GOES-12 satellite saw Hurricane
Dean make a second landfall in Mexico near the town of Tecolutla at
about 11:30 a.m. CDT on August 22. Credit: NASA/GOES Project
The Cape Verde islands off the western African coast are often
mentioned during the Atlantic Hurricane Season, and are known for
developing "Cape Verde hurricanes." NASA's Aqua satellite flies over
the islands almost daily, and recently captured a stunning visual image
of them while directly overhead.
Last month, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS
instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured a peaceful looking
satellite image of the Cape Verde Islands. As quiet as they appear in
the winter, they were active in the summer of 2006 when NASA conducted
an airborne hurricane field campaign nearby. That's because the Cape
Verde Islands region is important in the formation of some Atlantic
Ocean hurricanes.
The NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Activities (NAMMA)
experiment included flights of the NASA DC-8 aircraft (based at Cape
Verde) along with ground-based radar and other measurements from the
islands and Dakar, Senegal, in western Africa. The goal was to study
the transition of major convective storms moving off of Africa that had
potential to develop into tropical cyclones.
Scott Braun, research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md. said, "A particular focus in this experiment was
the role of the warm, dry, and dusty Saharan Air Layer (SAL), which
some studies have suggested may play a role in storm formation and
evolution. There is considerable debate as to whether the SAL acts to
aid or prevent storm formation and intensification, and the NAMMA data,
combined with a wide variety of NASA satellite products, should help us
to address key science questions regarding the SAL’s role."
So, why are the Cape Verde Islands important to hurricane researchers?
Because tropical cyclones often form in the vicinity of those islands
and have a reputation of making landfall in the U.S. They usually
develop from tropical waves that form in the African savanna during the
wet season and then move into the African steppes. Those waves that
move off Africa's west coast can develop into tropical cyclones,
usually in August or September. Some tropical cyclones however, have
formed as early as July or as late as October.
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an
archipelago located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic
Ocean, off the western coast of Africa, opposite Mauritania and
Senegal. It is slightly more than 4,000 km² (1,540 square miles) in
area with an estimated population of over 500,000. The capital of Cape
Verde is Praia. The previously uninhabited islands were discovered in
the 15th century and colonized by the Portuguese. They attained
independence from Portugal in 1975.
The average Atlantic Hurricane season brings with it approximately two
Cape Verde hurricanes. These hurricanes are usually the most intense
and the biggest storms of the season because they develop so far to the
east and can travel over a large area of warm, open ocean waters that
help power them. There are also no land forms in the way to slow
tropical cyclones if they form near the Cape Verde Islands.
Cape Verde tropical cyclones also tend to be the longest-lived storms,
because of the huge area of open ocean they have to move through. Some
have even moved into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricane Dean (2007), one of the strongest landfalling hurricanes in
the Atlantic, formed just west of the Islands around Aug. 13, moved
into the Caribbean on Aug. 17, and made landfall in Belize as a
category 5 storm on Aug. 21.
Hurricane Ivan (2004) formed southwest of the Islands on Sept. 3, 2004,
moved into the Caribbean on Sept. 8 as a category 4 storm, and into the
Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 14 as a category 5 storm. Ivan weakened
somewhat to cat 4 intensity by landfall.
The Atlantic Ocean hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/features/cape-verde.html
Photographs of the Lower Mississippi River Delta
Port of New Orleans
1350 Port of New Orleans Place
New Orleans, LA 70160
504-522-2551
Mon – Fri 8-5
Dec. 1, 2009 – Dec. 18, 2009
Reception - Dec. 10, 2009, 4:00 to 6:00 pm
This photo-essay and exhibit features fine art landscape images of the Mississippi River Delta, from Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana south to the end of the three passes that drain the river into the Gulf of Mexico -- Pass a Loutre; South Pass; and Southwest Pass. This delta, full of history, culture, and industry, is sparsely populated and rarely seen in detail by outsiders, but is a landscape of vast, simplistic beauty. Photography for this project began in the spring of 2000, made on both black and white film and digital color, continuing to the present day.
The exhibit opens in conjunction with PhotoNOLA, an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, Louisiana coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with galleries, museums and photographers citywide. The exhibit includes 12 images from Matthew White's Mississippi River Delta collection and will be displayed in the lobby of the Port of New Orleans Administrative Building. A reception will be held December 10, 2009 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. The exhibit closes December 18th and will travel afterward.
To see previews of photographs from the exhibit, please follow this link.
For more information, to inquire about sponsorship, or to book this exhibit, please contact Margaret Saizan, at msaizan@bigvisionmedia.com or 225-229-7399. Further updates will be posted at this site and at Matthew White's exhibit page at the PhotoNOLA website as additional information becomes available.
Yes, Louisiana was a winter wonderland...it was very cool. Here's a modis image and recap from NASA:
A snow storm arrived in the Deep South of the United States in mid-December 2008. Several inches of wet snow fell across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on Thursday, December 11, closing schools and businesses in a part of the country where accumulating snow is a rare event. The following day, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead and captured this natural-color image, revealing a broad swath of snow still on the ground from just north of New Orleans, Louisiana, to north of Jackson, Mississippi. Although snow did fall in New Orleans, it was no longer visible by the time MODIS captured this image. Flooding rains drenched other parts of the South, which may be why the Gulf of Mexico coast (lower right) and many rivers and lakes are brown with sediment. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey. Instrument: Terra - MODIS Date Acquired: December 12, 2008
I want to take this opportunity to introduce my readers to a very special friend from Bayou Du Large, one of the the coastal communities in Terrebonne Parish, La that was impacted by the storms of 2005 and now severely in 2008. Her name is Wendy Wilson Billiot, but she is most affectionately known these days as "Bayou Woman". While I have never met Wendy personally - inasmuch as we have a shared passion for Louisiana's coastal concerns -we've enjoyed a wonderful pen pal relationship via email for the past year or so. There are some folks you just feel an affinity to right off the bat. Wendy is one of them.
In addition to keeping up with her through email, Wendy publishes a very unique and interesting blog about her life in Bayou Du Large which I read frequently. Well before Gustav and Ike made landfall in coastal Louisiana, I told Wendy I wanted to do a tribute to her and her blog here at Beyond Katrina because I've enjoyed it so much. After Ike's storm surged pushed into Terrebonne Parish flooding her community and her home, I just knew it was time to make good on that promise.
Wendy's blog, "Life in the Louisiana Wetlands ", (which can be viewed at http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/ ) is a veritable plethora of information about life on the bayou as seen through the eyes of a true blue Bayou Woman. She covers everything you'd ever want to know there (but are too afraid to ask) from fishing, to bayou cooking, wildlife, plant life and more.
Wendy is also a hard working and relentless advocate for the preservation and restoration of Louisiana's fragile wetlands.. Her community of Bayou Du Large is in the Terrebonne Estuary System, which she is quick to remind is "vanishing at the astonishing rate of a football field every half hour". She has a USCG captain's license which enables her to take people on tours to see the amazing beauty and degradation of our wetlands. She has also penned a wonderful book, Before the Saltwater Came, an environmental book about our local wetlands and the first of its kind. Her book is being used to educate students about our disappearing wetlands in classrooms across the state, the nation, and indeed all over the world. Likewise, her articles have appeared in many well know magazines and newspapers and she won the Louisiana Outdoor Writer's Association Excellence in Craft first place award in 2007 for her articles about Louisiana's coastal issues.
As I write, Wendy is working hard to clean up after Gustav and Ike, choosing "tenacity over tears" as she deals with the multitude of personal and collective losses inherent to the impact of two back to back hurricanes. Her latest blog posts with accompanying photographs (yep she's quite a photog too) provide an insiders view of the many facets of hurricane recovery in Terrebonne parish. I do hope you will stop by Wendy's blog at http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/ and peek in on the amazing life of a Bayou Woman!
Margaret Saizan
**Photo courtesy -- Wendy Billiot
"Time and Tide" Isle de Jean Charles --Terrebonne Parish, La. (courtesy Matthew White)
This one's near and dear to the heart. I was very pleased to that Gannett's Dennis Camire penned an article focused on the Houma Indians and their struggle to preserve their way of life, their lands and to rebuild again in light of recent hurricane devastation. As Camire reports,"the problem is that the tribe has not fully recovered from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The tribe's members, many of whom used to depend primarily on fishing for their livelihood, are seeing their marshlands vanish into the Gulf of Mexico and are being battered with personal losses from storm after storm". The article which is publised at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana may be viewed here.
I want to take this time to do a mention for Houma Indian Captain John Verret who has generously helped me and and my colleague Matthew White get up front and personal with coastal land loss and wetlands issues over in Terrebonne - as have others there. As a result Matthew has quite a few photographs taken in Isle Jean Charles (which is part of the article's focus), Dulac, Cocodrie and other parts of Terrebonne, here. Matthew does plan to return soon to continue his documentation of this fragile ecological jewel.
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