The “new era of responsibility” expressed in Obama’s Inaugural Speech extends to the past, particularly criticizing George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina on the new White House website.

President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.

President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina. Citing the Bush Administration’s “unconscionable ineptitude” in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims. Obama visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region. He worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce legislation to address the immediate income, employment, business, and housing needs of Gulf Coast communities.

President Barack Obama will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to rebuild now, stronger than ever.

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Many bloggers and webmasters are wont to check their stats so often it borders on behavior that could be classified as obsessive-compulsive. Fortunately, that is how the folks behind the scenes at the New Orleans-based activist group, Levees.org learned that the harassing comments being left at their blog were coming from computers registered to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Well, maybe they weren’t OC about checking their stats, but after this incident, I’m guessing they just might be now.

Levees.org is a watchdog activist group that is pushing for an independent analysis of the “failure of the federal flood protection system” in metro New Orleans on August 29, 2005.” The group’s founder, Sandy Rosenthal did some digging into her stats after an unusually high volume of “negative comments” began rolling into the blog.

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http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/Update76.htm

Standing before the United Nations General Assembly in October 1987, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives, made an appeal representing “an endangered nation.” That year for the first time, “unusual high waves” in the Indian Ocean inundated a quarter of the urban area on the capital island of Male’, flooded farms, and washed away reclaimed land. Gayoom cited scientific evidence that human activities were releasing greenhouse gases that warm the planet, ultimately raising global sea level as glaciers melt and warmer water expands. The trouble extended beyond small islands; studies showed that rising seas would wreak havoc on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Netherlands, and the river deltas of Egypt and Bangladesh.

Fast-forward through two decades of swelling seas and more powerful storms and the call has moved from the need to study global warming to the necessity of dramatic action to stabilize climate. With small island nations in peril, these days President Gayoom evokes the vision of a United Nations where “name plates are gone; seats are empty.” He does not speak alone: this fall, some 50 countries, including a number of small island nations along with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the European Union, are planning to put a resolution before the U.N. General Assembly requesting that the U.N. Security Council address “the threat posed by climate change to international peace and security.” As Ambassador Stuart Beck of Palau has asked, “Would any nation facing an invading army not do the same?”

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Billions and billions of dollars in potential storm-related losses.

A civil and mechanical engineering professor at Rice University, Nagarajaiah recently analyzed the impacts on offshore drilling of the powerful 2005 hurricanes, Katrina (which made landfall three years ago today) and Rita. The storms, both of which reached maximum Category 5 strength (winds of up to 175 mph) though weakened before landfall, made their presence felt to some 3,000 offshore platforms and 22,000 miles of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

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However, thankfully for those coastal cities on the Atlantic, the number of storms making landfall will stick close to the average.

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"The concept started as a sideline for Trina in England when working as a graphic designer. She started recycling wool and making gorgeous throws for a shop in our local village. The concept was very popular and it was a nice earner on the side," said Andy, when I spoke to him last night. To add an extra element of style and durability to their handmade line of bags, swatches of vintage Scandinavian fabrics from the 1960s and 70s are used. "Finding new and funky retro patterns is the favorite part of our bag making. You never know what you’re going to find and it gets the adrenaline going when you discover a fantastic piece."

Making green products is not just a front - it's an integral part of the couple's lifestyle. "The fact that much of our business is made from recycled materials is a reflection on our efforts as individuals to be green. As designers we do feel a responsibility to highlight recycling and perhaps show what’s possible when green sourcing." The collection has been a big hit on Etsy.com, the handmade alternative to eBay. Plans to expand the Katrina Kaye line have already gotten underway.

We already design and make stuffed monsters, retro kids jump suits, rings , belts and other accessories using the vintage fabrics. We’re going to be coming out with a line of vintage lined canvasses and pillows. We also use a lot of recycled felted wool in the winter to make hats/ gloves/ scarves/ ponchos and throws but since having our daughter Sienna 7 months ago many of these things have taken a back seat. Trina is brimming full of ideas but mainly wants to focus on a kids line of clothing (maybe organic) when she can find the time, hopefully in 2008.

If you are looking for an affordable ($35 each), green, unique alternative to the ever-popular bike messenger bags seen all over the country, Katrina Kaye has what you are looking for! New styles are added to their online store weekly.

This portable, self-powered water and sanitation station has many sustainable features, including a composting toilet, rainwater collection and filtration system, and solar panels that, along with a battery, provide all the power the Clean Hub needs and then some. The idea came from folks at Shelter Architecture, but thanks to architecture and design students at the University of Minnesota, it will soon be put to use in New Orleans, where it will be the centerpiece of a community that will foster sustainable growth.

John Dwyer from Shelter Architecture, who also led the students in designing a prototype of the Clean Hub, describes the project:

Shelter developed the idea through a 2 year research and development process. We then brought it in to a studio to allow students to design and build a real world application of it.

The hub is totally off-grid, generating its own water through rain water collection, it's own electricity through photovoltaics, and its own sanitation through composting toilets and gray water irrigation.

The first prototype heads to a learning garden in the hardest hit area of New Orleans on June 21st, the summer solstice.

The architecture students at the University of Minnesota took the concept and ran with it, creating a low-cost solution based on a used storage container that can be easily transported to disaster-stricken areas to provide necessary infrastructure. It was built using recycled and donated parts, lots of elbow grease, and a green vision. The Clean Hub is a simple solution to a complex and common problem that is certainly more practical and sustainable than what FEMA currently uses!

The Clean Hub will be sent to the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and will serve as a building block to a sustainable rebuilding effort supported by many local organizations. A community garden, farmer's market, and public gathering space will eventually surround it, leading to urban renewal with sustainability in mind.

Hopefully with the success of the Clean Hub in New Orleans, the idea can be continued to help provide water, sanitation, and renewable energy wherever it is needed around the globe. The design was created with urban slums and refugee camps in mind, both possible future homes of the Clean Hub.

This design encompasses cradle-to-cradle thinking, sustainable development, poverty relief, and community building as well as green design. It's not every day that architecture is used to save the planet and help the poor, but the Clean Hub was an opportunity for architecture professionals and students to do just that.