I heard that George Bush told New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin the city could be remade into "a shining example for the whole world." If Bush did say that, it surely wasn't an environmentally sound renaissance he had in mind. But that is precisely what is needed. Call it Eco New Orleans. It should encompass not just the city, but the other places blasted by Katrina and by FEMA's impressively incompetent response. The Eco New Orleans I'm talking about should extend scores of miles in every direction. It should be a place attuned to the definition of sustainable development put …
Get Grist in Your Inbox
Timothy Lange has worked as a reporter, editor, columnist, and publisher for 35 years, and, in 1990, founded Earth Matters, a syndicated weekly package of environmental articles for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, where he served as executive editor. He won the 2004 Koufax Award for blog commentary and makes his online home at The Next Hurrah, a group political blog that originally published a longer version of this article.
Most Viewed
Spared by climate change: The 10 best cities to ride out hot times
Gut punch: Monsanto could be destroying your microbiome
Screwed by climate change: 10 cities that will be hardest hit
Fourth-grade filmmaker sneaks a camera into the cafeteria to document his gross school lunch
Antarctica’s “bleeding glacier” is kind of terrifying

Spared by climate change: 10 best cities to ride out hot times
This pedal-powered contraption can run a computer or churn butter
Zen and the art of bridge maintenance