Friday, April 30, 2010
USI professor says Gulf oil spill is "focusing event"
Mary Hallock Morris
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Wendy Knipe Bredhold Media Relations Specialist, News & Information Services 812/461-5259 Hallock Morris, associate professor of political science at the University of Southern Indiana, has lived in the Gulf states of Florida and Louisiana. In the summer of 2006, she returned to New Orleans to research the politics of rebuilding wetlands in Louisiana destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In her research, she identified the concept of a "focusing event"Â that draws national attention to a problem and can help spur the national government to action. "So with Hurricane Katrina, the complete wiping out of New Orleans would be the focusing event," she said. Today, the focusing event would be the environmental catastrophe caused by the BP oil rig explosion. "It's definitely a focusing event - for how we regulate offshore drilling," she said. "The oil spill off of the coast of Louisiana is a tragedy in the making. For decades, these coastal wetlands have been eroding into the sea due to our bad decisions. The building of levees along the Mississippi River has kept sediment from nourishing the delta. The oil and shipping industries have built channels and canals that have allowed for saltwater intrusion that kills wetlands vegetation." She continued, "While some federal funding has been used to restore wetlands in Louisiana, these efforts have been Band-Aids for a larger problem - and that's the fact that drilling for oil has negative consequences. In this case, an oil slick along the coast of Louisiana is going to set back efforts to heal the wetlands and it's going to severely impact the fishing industry. "Furthermore, these wetlands are Louisiana's best defense against hurricane surges. Kill the wetlands and you end up with higher surges and more storm damage - damage that the Federal government ends up paying for." Hallock Morris is chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and acting director of the Master of Public Administration program. Her dissertation on the politics of wetland loss in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone"Â was selected for Indiana University's Katherine C. Greenough Dissertation Award for best dissertation in political science in 2004. Prior to coming to USI, she worked for the Southern Mutual Help Association, a nonprofit organization in rural Louisiana. Media: To schedule an interview, call Wendy Bredhold, media relations specialist, at 812/461-5259. |
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