The Disappearing City

These photographs of New Orleans and the surrounding area were taken three months after Hurricane Katrina and are part of a larger project to photograph landscapes around the world that are exhibiting dramatic transformation due to global warming. (See the Canary Project: www.canary-project.org).

Many of the shots were taken from a helicopter, from which vantage the destruction seemed systematic, even artful. Trees felled by the surging water lay stacked in waves across the peninsula; fields of debris draped the marshes and folded against the levees; plastic bags of every color made strange fruit in a desiccated orchard; rows of empty lots memorialized swept-away houses.

Warming oceans over the past fifty years have caused and will continue to cause stronger and more frequent storms. Whether or not Katrina can be linked directly to global warming, it is a sure sign of things to come. (For a succinct and balanced explanation of the science behind this assertion, see: http://www.pewclimate.org/specialreports/katrina.cfm).

The Canary Project / Susannah Sayler & Edward Morris