Fifteen years ago, post-Hurricane Katrina flooding devastated New Orleans. Five years ago, I stored the 200+ feet of panels that comprised “WATERLINE: an interactive photo installation.” In the 10 years I worked seriously on that project, all or parts of it were installed 15 times around Louisiana and in Niceville, Florida, and Philadelphia. Of the hundreds of comments written on the panels by the thousands of people who viewed them, “Make levees, not war” is among my favorites.

This year, Louisiana is rebuilding Lake Charles and much of the southwest corner of the state, devastated by Hurricane Laura. But Laura was just the worst of an extraordinary hurricane and tropical storm year.

If we don’t get serious about caring for creation, especially addressing the negative human impact on global climate, we will soon no longer be able to build levees that work, nor will we be able to rebuild our coastal cities. We will lose vast amounts of land and human habitat to the rising sea.