How to Help New Orleans After Katrina

Billy Tauzin, CEO of Pharm. Research and Manufacturers of America, discusses global warming and hurricane Katrina.

(Music playing) Billy Tauzin: Globally, you got to be concerned by global warming for Christ sake. I come from Louisiana. You’ve seen the national geographic maps in Louisiana with three feet of water. And my whole district is gone. I come from New Orleans. I just went through Katrina. We have been concerned about what we’re doing to this planet. We take these issues seriously. It didn’t matter whether we cause it or not. It’s happening. We better take it seriously. (Music playing) No, of course not. You know when Katrina happened, the first thing I did was call Senator John Brown, my dear friend in the senate who just retired the same year I did. And my first question was, “Do you feel guilty that we’re not there to help?” And he said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, look, you and I we have to start a fund to help New Orleans. And we have to get people bigger than us to do that.” And I said, “Why don’t you call Bill Clinton? I’ll call President Bush 41 and see if we can put them together the same way they worked together on the tsunami.” And he did and I did and we got them together. And President Bush okayed it and so we got them started. At one point I asked President Clinton if he might be willing to sponsor out of that fund a prize for the architect engineering firm that would come over the best plan to reconstruct New Orleans so it would be waterproof. My theory is simple. If Venice can live in water with 365 days out of a year, New Orleans ought to be able to take a few days too if we work it out right. And let the locals pick the winning plan and get the whole country behind it. Well, he came back with the message that he did find a lot of interest in it in the local community in New Orleans. And so, it hadn’t happened. I’m still talking about it. I still think we need to do that. If we don’t have a plan to make New Orleans waterproof, you build all the levers you want. It will break again and some hurricane will top them. And you’ll be faced with the same situation, particularly, water continues to rise. So, no, I’m not happy. I think we’re watching the slow deterioration of the coastline of Louisiana and the pressures on New Orleans are going to grow unless somebody wakes up and realizes it’s got to be waterproofed. (Music playing)