Shhhhhh. Can you hear me? We need to talk again. A couple of times since I started this blog, I've told you about another environmental battle that I've been waging in my hometown for a long time -- a problem that predates the nefarious doings of BP and the fracking boom from coast to coast. It's a war against noise pollution -- an assault on the ears, just as much as the environmental crimes of Big Oil and Gas can attack our other senses. Here in New Orleans, I'm a supporter of a group called Hear the Music, Stop the Noise which has launched a crusade against loud nuisance bars, especially in the French Quarter. (You can join the Facebook group here.) You might think that New Orleans -- the Big Easy, home to Mardi Gras and the Jazz Festival, Louis Armstrong and Professor Longhair -- is a strange place for a campaign against noise pollution. Actually, it's the perfect place for our cause. The once sweet sounds of muted jazz or the blues filtering out into a hot night on Bourbon Street has been swamped with pulsating, eardrum-busting waves of noise from a handful of thoughtless nuisance bars. We're beginning to ...
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