“Louisiana is currently losing approximately 24 square miles of wetlands per year, which is roughly one football field every 45 minutes.” Think about it like this: During the course of one Saints football game, Louisiana may conservatively estimate a loss of four equivalent Superdome greens around us.
Please watch this 7-minute animation put together by Dan Swenson of The Times-Picayune. Besides being the most educational thing to come out of this newspaper in a while, it offers a quick insight into what southeast Louisana and the Gulf Coast face in levees and years to come.
nola.com three-part special: Last Chance
Addendum: This isn’t to say that deposition (land buildup) does not occur along SE Louisiana’s coast. With the loss to date, continued industry and development interest in the area, sea level rise and continued hurricane activity, how do we mitigate land loss?
I’ve been glad to see this extensive report in the paper. This is one of those rare situations where the outcome really is known in advance, and we can decide to do what it takes now, or suffer dire consequences later. I get frustrated when people say it’s just about the levees. Maybe in the short run, but if we can get these wetlands back, then the levees won’t be stressed to the same degree, and the environment will be better all the way around. But we ‘murcans aren’t too good with long-term thinking.
Scary. Is anything actually being done or is this just more “view with alarm”?
Blair, in all honesty, very little will be done given the vested interests of the oil & gas industry, shipping industry, fishermen, developers, etc.
I wonder if there is also a slight implication of “What is up with asking for Category-5-strong levees if it’s only going to mess up the natural ecosystem here even more?”
When I was in college long before you were. Even then we were aware that the natural system had been seriously compromised. Primarily by two factors, channelization of the Mississippi and the increase water flow through the marshes (due primarily to the canals cut for oil exploration).
You also need to consider subsidence, which in many areas exceeds the effects of sea level rise. It is problematic to measure but is the primary effect aggravated by the channelization of the Mississippi.
One contrarian fact I love; Melting of the north polar ice would have minimal impact on sea levels, since the ice is already floating ( quick somebody call Archimedes).
The Canadian, Siberian and Antarctic ice fields are different, since they rest on land.
This is another one of those subjects where it is: “So goes New Orleans, so goeth the country.” This is the place that is losing hurricane buffers and natural land the most rapidly, but other places aren’t far behind.
The model that is used to right the ship here will be used again and again all along the east coast. If no model is used here to save the coast, then the model of population migration will be put into effect.
Coastal recovery is doable and sustainable, it is merely a matter of getting started (lest the problem appear so large in the mind’s eye that nothing ends up done) and a matter of will to brush aside reactionary interests and finish the task.