From The Times-Picayune, we get the third installment of the series on the loss, destruction, & ignoring of the wetlands of south Louisiana.
Right smack in the center of Louisiana's fragile, sinking coastline, a river gives birth to new wetlands every day.
The Atchafalaya River flows freely through the middle of Cajun country to the Gulf, depositing life-sustaining sediment into the interior wetlands along its path and the shallow bays at its mouth, creating a rich new delta.
The river's natural land-building ability contrasts sharply with the Mississippi River, which politicians and engineers long ago confined inside levees and jetties. That prevented the inundation of the cities, towns and industrial infrastructure along the river, but it also stifled the annual floods that had nourished the wetlands with fresh sediment.
....
"We can't go on for many years before we cross a threshold" beyond which the coast can't be saved, Groat said. "The scale of catastrophe and impact on the state and on the people -- on the entire country -- are all affected by the delta."
Emphais added.
The lesson of the the Atchafalaya River was/is lost on most of the commercial, i.e., business, interests. Their bottom line is not the resurrection of the delta, but maximizing shareholder value. & that's why we have this huge problem to begin with. Along with, of course, this whole notion of having dominion over the earth.
The lesson of the the Atchafalaya River was/is lost on most of the commercial, i.e., business, interests. Their bottom line is not the resurrection of the delta, but maximizing shareholder value. & that's why we have this huge problem to begin with. Along with, of course, this whole notion of having dominion over the earth.
