We are doomed.

[wronginthehead]

I'm not kidding. According to the Times Picayune, the erosion of South Louisiana is happening way faster than scientists previously thought. Everyone thought we had about 40 years to restore the wetlands/barrier islands that keep New Orleans from being eaten by the gulf. It turns out we only have TEN YEARS before the damage is irreversible.By 2020

Comments

[relativeatbest]

if you don't think about it, how can you do anything about it?

[relativeatbest]

Zu-zu, get on board with some restouration group, like Save the Wetlands. At least if we go under, we go under trying to fight it.

[saregu]

so when something inevitable happens, any idea what you are going to do?

[wronginthehead]

Kill myself or go down with the ship, I guess. I don't think I could stand anywhere else in the U.S. I don't speak any other language and I don't have any skills that would get me citizenship anywhere else. I'm not even sure that this counts as a part of the U.S. anymore.

[saregu]

I would think about going to Portland, or maybe even Seattle. They seem like decent places to go.

[opheliagonemad]

They're decent, but not the same as New Orleans. Nothing is. But any New Orleans friend of mine is welcome to crash in our tiny apartment if need be, at any point.

[escaaapefromla]

Yea - that picture of New Orleans at the end of an isthmus, just as Grand Isle is now, was pretty shocking - and that's only with TWO extra feet of water

The scariest part:

The entire nation would reel from the losses. The state's coastal wetlands, the largest in the continental United States, nourish huge industries that serve all Americans, not just residents of southeastern Louisiana. Twenty-seven percent of America's oil and 30 percent of its gas travels through the states coast, serving half of the nations refinery capacity, an infrastructure that few other states would welcome and that would take years to relocate.

Ports along the Mississippi River, including the giant Port of New Orleans and the Port of South Louisiana in LaPlace, handle 56 percent of the nation's grain shipments. And the estuaries now rapidly turning to open water produce half of the nation�s wild shrimp crop and about a third of its oysters and blue claw crabs. Studies show destruction of the wetlands protecting the infrastructure serving those

[wronginthehead]

"The entire nation would reel from the losses". I just can't help feeling,"Well, good. Fuck 'em then." If most of the rest of the nation thinks we deserve what we got and shouldn't be rebuilt, maybe they should try to live without gas, coffee, and bread for a while. I'm pretty bitter.

[a_new__dawn]

I have to agree. People tell me all the time New Orleans shouldn't be rebuilt. It takes all my energy not to curse and call them names. I can't believe people sometimes...

[housegirl]

Don't think for a moment huge industries are going to let their money get washed to the ocean. It will be a last min. half assed fix, but there will be a fix. If it's just poor people at risk, it would be a wash. But it's oil money at risk. Oil money has a way of buying all the pressure it needs to bypass anything and secure it's ability to make more money. How else can the companies guarantee they get to stay richer than everyone else?