"Forced Marsh" (Wetlands, hurricanes and rebuilding)

[Inland]

This article, in the NONselect NYT, suggests that the idea of rebuilding wetlands as hurricane barriers is overblown, and that for the amount of money builing barrier islands in Lousiana, one could do wonders for all the nation's wetlands.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/opinion/27young.html


IN the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there has been much talk of rebuilding Louisiana's coastal wetlands and barrier islands. This proposal, which could cost an estimated $15 billion, has been advocated by Louisiana scientists, engineers, politicians and environmentalists alike, who explain that the state is suffering the highest rate of land loss in the nation and imply that restoring this land would reduce the damage from future storms.

As coastal scientists, we are excited to see the idea of wetlands restoration so widely discussed. Yet we think the Louisiana plan is ill conceived.

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Last, if the government is going to spend $15 billion on restoration, let's put all the country's wetlands on the table. We seriously doubt that any objective scientific cost-benefit review would find that spending all that money in Louisiana makes sense.

We believe there are many concerned and honest advocates for the project to restore coastal Louisiana. But their effort should not be mislabeled as "storm protection," and we shouldn't allow our emotional response to a natural disaster to cloud our long-term thinking about the best way to spend our money on repairing America's coastal regions.

[applegrove]

1. I thought that all the grain in the U.S. gets exported through the port

of NO. Doesn't that make it kinda important to manage? With wetlands, dykes, etc.

[mcscajun]

2. It's the Port of New Orleans that is critically important to the nation's

economy. That's what makes Louisiana wetland protection unique in a cost-benefit analysis. That port is the fourth-largest in the world on a raw-tonnage basis. It is the main intake for supertankers providing crude oil to US refineries. It's the place where most of our coffee imports enter the country. It is the largest port in the country handling our exports overall (15%). It handles the overwhelming majority of our grain exports from the Midwest.

The two geologists authoring this column do make some valid points, especially as regards 'storm protection'. The force of Katrina, and the way the storm's winds cut across Lake Ponchartrain would in all likelihood not have been mitigated much by a more robust barrier island system.

I still believe we should be looking at the Holland model, though, as well as curtailing many industrial efforts BushCo let run rampant through the Louisiana wetlands areas.

[Inland]

4. I guess that any plan has to have the Port as the non negotiable starting

point. Port as broadly defined as the entire movement to and from the Gulf to the Mississippi.

Then move on from there.

[blindpig]

3. shouldn't be an either or proposition

Remember the Pottery Barn! Where's the money to come from? In the case of Louisiana it should come from the petrochemical industry in the form of revoked tax breaks and other corporate welfare. If that's not enough taxes on their products. There's only one Earth.