Lousiana hit by rising sea levels

[Saigon]

A fascinating article and video by the BBC on the impact of rising sea levels and irrigation on the US coastline...

Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea

The US state of Louisiana is slowly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico as its fragile wetlands are eroded by rising sea levels.

Approximately 75 square kilometres are lost each year and the US Geological Survey has warned that the entire habitat - which represents 40% of all wetlands in the US - could be destroyed within 200 years.

The loss is partly down to natural evolutionary processes, but experts say human behaviour - including dredging for canals and the draining of the wetlands for development and agriculture - has made the region more vulnerable to storm surges.

BBC News - Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Wowzers! Coastal erosion! That's unprecedented in human history

 

[CrusaderFrank]

What's the fix? Carbon tax? Destroy the US Economy?

What?

 

[Old Rocks]

The present rate is unprecedented.

http://www.fws.gov/nc-es/ecoconf/williams paper.pdf

UNDERSTANDING THE GEOLOGIC PROCESSES OF COASTAL LAND LOSS FOR
THE RESTORATION OF NORTH AMERICA'S LARGEST RIVER DELTA-THE
MISSISSIPPI
PENLAND, Shea, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70148, [email protected] and
WILLIAMS, S. Jeffress, Coastal and Marine Geology Team - Woods Hole, U.S. Geological
Survey, 384 Woods Hole Rd, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
The Mississippi River delta is a vital natural resource to the United States. This resource is at
risk of vanishing, between 1932 and 1990 this delta lost over 680,000 acres of critical habitatswamps,
marshes, and barrier islands. Understanding the critical processes of land loss is
essential to the rescue of this national treasure. Over the last 20 years the USGS in cooperation
with the USACE and Louisiana universities have investigated processes of erosion,
submergence, and man's impacts in addition to geologic framework studies of Holocene coastal
evolution and sediment resources. This information is key to developing successful restoration
strategies and projects. Without the implementation of significant restoration programs the
federal and state natural resource trustees predict the economic impact of the coastal land loss
crisis will exceed $ 100 billion by the year 2050. The Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and
Restoration Act (CWPPRA) of 1990 was a start with $ 40 million per year dedicated to
restoration activities. From CWPPRA successful freshwater diversions, marsh creation, and
barrier island restoration projects were implemented. In 1998 the federal and state natural
resource trustees realized a larger restoration program was needed to reverse the magnitude of
Louisiana's land loss problem. As a result, the Coast 2050 initiative was started to implement the
largest coastal restoration program in the U.S., $ 14 billion through the Water Resources
Development Act.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

...and it's destroying the Oregon Oysters too!!

 

[Saigon]

The rate of loss certainly surprised me - 75 square kms a year is an enormous amount of land.

Obviously there are a range of different factors why this is occuring, but I doubt the people who are losing their homes and their livelihoods are as concerned about that as they are about whether their homes can be saved.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

...and some species are turning female too!!

13.) The marine food chain could fall apart.

14.) Within 300 years, 88% of New Orleans could be underwater.

15.) Increasing droughts will make the driest regions even drier.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Is this because the oceans are getting warming, or the polar ice caps are melting or what?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

How about all the Cat 5 hurricanes that make landfall in the SE USA because of global warming, have you considered that may be why we have this never before seen "Coastal erosion"?

Huh?

 

[Roadrunner]

A fascinating article and video by the BBC on the impact of rising sea levels and irrigation on the US coastline...

Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea

The US state of Louisiana is slowly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico as its fragile wetlands are eroded by rising sea levels.

Approximately 75 square kilometres are lost each year and the US Geological Survey has warned that the entire habitat - which represents 40% of all wetlands in the US - could be destroyed within 200 years.

BBC News - Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea

Now, that certainly is not the full story.

Can't blame slightly rising seas for destruction of offshore barrier islands for shell production, salt-water intrusion from navigation canals killing the freshwater marsh that holds the state together, channelization of the Mississippi which deposits alluvium into the Gulf Stream instead of into the marshes as God planned it, the destruction of the vast cypress forests that were natural windbreaks and held land together, or any of a other host of environmental errors committed in the last 300 years.

With foresight and some sense, we would still have these natural protections against fluctuations in sea levels.

Of course, the Bush's could have done it, I guess.

 

[Old Rocks]

More information.

NOAA National Ocean Service Education Who Moved the Beach Lesson Plan

Almost half of the people living in the United States live near the coast. As the coastal population continues to grow, more people and property will be exposed to hazards caused by severe storms, floods, shoreline erosion and other natural hazards. Homes and businesses are often built in low-lying areas and barrier islands that are particularly vulnerable to storm damage. The potentially disastrous consequences of this trend became obvious during the summer of 2004 when residents of Florida were battered by four major hurricanes within six weeks, resulting in billions of dollars worth of damage. Much of the price is eventually borne by American taxpayers through federal government funds for disaster relief and reconstruction.

While erosion and land subsidence (land sinking below sea level), are less spectacular than strong storms, they are just as important in economic terms. Erosion alone is estimated to cause billions of dollars of damage every year along U.S. coasts. Subsidence around New Orleans has necessitated large expenditures for pumping and dike maintenance. Subsidence in Texas, Florida, and California threatens high-value land uses and causes damages that cost millions to repair.

Attempts to protect against coastal hazards can cause additional problems. Sea walls intended to protect against storm waves can actually accelerate beach erosion and reduce the capacity of beaches to absorb storm energy. As a result, buildings adjacent to the beaches are exposed to the full force of wind and waves. Human activities such as diking and drainage of land around New Orleans, ground water removal in Texas and Florida, and extraction of oil and gas in California have accelerated subsidence in these areas (see, for example,Land subsidence USGS Water Science School).

 

[Roadrunner]

How about all the Cat 5 hurricanes that make landfall in the SE USA because of global warming, have you considered that may be why we have this never before seen "Coastal erosion"?

Huh?

We have had coastal erosion in Louisiana for 300 years.

It started the second a Frenchman settled here.

 

[Saigon]

Roadrunner -

If you had read to about Line 3 of the story, you would have seen the canals and dredging mentioned.

I totally agree that much, of not all of the damage, was preventable.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

 

[Roadrunner]

Roadrunner -

If you had read to about Line 3 of the story, you would have seen the canals and dredging mentioned.

I rarely read three lines into slanted propaganda.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

More information.

NOAA National Ocean Service Education Who Moved the Beach Lesson Plan

Almost half of the people living in the United States live near the coast. As the coastal population continues to grow, more people and property will be exposed to hazards caused by severe storms, floods, shoreline erosion and other natural hazards. Homes and businesses are often built in low-lying areas and barrier islands that are particularly vulnerable to storm damage. The potentially disastrous consequences of this trend became obvious during the summer of 2004 when residents of Florida were battered by four major hurricanes within six weeks, resulting in billions of dollars worth of damage. Much of the price is eventually borne by American taxpayers through federal government funds for disaster relief and reconstruction.

While erosion and land subsidence (land sinking below sea level), are less spectacular than strong storms, they are just as important in economic terms. Erosion alone is estimated to cause billions of dollars of damage every year along U.S. coasts. Subsidence around New Orleans has necessitated large expenditures for pumping and dike maintenance. Subsidence in Texas, Florida, and California threatens high-value land uses and causes damages that cost millions to repair.

Attempts to protect against coastal hazards can cause additional problems. Sea walls intended to protect against storm waves can actually accelerate beach erosion and reduce the capacity of beaches to absorb storm energy. As a result, buildings adjacent to the beaches are exposed to the full force of wind and waves. Human activities such as diking and drainage of land around New Orleans, ground water removal in Texas and Florida, and extraction of oil and gas in California have accelerated subsidence in these areas (see, for example,Land subsidence USGS Water Science School).

Didn't you guys predict annual hurricanes in Florida after 2004????

 

[Crick]

Not really, no. A general increase in storm intensity was predicted to take place over the long term. Globally, that is precisely what has taken place.

Now then, do you have any comments that actually apply to the OP?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Not really, no. A general increase in storm intensity was predicted to take place over the long term. Globally, that is precisely what has taken place.

Now then, do you have any comments that actually apply to the OP?

You mean when you add in the warming trapped by the deep ocean, right?

Globally...that's what happened

Ridiculous

 

[westwall]

A fascinating article and video by the BBC on the impact of rising sea levels and irrigation on the US coastline...

Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea

The US state of Louisiana is slowly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico as its fragile wetlands are eroded by rising sea levels.

Approximately 75 square kilometres are lost each year and the US Geological Survey has warned that the entire habitat - which represents 40% of all wetlands in the US - could be destroyed within 200 years.

The loss is partly down to natural evolutionary processes, but experts say human behaviour - including dredging for canals and the draining of the wetlands for development and agriculture - has made the region more vulnerable to storm surges.

BBC News - Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea

No, it's wetlands are eroding because the Mississippi was dammed decades ago and the sediment load that used to replenish the delta is gone. Man caused, yes. But the climate has nothing to do with it as any honest scientist can tell you.

What Went Wrong

"The Mississippi River Delta is disappearing at an astonishing rate: A football field of wetlands vanishes into open water almost every hour. Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost nearly 1,900 square miles of land, an area roughly equivalent in size to the state of Delaware. Many factors have led to the delta's collapse. One of the most significant is that the lower Mississippi River has been straitjacketed with huge levees as part of a national program to "control" the Mississippi River and protect communities, economic infrastructure and croplands from river flooding. But the delta's wetlands are built and sustained by sediment delivered by the river. Cutting the river off from its delta with levees doomed existing wetlands and largely stopped the cycle of new wetlands growth. Without land-building deposits from the river, the delta is doomed to continue sinking beneath the water, endangering people, wildlife and jobs."


What Went Wrong Restore the Mississippi River Delta

 

[Saigon]

Can't blame slightly rising seas for destruction of offshore barrier islands for shell production, salt-water intrusion from navigation canals killing the freshwater marsh that holds the state together, channelization of the Mississippi which deposits alluvium into the Gulf Stream instead of into the marshes as God planned it, the destruction of the vast cypress forests that were natural windbreaks and held land together, or any of a other host of environmental errors committed in the last 300 years.

I totally agree.

But it is very clear that there is more than one factor affecting the area. The navigations canals are one, removing forests another. Increased storm intensity is one, and rising sea levels another. It's a complex issue.

The problem is also that while some of those factors may be fixable, some are going to require massive and expensive challenges.