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| S P E C I A L | The Global Warming Debate |
Global warming could sink coastal areas
December 5, 1997
Web posted at: 5:01 a.m. EST (1001 GMT)From Correspondent Natalie Pawelski
COCODERIE, Louisiana (CNN) -- An old lighthouse that once marked the edge of a bayou village now stands half-submerged in the Gulf of Mexico.
At a rate of 25 square miles each year, Louisiana is losing out to the sea.
Scientists say the reason may be global warming, making the oceans expand and ice caps and glaciers melt.
"Since the 1930's, we've lost an area the size of Rhode Island -- over a million acres," says Doug Daigle of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
An old lighthouse now stands half-submerged in the Gulf of Mexico Norman Johnson has always made his living outdoors, trapping, hunting and fishing. His grandson would like to try that traditional Cajun lifestyle as well ... but you cannot live off the land if it sinks into the sea.
"There's no way these children will make a living the way we made it. Not here," laments Johnson.
Louisiana's coastal marshland is a nursery for the most productive fishery in the continental United States. Fish, crabs, shrimp all spend part of their lives in these waters. Therefore, loss of the wetlands could mean big trouble for the states $700 million commercial fishing industry.
The marshes also buffer hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of oil and gas facilities, which could be seriously damaged by environmental changes.
"As the marshes fall apart, those facilities become more and more exposed to hurricanes," explains Denise Reed of Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.
Millions of homes potentially lie in harms way. Some towns have already lost territory; cities could be next.
"If we lose the wetlands, the sea will suddenly be at the back door, literally, of the city of New Orleans," says coastal geologist Sherwood Gagliano.
So far, most of coastal Louisiana's problems are being caused not by the sea rising -- but by the land sinking. The Mississippi Delta, like all deltas, has always sunk. Spring floods, however, used to deport sediment and rebuild the land. Now, levees and dams, designed to stop the floods, also stop new land from forming.
The government is fighting back with new structures, such as one allowing limited controlled floods.
"In the five years that it has been operating, we've got several hundred acres of actual rebuilding of marsh, so we are rolling back the sea," says Jack Caldwell of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.
Experts say stopping Louisiana's land loss completely would cost $4 billion. Imagine every coastal community having to spend that kind of money -- and you get an idea of what global warming could cost the world.
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