Last week, we went to New Orleans for a look at how faulty levees contributed to the fatal flooding during Hurricane Katrina. And while the importance of the levee system can’t be overstated, New Orleans has also had a natural buffer against hurricanes: the wetlands of Louisiana that stretch for hundreds of miles along the coast.
But even before the BP spill, those wetlands were in serious trouble. In the time it takes you to watch this broadcast, roughly an acre of those wetlands will sink into the Gulf of Mexico.
This year, President Obama became the first president to include funding for Gulf coast restoration in his budget. But the money allocated may be too little. To give you a sense of the scale of the problem, here is an excerpt from a segment called “The Disappearing Delta,” reported by our former colleagues at “NOW with Bill Moyers.”
“The Disappearing Delta” was produced even before the wetlands damage caused by Katrina. It was reported by National Public Radio’s Daniel Zwerdling.
