Saving America’s Wetlands: Will we ever learn our lesson?Posted by Rachel on August 31st, 2005
Americans have learned a hard lesson this week. No, they probably haven’t. But they should have. Had America taken protective environmental measures, New Orleans might not be under water right now. I’m not talking about Kyoto.
I’m talking about America’s Wetlands. The campaign to save Coastal Louisiana has been going on for some time now, but it has largely been ignored. Ironically, the university where I teach joined the campaign just this semester. We were a little too late. Another great irony is that our recent energy bill allotted us 1 billion dollars for coastal restoration. It was a little too late.
Did we care that America’s Wetlands was the home of 79 threatened or endangered animal and plant species? Did we care that it was the winter habitat of 5 million birds? Did we care that America’s Wetlands housed 95% of all marine species in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t know what kind of damage Katrina did to the coast because the media only seems to care about New Orleans. I imagine it’s not pretty. No, we should have cared for our environment, but we’re Americans.
We do care about money, so let’s talk figures. More than 30% of the nation’s oil goes through these wetlands, the home of the US Strategic Oil Reserve. The US owes 30% of its fisheries catch to America’s Wetlands. And yet, we’ve let twenty-four square miles of wetlands disappear every year, in addition to the 1,900 already lost…before Katrina. The No. 1 port system in the world (by tonnage) is now useless. I’m sure Shell will be laying off a good number of its 4,000 off-shore employess. And so much for the hopes of those businesses that hoped to grow 30-40% this year due to the 1 billion dollars for coastal restoration.
One thing I kept hearing from our coastal advocates was that we should pay now so that we wouldn’t have to pay later. Well, later is here. And the cost is astronomical.
August 31st, 2005 at 10:52 pm
Am I missing something? How would protecting the wetlands have prevented Hurricane Katrina? Or even the damage it caused? New Orleans has been there long before wetlands protection efforts were taken up as causes worthy to fight for.
That said, as a resident on the coast, I definitely see the benefit of having wetlands preserved. Commercialization can do a lot of damage… more damage than many conservatives seem to realize. Just because a lot of environmentalists are loonies doesn’t mean we shoudn’t take care of what God’s given us dominion over. I just don’t see what wetland preservation has to do with the hurricane.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:38 pm
I heard tonight that there were actually plans in the ‘70s to build new levee gates in N.O. after Camille, but environmental activists prevented it from happening. Had the levees been updated as proposed , N.O. might not be as submerged as it is. Not to knock responsible environmental work; just pointing out that sometimes there’s stupidity on both sides.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:16 am
btw, this was not posted by me.. it was Rick forgetting to logout again.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:03 am
Jon S.,
Wetlands are scientifically proven to prevent to lessen the blow of hurricanes by taking the blow themselves and slowing the hurricanes down. New Orleans almost made it out of Katrina safe. In fact, everybody thought New Orleans was safe at first. Had the first levee not broken, we would probably not had the other levee breeches.
Jon A.,
Agreed. However, most of the time, conservatives don’t want to look at the environmental issues.
This was prevented in a natural way. Had the Wetlands been getting the freshwater and silt or at least been replanted, it would have taken the brunt of the hurricane. It would have slowed down considerably before it hit N.O.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:21 am
What Rachel said. Wetlands provide a buffer, tend to dissipate storm surges, and provide a natural drainage system. Filling in and building on wetlands raises the level of nearby inland bodies of water as well as basically providing a smooth path for things like storm surges.
In theory, once these effect have been studied, market forces should help take care of matters, since it’s a bad investment to build up these areas. From what I’ve read, things like Federal flood insurance provide an incentive to take these kinds of risks. Also since individual buildings or small projects have little effect, the evironmental costs are a negative externality that markets don’t account for adequately. At least so I’ve read.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:49 am
Sorry, I was masquerading as Rachel again.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:51 am
Wetlands are scientifically proven to lessen the blow of hurricanes by taking the blow themselves and slowing the hurricanes down. New Orleans almost made it out of Katrina safely. In fact, everybody thought New Orleans was safe…
This was COULD HAVE BEEN prevented in a natural way.
Grrr…sorry.