Louisiana is sinking!

You actually cannot get rid of wetlands for wetlands by definition are at the interface between the land and the ocean. Therefore, where ever those two bodies meet will be where the wetlands are. The only way you may not have wetlands is if there is no more land.

Now Southeastern Louisiana is sinking, and as a result, the wetlands that are supposed to protect and be a barrier for the land including New Orleans are moving closer and closer to New Orleans (Northward) as the land sinks. Scientists say we have 10 years to go before it's too late and the wetlands inevitably come to the backdoor of New Orleans, and then Goodbye NOLA.

So I read this today http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20070625b, which says the dead zone is growing. The dead zone created by too much fertilizer coming out of the mouth of the Mississippi. We could use this excess fertilizer--which is just nitrogen and phosphorus--to build the wetland plants and trees that could stabilize the wetlands where they are. Of course we could also use all the precious sediment from the river to build the actual land in the wetlands (called accretion) to counteract the 'sinking' that is happening. But the man-made controls on the river make utilizing this sediment impossible right now. Instead the precious stuff is sent into the Gulf along with the nutrients neither of which we can benefit from.

We know the answers to our problems, but we can't do anything about them because the powerful have the control. This can be seen with the recent closing of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). Local people, organizations, and the local Parish government have been calling for its closure for decades, but only two weeks ago did the Army Corp. decide to close it. It has done damage to wetlands, increased salinization of inland water bodies and cost a lot to taxpayers and to the environment. Yet action on it can only be done by federal body and then only veeerrrry slooooowly. This is everywhere the same problem with federal bodies.

What do we do if we don't have the time to wait for the Army Corp.? What if the sinking of Southeastern Louisiana out paces the federal, state or even local bureaucracy?