This land is your land. This land is my land. From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters, This land was made for you and me
Seventy miles south of New Orleans, on the eastern end of Grand Isle, a small tide gauge records the Gulf of Mexico rising against the surrounding land. The monthly increases are microscopic, narrower than a single strand of hair.
Climate scientists recording those results think they add up to something huge. The gauge, they say, may be quietly writing one of the first big stories in the age of global warming: the obituary for much of southeast Louisiana.
The Times Picayune is recording, too – and you don’t won’t to miss the series Losing Louisiana. Read the rest of the lede story in Part 1 that published this past Saturday.
The series is exceptional in every way – so language rich that two paragraphs into Part 2 that it begins to feel like you’re watching a movie as you engage every sense while reading the story and that’s before you get to the equally remarkable graphics.
From atop the bridge soaring over Bayou Lafourche, a sweeping panorama of the southeast Louisiana coast unfolds. Scattered strings of green marsh break up wide expanses of open water. Pelicans swing on the breezes. Fish jump across the waves as crabbers and oyster harvesters pursue their livelihoods in a postcard scene of a rich life close to nature. Continue reading “Your land, my land – and we’re at risk of losing more than Louisiana”