FEEDBACK PLEASE ====> LTTE Re: New Orleans/Global Warming

[tk2kewl]

It is time for the most ambitious environmental restoration project ever! Unfortunately the government should condemn much of the destroyed property surrounding the Mississippi Delta for exactly this purpose, paying property owners for their land to be reclaimed for natural beaches, barrier islands, marshes and swamps.

It would provide a bail-out for a lot of property owners who didn't have flood insurance, for some it may be a loss, but for the Gulf Coast as a whole, and thus the nation, it would be the only right thing to do in the face of global warming and rising sea level. Furthermore, preventing reconstruction in the most vulnerable areas would have a positive economic impact by the reducing insurance risk which is largely born by taxpayers through federal flood insurance policies.

Such a project would protect a rebuilt New Orleans while providing the beginnings of a more sustainable tourism and fisheries economy. The dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico would also have a shot at recovering, as more natural shoreline of swamps and marshes would reduce the nutrient and pollutant load on the Gulf.

Unfortunately, I am not optimistic that the Bush administration would even consider implementing such a plan, not even in the smallest token manner. This administration hash shown nothing but disdain for the environment and seems to have a serious deficit of common sense.