Considering the future of Louisiana's levees
Friday, May 20, 2011 - 19:00
in Earth & Climate
Put in place to protect land along the Mississippi, the system has also been funneling sediment from the delta, to be replaced by seawater. New Orleans could be practically an island by 2100, scientists say.Earl Billiot guides his boat down a quiet bayou and explains how it used to be, when the water that runs as wide as a two-lane highway was so narrow you could reach out and touch the land. Branches heavy with Spanish moss draped over the bayou, and forests covered marshes that are bare now except for the bony skeletons of dead cypress trees.