The Louisiana Coast has the highest rate of “sea level rise” in the world. Because the land is rapidly sinking into the swamp. NRDC thinks that reducing carbon emissions will somehow stop New Orleans from sinking.
New Orleans is one of a dozen U.S. cities most at risk from the effects of global warming, a threat that city officials here have recognized and are responding to in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, concludes a new report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“The best cities have committed to reduce their carbon emissions, have identified their vulnerability to climate change and have adopted plans for future action,” he said.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3YiPC91QUk]
It would be amusing if it weren’t so sad that these people think their action is going to make some kind of difference.
Yep, Nawlins and Venice. Poster Children of sea level rise.
But they’re still here. Oops.
All other cities please take a number.
The headline made me think of Monty Python:
King of Swamp Castle: When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that’s what you’re going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.
Really? What made you think of that?
What if your presidency sinks into a swamp?Is it CO2 or Bush? And just what do you furry critters have against swamps?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaeEopDW0V4
MrC
Many moons ago I read on-line that the sea level of the French Quarter of New Orleans had dropped something like 20 feet in the nearly 300 years since it’s founding but I have been unable to confirm it.
The problem is the levees designed to save the city. Nobody wants to admit it but without the annual flooding that created and maintained the delta for thousands (tens of thousands?) of years the city will continue to sink.
Natural or man-made sea level change in EITHER direction is dwarfed by the natural subsidence of the delta. Without the floods putting a quarter inch or so of mud on top of the delta every year it will sink.
King Canute tried it about 1,000 years ago. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
Sean, it has more to do with subduction than mud.
New Orleans is sitting right on the edge of a plate that’s going under………
http://images.pennnet.com/articles/os/cap/cap_0400osoilgen2.gif
It’s all about subsidence. Once a river is ‘controlled’ all of that spring flood sediment is channeled to one place. A delta builds out along the front of the channel. The other areas slowly subside for two reasons. First is the dewatering that occurs as the muds slowly turn into shales with a significant loss of volume. Look at the fine muds in the bottom of a puddle sometime. They can resemble a gel. Scoop some out and let it dry in the sun. Then marvel at how little actual sediment is left. Second is the tendency for things to slip dowhill. All of the sediments along the delta are laid down from a higher elevation to a lower elevation. As they dewater they also slip downslop a bit. Or a lot, depending where they are and the gradient of the slope. Side scanning sonar images of South Pass, Main Pass and neighboring areas show profound submarine slide scars and slump features.
A fun place to study is our earth!