Customer Reviews

America's Wetland: Louisiana's Vanishing Coast

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This is not only a very beautiful coffee table book on Louisiana's wetlands, its wildlife, and people; but it couldn't have come at a more critical time. The chapter entitled "America's Atlantis" on New Orleans predicts exactly what happened to this great American city. If you've ever wanted to know more about not just our vanishing coastline, but also about Louisiana's unique culture, this is THE book!

This was a great book! I was especially impressed with the interview they did concerning what would happen to New Orleans if the levees broke. (This was written pre-Katrina.)

Definately a great book for yourself or for a gift.

America's WETLAND is an organization funded by the big oil companies. The problems and solutions presented in this book mesh with their agenda, which is to protect their industry, minimize public perception of fault on their part, and encourage feel-good restoration efforts that will not save the wetlands.

Southeastern Louisiana rests on the Mississippi delta, formed by sediments flowing downriver for thousands of years. The delta is made of a fragile soil which erodes when disturbed. Oil and gas exploration and drilling is, aside from levees, the major cause of land loss on the delta. The impact of Katrina on New Orleans was deeply exacerbated by a deteriorating delta.

To avoid the huge responsibilities that would befall them should fault be assigned correctly, the big oil companies fund projects like these, which emphasize direct vegetative restoration (ei. tree planting). These are noble projects but they will not solve the problem. As stated in the book's own summary, the oil and gas companies' main interest, besides covering their butts with feel-good environmentalism, is to protect their pipelines and infrastructure from the erosion -- erosion which they caused and continue to cause.