September 4, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Congo Kinsasha: Global Warming: Environment: Hurricane Relief: MSNBC: RPCV Mike Tidwell, author of "Bayou Farewell," discusses New Orleans on "Meet the Press"
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September 4, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - Congo Kinsasha: Global Warming: Environment: Hurricane Relief: MSNBC: RPCV Mike Tidwell, author of "Bayou Farewell," discusses New Orleans on "Meet the Press"
RPCV Mike Tidwell, author of "Bayou Farewell," discusses New Orleans on "Meet the Press"
"You can't just fix the levees in New Orleans. We now have to have a massive coastal restoration project where we get the water out of the Mississippi River in a controlled fashion toward the Barrier islands, restore the wetlands. If you don't commit to this plan which is this $14 billion, costs of the Big Dig in Boston, or two weeks of spending Iraq, you shouldn't fix a single window in New Orleans. You shouldn't pick up a single piece of debris because to do one without the other is to set the table for another nightmare."
RPCV Mike Tidwell, author of "Bayou Farewell," discusses New Orleans on "Meet the Press"
Transcript for September 4
Michael Chertoff, Marc Morial, Mike Tidwell, Mark Fischetti, David Wessel, Haley Barbour & Aaron Broussard
MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: devastation, desperation and death all along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What now? With us, the secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, and the president of Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard.
Then has the government responded quickly enough? Can New Orleans really be rebuilt? How will the crisis affect the rest of the country? With us, in 2001, he wrote "Drowning New Orleans," Mark Fischetti, the head of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial. In 2003, he wrote, "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast," Mike Tidwell, and from The Wall Street Journal, reporter David Wessel.
[Excerpt]
MR. RUSSERT: Mike Tidwell, you've written about it as well, and you say that in order to rebuild, there's going to have to be some serious undertakings in recognition of the environmental realities of what exists in the New Orleans area.
MR. MIKE TIDWELL: Well, the question and the answer is: Why in the world is New Orleans below sea level to begin with? I think the media has sort of accepted it uncritically that this city is below sea level which is why we have this problem. Miami is not below sea level. New York's not below sea level. It's below sea level because of the levees. The levees stop the river from flooding and the river's what built the whole coast of Louisiana through 7,000 years of alluvial soil deposits. And if you stop that flooding, the other second natural phenomena in any delta region in the world is subsidence. That alluvial soil is fine, it compacts, it shrinks. That's why New Orleans is below sea level. That's why the whole coast of Louisiana is--the whole land platform is sinking. An area of land the size of Manhattan turns to water in south Louisiana every year even without hurricanes.
You can't just fix the levees in New Orleans. We now have to have a massive coastal restoration project where we get the water out of the Mississippi River in a controlled fashion toward the Barrier islands, restore the wetlands. If you don't commit to this plan which is this $14 billion, costs of the Big Dig in Boston, or two weeks of spending Iraq, you shouldn't fix a single window in New Orleans. You shouldn't pick up a single piece of debris because to do one without the other is to set the table for another nightmare.
MR. RUSSERT: So if you keep status quo, rebuild the levee and not do the other environmental corrections that you're talking about, this will happen again?
MR. TIDWELL: I don't think we should fix a single window in New Orleans unless as a nation we commit to this $14 billion plan called Coast 2050. You can Google it under the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. It's been on the table since the mid-'90s. The Bush administration has had all kinds of folks in New Orleans and in Louisiana begging for funding for this--the cost of the Big Dig--to restore the Barrier islands, to fix the wetlands because without that, New Orleans is an endangered city forever.
MR. TIDWELL: I think there are a number of stories here. I mean, first of all, we need to, of course, address the humanitarian crisis. And beyond that, we got to start thinking about how--what we need to do to rebuild New Orleans. And that's going to take just restoration now for--to get the water of the Mississippi back toward the Barrier islands and the wetlands.
But the really final big story here is that the Bush administration is failing on another level to hear warning signs and take credible evidence that there's dire problems. The Bush administration itself--its own studies say that we will in this century turn every coastal city in America into a New Orleans. Why? Because we got three feet of subsidence, sinking,in south Louisiana in the 20th century because of the levees. Right now, because of global climate change, the Bush administration's own studies say we will get between one and three feet of sea level rise worldwide because of our use of fossil fuels.
The big, big, big take-away message here is: New Orleans is the future of Miami, New York, San Diego, every coastal city in the world, because whether the land sinks three feet and you get a bowl in a hurricane like this, or sea level rises worldwide, same problem. We have got to address this energy problem that David mentioned. We have an irrational energy problem.
The way most Americans are going to feel this hurricane is at the gas pump and the energy. That's because this infrastructure is irrationally exposed to hurricanes. That's a problem big enough itself and shows how vulnerable we are to fossil fuels. Then you have the consequences of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases turning every city, coastal city in the world into a New Orleans. We've got to start thinking about a new energy future.
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Story Source: MSNBC
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Congo Kinsasha; Global Warming; Environment; Hurricane Relief
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