I have been thinking since the floods of Katrina that it will be a huge waste of time, money, effort, blood, sweat and tears to re-build all of N.O. I am of the school of thinking that even if the sea levels do not rise N.O. will continue to sink because of the lack of foresight in trying to contain the Mississippi River. It is the very annual flooding of that area that kept it above sea level until they built "protection" and "controlled" the mighty river. Now there are no annual floods to deposit billions of cubic yards of sediment into the N.O. area and its marshes. Add that to the fact that they lose something like 21 square miles of marsh land between them and the Gulf each and every year due to their "control" of the mighty river. N.O. is losing the battle in many, many ways.
No marshes = no buffer against large storms and the surges they produce.
No redepositing of sediment in N.O. = drying sediment that is shrinking much like a kitchen sponge.
Shrinking soil = N.O. getting lower and lower below sea level every year.
If that city is to be here in 100 years (and not just in our history books), they're going to need to build a levee so high it that would almost be financially impossible.
Add to all of these things (that will happen to N.O. regardless) the possibility of the sea levels themselves rising as most scientists are predicting and it's a doomsday scenario waiting to happen, again.
BTW, I do believe in Global Warming, too much evidence to deny it. The unknown (yet almost 50% of scientists working on it think it will happen) is whether or not the melting glaciers will stop the ocean currents from flowing as they do today. This would produce a scenario much like that movie that was out a while ago "The Day After Tomorrow".
There are A LOT of unknowns right now because we've never been through something like this before since we've had all of this "knowledge", high tech measuring equipment and so on.
To top it all off, we ARE entering a "30 year period of increased hurricane activity and severeness" as stated by NOAA and many other respected sources. So, this means we will see more storms with the likes of Katrina and many more that will actually make landfall as a Cat 5 (not a Cat 4 like Katrina).
With that out of my mouth (so to speak), I live in a desert, on a mountain appx. 1750 feet above current sea level (and appx. 650 feet above downtown Phoenix) for more reasons than just the views. We get flooding here almost any time it rains more than an inch.
Please don't beat me up for my views/opinions... I know they are unpopular.
Anyone else dare to speak now in the midst of this tragic situation in New Orleans?
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