Every year, a chunk of land almost the size of Manhattan turns into open water in Louisiana. After decades of ignoring warnings from scientists and environmentalists, the state's business leaders are taking notice because they say this could doom the state's economy and threaten vital American industries like seafood, gas, and oil. Louisiana is getting ready to go to Congress with a bold and expensive plan to unleash the Mississippi to restore the wetlands—and they want you to help pay for it.
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK Reporting for Positive Action Correspondent Daniel Zwerdling cleaned his desk and found a surprising and important story on Louisiana's vanishing wetlands.
Nature's Revenge: Louisiana's Vanishing Wetlands is produced in collaboration with the PBS program NOW with Bill Moyers.
PART I Sinking into the Sea Right now, an entire region of the United States is crumbling and sinking into the sea. Scientists say it's causing one of the worst and least-publicized environmental disasters in America's history. Read
PART II An Unlikely Activist Scientists and environmentalists have been warning about the destruction of Louisiana´s coast since the 1960s, but it´s been hard to get anybody that "matters" to care until recently. Read
PART III Can the Plan to Save the Coast Really Work? An unlikely coalition of scientists, business leaders, and politicians is trying to launch one of the most complicated construction projects in U.S. history. Read
PART IV
Hurricane Risk for New Orleans
Officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are planning how to handle a disaster that nobody in America has faced before: they're trying to figure out how they'd repair New Orleans if a huge hurricane hits the city. Read
CREDITS
Correspondent: Daniel Zwerdling
Editors: Nils Bruzelius, Anne Gudenkauf
Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
Web production: Rebecca Smith, Emily Thompson, Michael Wells
Photo Above: William Brangham/NOW with Bill Moyers
