Losing Louisiana

Seventy miles south of New Orleans, on the eastern end of Grand Isle, a small tide gauge records the Gulf of Mexico rising against the surrounding land. The monthly increases are microscopic, narrower than a single strand of hair.

Climate scientists recording those results think they add up to something huge. The gauge, they say, may be quietly writing one of the first big stories in the age of global warming: the obituary for much of southeast Louisiana.

In 50 to 100 years, the numbers tell them, rising seas caused by global warming, combined with the steady subsidence of Louisiana's coast, will lift the Gulf of Mexico two to six feet higher in many areas surrounding New Orleans.

Such a rise would overwhelm the most ambitious coastal restoration plans now under way and submerge almost everything in southeast Louisiana outside hurricane levees. And that means the areas inside the levees essentially would become coastline, far more vulnerable to hurricanes and continuing coastal erosion, and in need of a far more drastic and expensive flood protection apparatus.

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Rome on Alert for Tiber Breaking Its Banks

Officials put Rome on a state of alert for the Tiber breaking its banks Friday, after days of unrelenting rain and thunderstorms that the mayor likened to an "earthquake" striking the Italian capital.

Rome's mayor has already declared a state of emergency after severe storms early Thursday flooded underpasses, disrupted train and flight services and led to the death of one person.

"We've been hit by a wave of exceptionally bad weather that has affected all of Italy," Mayor Gianni Alemanno told La Repubblica newspaper when asked why a torrential downpour was enough to bring the Italian capital to its knees.

"In Rome, it has been like an earthquake, with more rain in one night than normally comes down in all of December.

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Picturesque valley to be allowed to be flooded as defences surrendered

Current flood defences are not high enough to cope with sea level rises at the Cuckmere Estuary in East Sussex and each year the agency spends tens of thousands of pounds removing shingle from the mouth of the river.

Now it has decided to allow the sea to reclaim the popular landmark in a move that will see the valley return to the tidal floodplain it was back in the 1840s.

Campaigners said they are pressing for a more managed approach and that allowing the area to flood would harm wildlife, footpaths and parts of the local beach.

But the Environment Agency said that climate change, sea level rises and past interference by man have put the Cuckmere Estuary under increasing pressure.

Its area manager for Kent and East Sussex, Andrew Pearce, said: "Climate change is presenting us with many challenges and the way we manage flood risk here has to change.

"Restoring the Cuckmere Estuary to a tidal floodplain will allow the area to adapt to climate change and will bring with it great opportunities and benefits for visitors and wildlife."

The agency spends up to £50,000 of flood risk management money removing shingle from the river mouth to enable the river to flow out to sea and cut the risk of flooding upstream.

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Study calls for rules on fertilizer

Both the federal government and Mississippi River basin states should start setting pollution limits on the nutrients commonly found in farm fertilizers that wash into the river and ultimately end up in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study by the National Research Council concludes.

That study, conducted at the behest of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recommends launching a national initiative aimed at improving water quality throughout the Mississippi River basin states, which include Illinois and Missouri.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are the key nutrients responsible for causing the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone, an area the size of Massachusetts where depleted oxygen levels have resulted in widespread fish kills. Agribusiness contributes to the dead zone as corn and soybean cultivation are the largest sources of nitrogen in the Gulf, while the application of manure on pastures is to blame for its phosphorus levels, studies show.

The study's release Thursday follows an announcement earlier this week that St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. plans to fund $5 million in voluntary programs aimed at reducing nutrient and sediment runoff into the Mississippi River. That effort also is being supported by the Iowa Soybean Association, the Nature Conservancy, Delta Wildlife and the National Audubon Society.


In addition to setting nutrient limits, the National Research Council recommends establishing 40 pollution pilot projects in impaired basin watersheds. Those would include projects like erosion and sediment control, manure storage, wetland construction and farm runoff control.

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'Green Club' an EPA charade

CHARLESTON, Tenn. - In January 2005, residents near the chlorine plant here discovered that it was the biggest mercury emitter in the state. Environmentalists warned them against eating fish from their beloved Hiwassee River.

They appealed to the plant's owners, Olin Corp., to do what 100 other chlorine producers had done: abandon a 19th-century process that emits tons of the dangerous neurotoxin. Olin refused.

In fall 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency weighed in - but not to take up the cause of residents.

Instead, EPA called Olin with an offer. Would the Charleston plant like to be enrolled in Performance Track, an elite green club of the nation's most environmentally progressive companies?

In return, Olin could expect regulatory breaks, such as fewer inspections and loosened requirements on hazardous waste disposal, not to mention positive publicity.

Sherry Neidich, who has lived half her life a mile downriver from Olin's plant, was stunned.

"The EPA is a toothless dog," she said. "What right does someone have to ruin my river? To poison our playground?"

Her children grew up fishing and swimming in the river's placid water, but her grandchildren, who live next door, aren't allowed near it. In fact, they'll be moving, to avoid further exposure.

"I love having them here, but I don't think it's safe," she said.

The Bush administration holds up Performance Track as a bold new approach that moves the EPA beyond its traditional role as enforcer of environmental laws. The new EPA collaborates with industry to encourage cutting-edge environmentally sensitive practices.

It is precisely this voluntary approach that Bush's top environmental officials say is part of their plan to fight global warming - to encourage companies to reduce greenhouse gases, rather than forcing them to do so.

But an Inquirer investigation shows that what was conceived as an innovative stewardship program has become little more than smoke and mirrors. Performance Track offers a stark example of how the White House's pro-business ethic weakened the agency and slowed environmental progress.

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