THE END OF THE WORLD for The Globe and Mail
“The worst environmental crisis in North America is happening in southern Louisiana. In the time it takes to read this story, a parcel of Louisiana wetland the size of a football field will have sunk into the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past century, about 5,200 square kilometres – a land mass roughly the size of Prince Edward Island – has vanished in one of the more culturally and environmentally exceptional regions on the continent. This has wreaked havoc on wildlife, displaced 10th-generation homesteaders and left major population centres such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the capital, far more vulnerable to the wrath of passing hurricanes. But as Louisiana sinks, it booms.”
I spent two days in Lower Terrebonne Parish for a great feature story that provides a crash course in some of the environmental issues threatening many residents of Southern Louisiana:
