Ana Hoyos
David Perkins
Journalism final part 1
The destruction of the Louisiana coastline is a prime example of the unintended
consequences of human alteration of nature and natural landscapes. It took the
Mississippi river approximately 6,000 years to build the Louisiana coast with natural
sediment and it took man 75 years to destroy it. According to co-author Mark
Schleifstein of the “Last Chance” environmental series on the Times Picayune, Louisiana
is losing about 24 square miles of its wetlands per year due to manmade jetties, levees,
canals and channels dredged for oil, gas and shipping as well as land subsidence,
saltwater intrusion, invasive species, and sea-level rise. Between 1932 and 2000,
Louisiana lost approximately 2,000 square miles of land, bringing the Gulf of Mexico
closer and closer to New Orleans’ suburbs. Unless action is taken now by the state to
reduce land loss, in the next decade the cost of repair will be too high for Congress to
accept or consider. If no action is taken, according to Coastal scientists, Gulf waves that
were once far from the city could “intrude into suburban lawns” and the infrastructure
serving the nation’s energy supply will be exposed to the Gulf’s waters. Levees designed
to stand a few hours of storm would also be completely underwater, leaving little
protection for the upcoming tropical storms that Louisiana commonly faces.
Because this problem would not only affect the residents of Louisiana but would
harm the well being of the entire nation, reporting on this issue should be a national
priority. Louisiana has the largest coastal wetlands in the country and industries that all
Americans rely on. Twenty seven percent of the nation’s oil and thirty percent of its gas
travel through the state’s coast, which serves half of the nations refinery capacity. Ports
along the Mississippi River also manage 56 percent of the nation’s grain shipments. The
estuaries, which are slowly being covered by the Gulf’s water, produce half of the
country’s shrimp crop and a third of its oysters and blue claw crab. Destruction of the
infrastructure that supports those industries would cost around $103 billion and would be
a great loss for the nation. While interviewing environmental journalist Bob Marshall,
who has devoted his career to this issue, he told me “coastal restoration efforts have been
under way for 2 decades, but not a single project capable of reversing the trend is
awaiting approval yet.” Full financing for one restoration project (about $650 million)
will not begin until 2017 and even then, the state will only receive about $20 million a
year to cover these costs. As early as the 1970’s, the state was aware of coastal land loss
due to levee construction, canals dredged for oil and shipping and the washing out the of
the Terbonne and Barataria estuaries south and West of New Orleans, but it did not take
any action towards restoration until 1989, when a trust fund was created to pay for costs.
In an attempt to naturally restore the coastline, a new Master Plan calls for building new
wetlands through large river diversions, which send fresh water into eroding sections of
the coastline. Barrier islands and beaches, interior wetlands, river and bayou ridges and
shallow sand deposits in coastal waters would be recreated to restore the once stable
Louisiana coastline and pumping stations would be installed to move nutrient-rich rain
water run-off from levee-protected land into nearby wetlands. None of these small
proposals are sure to succeed; redesigning the bottom of the Mississippi River to divert
its sediment in order to build new deltas and wetlands is seen as the most effective
strategy although it is the most controversial and faces opposition from American
industries.
Bob Marshall told me that he reports from an angle that does not only focus on
the environmental aspect of coastal destruction but emphasizes its economic effects in
order to get across to most Americans and to encourage them to take action and to
support coastline restoration. I could take Mr. Marshall’s strategy further and try to
influence today’s technology-crazed and dependent generation to take action and become
educated on this issue by reporting from the viewpoint of someone in their own age
group who could be affected by this crisis (especially financially) and emphasizing
concerns like employment that I share with them. According to the Louisiana state
website, Louisiana has the greatest concentration of crude oil refineries, natural gas
processing plants and petrochemical production facilities in the western hemisphere and
is known for pioneering offshore oil and gas exploration. The state also exports sugar
cane, rice, sweet potatoes, cotton, pecans, oysters, shrimp and grains to the rest of the
country. Not only does Louisiana produce countless products for the country but it also
has the nation’s farthest inland port for sea-going ships. If the Gulf of Mexico continues
to come closer, the country’s economy could be in serious danger. Alerting the younger
generation to what the future might hold economically and politically for them can work
as a warning strategy and encourage action to be taken. Because the receding coastline
could potentially harm the ports and the shipping industry that the country relies on,
people in the future would have to pay more for goods that would have to be imported
rather than produced locally. The country would begin to rely more on foreign oil,
causing oil prices to rise significantly and for people to go out less and spend less.
Because prices for food and other products would be higher, restaurants and other
businesses would hire less or close down. Unemployment would hit younger workers
especially hard. By reporting the dangerous series of events that could result from this
issue, people might begin to educate themselves about the importance of the coastline’s
restoration and about the significance of Louisiana’s industry. I believe making this
warning more visual on online publications or blogs would also be an effective method to
catch the attention of an audience hooked on new media
Louisiana is currently experiencing an economic boom in tourism, hotels, real
estate and most significantly in film production. The film industry in Louisiana has seen
major growth over the past few years with the opening of two visual effects companies
and film and TV productions happening all year round. BBC travel has even nicknamed
New Orleans “Hollywood south” for its diverse portfolio of film and TV that caters to
both large studio features and small independent projects. The state’s generous tax credit
and diverse, rich culture has attracted filmmakers, luring the film industry away from Los
Angeles. I have witnessed the state’s industrial boom and I am now personally affected
by it; my father is a set designer in the film industry who was once based in Los Angeles
and now has to live in New Orleans for months at a time.
Now that my family relies on this Louisiana-based industry, I have an even
greater incentive to report on what the effects of the coastline crisis would be from a
personal perspective. Incorporating my own life experience when reporting on this issue
may attract readers who are looking for a more personal take on a relatively complicated
environmental topic. By showing how more people are benefiting from the film industry
in Louisiana, readers can realize the importance of protecting the industries they rely on
to fuel their cars, provide the food they need to prepare their dinners, stock their
restaurants and even make the movies they watch. By integrating into my reporting
aspects of the vibrant music scene, art and food that South Louisiana and New Orleans
have to offer, young people might be persuaded to save the coastline in order to preserve
the wonderful culture and history of the state as well.
The destruction of the Louisiana coastline poses great risks and dangers for the
future of the nation’s economy and for the employment of the younger generation.
Following Bob Marshall’s style of reporting through an economically focused
perspective, I believe reporting from the viewpoint of a young person who will live to see
the results of this destruction can be effective in making younger people realize the
potential impact of this issue and how it can harm them financially in the future. By
showing the beautiful, artistic and diverse culture of Louisiana, I would hope to
encourage readers to take action and to push for a movement to save one of the most
unique areas of this country.
Journalism final part 2
To dig deeper into details about the coastline destruction, I contacted and
interviewed environmental journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Bob Marshall. Mr.
Marshall has covered the stories, people, and environmental issues of Louisiana’s
wetlands for more than 35 years for the Times Picayune and he now writes full-time for
The Lens. Mr. Marshall was co-author of Pulitzer-prize winning series “Oceans of
Trouble” examining the unfortunate situation of the world’s fisheries and the decline of
the Louisiana coastline. In 2007, he was also co-author of the series titled “Last Chance:
A fight to save a disappearing coast” about the state’s coastal erosion problems and he
investigated the missteps in building the New Orleans’ levees that caused the majority of
flooding during hurricane Katrina. As a native resident of Southern Louisiana, Mr.
Marshall began his career as a sports journalist but always took an interest in nature,
calling the wetlands “my home, my playground, my church.” Becoming more concerned
with this issue as he aged, Mr. Marshall left sports journalism and decided to dedicate his
career as a journalist to expose this crisis and inform people of the consequences they
will pay because of it. Mr. Marshall’s wife now runs a swamp kayak tour called “the Lost
Lands Tour” that focuses on educating customers on the wetlands and how dredging and
other human activity is slowly destroying them.
During our phone interview, Mr. Marshall mentioned to me that he is a journalist
dedicated to the Louisiana coastline crisis primarily because he adores his native land and
treasures the beauty of the state’s wetlands. Although many of his readers may not care
about the issue or even about the landscape, Mr. Marshall tries to relate this issue to his
readers’ lives by explaining how Louisiana’s industries that are in danger due to the
decline of the wetlands are crucial to the economy of the nation and how they will affect
the public in their everyday life if no changes are enforced. Because of my interest on
reporting on this issue from a perspective of a young person who will be affected by the
land’s destruction, I asked him how he reaches the younger generation and how I could as
well as an aspiring journalist. Mr. Marshall said, “I do everything possible to get across to
younger people- I tweet messages, my blog and the lost lands tours have a Facebook page
and I write online articles. Because people don’t really read newspapers anymore and I
now work to reach an online audience, my work and the information I put out is only ever
read by people who care about Louisiana’s nature or the coastline. One’s efforts can only
go so far.” In response to my question asking about the master restoration plan and its
costs, he told me the state will receive a minimum of $670 million a year after 2017
because the problem will have worsened by then and coastal erosion will have become
irreversible. Mr. Marshall believes the younger generation should be the most concerned
about reconstructing the coastline because they rely greatly on the trade that passes
through Louisiana and the oil that the state provides and they will be the ones who will
have to pay taxes for it in the future.
Because he teaches journalism as well, Mr. Marshall told me that as an
environmental journalist, he deals with scientists and researchers that “live in their own
world and speak to you as if you have any idea about these complex scientific concepts.”
He believes the only way to get across to an audience and to get them to care about this
crisis is to “put the facts and ideas the scientists give you into layman’s terms and try to
see how you can relate it to the readers by presenting it to them as a matter that will harm
them in the future.” Because he is a strong believer in journalism as a form of bringing
about a solution, Mr. Marshall advised me that as an aspiring journalist I have the power
to influence this generation and that I should never be afraid to ask questions during an
interview. He also told me to always check back with my source when paraphrasing their
work or their words and to never fear stopping someone in an interview and asking “what
is that?” or “what does that mean?”