It would be a nuclear WWI where a small thing spiraled out of control fast and unexpectedly. Any money spent trying to restore the Louisiana coastline is wasted. There is terrestrial subsidence, global sea-level rise, and marine erosional processes at work. Immense forces. The only immense force to counter them is the Mississippi River. But all of the upstream dams have deprived it of sediment and the levee system doesn't allow it to naturally meander and renourish a delta anymore. All we can do is prepare for a retreating coastline and a future capture of the Mississippi by the Atchafalaya at Old River because they are inevitable. But these scientific facts are politically incorrect to the local politicians and state government. $Billions will be spent on levees and dykes that will sink, restoring barrier islands that will disappear, and nourishing marshes that will be open water soon. The money should be built on relocating a lot of the population in the delta, managing the changes in the fisheries that will happen, and maintain access to the oil fields there. Our hurricane buffer will be lost when the marshes and barrier islands are gone, so money should be spent on surge-control levees and such far inland from where they are trying to save land now.
Red is right in this instance. It would help if we did more to release the Mississippi and Atchafalaya to build new land. If you fly over the Atchafalaya delta you see new land growing. It may be too late to stop the loss but it could slow things down.
About Israel, I've met a few natives that live here now. They are definitely an intense, different breed, but my daughters are friends with their kids. I hate that neither side in this current conflict can find a way to get along. It appears that the Palestinians don't even really want to.
Let me know how it turns out when you tell everybody in New Orleans that they have to move to Morgan City. Eventually the river will take its natural course and there is nothing that man can do to stop it in the long run. It would have happened already if it weren't for the Old River Control structure that is getting pretty old. But the only way to relocate the population is to create a massive number of new jobs in the area you want them to move to. I can't see that happening. If the river changed course tomorrow it would be at least 50 years before Morgan City was the economic center of the state the way New Orleans and Baton Rouge are now.
We have basically given Israel, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iraq, Bahrain, and other countries billions of dollars to buy weapons from us. And we still talk about that word "peace" in the Middle East.
There have been studies that indicate it would be better for the city if the river hanged course. It would take less dredging to keep the channel clear and with less or little current the trip up or down river would be easier. The only issue would be getting fresh water as the salt wedge would permanently be up river from the city.
In time nature will tell them to move, I don't have to do shit. And it won't be to Morgan City, they will be moving, too. Obviously the jobs will move with the people.
