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Mississippi river delta worth more than BP

USA Today. 138.2782 (July 2010): p6+.

http://www.usatodaymagazine.net/

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The BP oil disaster, hurricanes, and wetlands loss threaten a net value of $330,000,000,000 to 1.3 trillion dollars in natural system goods and services, according to the first study of the Mississippi River Delta as a capital asset. Even the low-end estimate of the Delta's value exceeds BP's market capitalization before the oil disaster on April 20 ($189,000,000,000). By protecting against hurricanes, assuring water supply, buffering climate instability, supporting fisheries and other food and fur stocks, maintaining critical habitat, providing waste treatment, and additional benefits, these natural systems provide $12,000,000,-000 to $47,000,000,000 in benefits every year.

"These huge numbers show that the BP oil spill, hurricanes, and continued wetland degradation threaten not only the Gulf regional economy, but the national economy' cautions report coauthor David Balker, executive director of Earth Economics, Baton Rouge, La. "Unlike the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in 1989, we now have solid economics to put a value on the damage done to natural systems and the resulting harm to people. The Gulf economy needs nature to survive."

The report evaluates natural system goods and services, including water supply and flow regulation; hurricane protection; food and raw materials production; carbon sequestration; atmospheric composition regulation; waste treatment; and recreational, aesthetic, and habitat value. The study points out the threatening confluence of oil pipelines, flood protection, and Mississippi River levees that collectively have degraded the wetlands that protect against hurricanes, climate change, and sinking land.

The recommended solution is to restore the Mississippi River Delta wetlands--which have lost mere land area since 1930, 2,300 square miles, than the size of the state of Delaware--by using the energy;, water, and sediment of the Mississippi River to rebuild them.

"The renewable resources under threat in coastal Louisiana are crucial to ensure a sustainable and prosperous 21st-century economy," emphasizes Paul Harrison, senior director of the Mississippi River Project for the Environmental Defense Fund. "It is time for the nation to focus on rebuilding the Mississippi River Delta wetlands or risk dire economic consequences."

The report examines three future scenarios: continued wetlands loss, minor wetlands restoration efforts, and a major wetlands restoration. The study shows that large-scale wetlands restoration is a good financial investment for the Gulf region and the nation, bringing in an estimated present value of at least $21,000,000,000 and avoiding $41,000,000,000 in damages.

For example, for about every 2.5 miles of wetlands, one foot of a hurricane storm surge is removed. If coastal Louisiana had the 7,000 square miles of wetlands that it had in 1930, much of the nearly $200,000,000,000 in damages from Hurricane Katrina might have been avoided.

"Large diversions work, so the solution is clear," asserts John Day, lifelong Delta resident, study coauthor, professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, and former chairman of the National Technical Review Committee to oversee and review the Louisiana Coastal Area Project to restore the Mississippi Delta.

"Rebuilding the Mississippi Delta will provide hurricane buffering, fisheries, recreation, clean water, and a host of other highly valuable natural system goods and services. If healthy, these wetlands will provide benefits in perpetuity."

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)

"Mississippi river delta worth more than BP." USA Today, July 2010, p. 6+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A302769666/AONE?u=san96005&sid=AONE&xid=b4325995. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A302769666