right now we are losing a football field
where the wetlands every hour my daddy
says the oil field started it and Mother
Nature's finishing it when I was a kid
you had to worry about alligators now we
got to worry about
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sharks in 20 5 the worst hurricane in US
history caught Louisiana by
surprise the coastal flooding caused by
Hurricane Katrina devastated nor Orleans
leaving more than 1,800 people dead and
displacing hundreds of
thousands the Superdome one of the
largest Sports Arenas in America became
a symbol of the storm's unexpected
impact with nowhere else to go more than
30,000 people sought shelter under its
roof today it's a very different scene
inside the
stadium BL
685 Echo Patrol America
Inc
$2,823 oil and gas companies like BP BHP
biltin and anad Darko have gathered at
this low paced auction to compete for
rights to engage in offshore exploration
in the Gulf of
Mexico this is a map of the entire um
area that's been part of the bidding
system so everything that's green are
the active leases that were issued the
red ones here are the ones that are part
of the bid
today this is nothing new since the
1930s the industry has been tearing
through the coastal wetlands of
Louisiana as part of their search for
oil in the Gulf shredding the marshes
that serve as a natural barrier against
major storms like Hurricane
Katrina despite making Louisiana more
vulnerable to Future storms the industry
continues to pour billions of dollars
into exploring and developing new areas
to extract even more oil and
gas after the auction we tried to get
some of the company reps to talk but not
surprisingly they declined so nobody can
comment no about what's going on no all
right sorry finally the head of the
industry's trade group agreed to speak
with us about the connection between oil
and gas exploration and the
deterioration of wetlands but was quick
to lay the blame
elsewhere at least a lot of the studies
that I've see don't put that high of
percentage of loss of land to the oil
and gas industry that it's actually due
to the Mississippi being constrained
into to one place where it can no longer
you know empty the silt and the water
flooding from the Mississippi River used
to be the area's biggest problem at
least back in 1927 before the Army Corps
of Engineers came in and built a levy to
keep it in
place while it's true the levy did cut
off the natural Lifeline of sediment to
the wetlands it plays a minor role in
coastal erosion here its absence leading
to less than a/ qu inch of land loss
every year on the other hand oil and gas
companies have been dredging canals
through these parts since the 1930s
permanently damaging Louisiana's first
line of defense against major
storms Wetlands absorb much of the
impact when a storm makes landfall
slowing its momentum before reaching
communities further Inland so less
Wetlands means storms are able to cause
more
damage right now we are losing a foot
ball field wor the wetlands every hour
Jonathan Henderson monitors oil and gas
activity in the wetlands for the golf
restoration Network he showed us just
how damaging industry activity has been
to the region this is ground Zera for
for where drilling started in Louisiana
everything that you see here that is
open water was once just solid
wetlands in the search for oil and gas
canals were carved through the wetlands
Mainline saltwater straight into
freshwater marshes killing everything in
its
path this has caused Louisiana to lose
more land faster than any other place in
the
world if you go up in the air you can
see that this is the clearest example of
an oil field in Wetlands because there's
so many oil and gas
canals Jonathan offered to take us up to
get a better view of how the 10,000 M of
canals have eaten away at the marsh
this Central area over there um that
used to be a huge Cypress
Forest it looks like a lake looks like a
lake all that's left are the stumps of
cypress trees now as we flew further out
we spotted dozens of offshore
facilities you can see all these Wells
that are out there the water oh yeah
those all had to built right into had to
dredge to get get there and pipelines to
connect even with a glut in the global
supply of oil and prices at their lowest
rates in years the offshore industry is
still going
strong that's in part because energy
companies are playing a long game in the
hopes that what goes down must go up
investing in projects that will run for
decades to come the area is expected to
produce a record 1.9 million barrels a
day starting next year
which means even more oil and gas being
extracted and pumped from the Gulf of
Mexico back on Shore through pipelines
running through the
wetlands we're kind of shooting
ourselves in the foot by uh supporting
an industry that's actually leading to
our R
demise the more oil and gas that's
produced in Louisiana it's going to be
even more difficult for us to to save
our coast and save
our luckily the state has a plan its
centerpiece is a series of levies across
the coast of Louisiana that's great news
if you live north of the levy but if you
live to the South you're out of
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luck we're on our way to E de Jean
Charles it's a tiny Island that many
people believe it's already too late to
save this is the only road that leads in
and out of there and it's it's a scary
Drive there's water on both sides it
feels like you're driving in the middle
of the
ocean they did an analysis to see if
this place would have been worth saving
and after they did an assessment of the
property value and home value they said
no as more and more of the island is
being lost to the incoming ocean its
population has dwindled down to just
under a 100 people Chris's family has
lived on IL Dean Charles for over 200
years
he's been weathering major storms and
hurricanes his whole life you know
whenever you leave for a
storm and you come back home you know
you just count your blessings that you
know that you got a home to come back to
how have you seen it change back then
they had ground to slow down the surge
so the impact of the storm wasn't as
great because it had a sort of buffer it
had to get through before getting to us
while now since there's hardly anything
out there I mean a category one if it's
coming right at you um can do can do a
whole lot of damage why not just like
pick up and leave and go somewhere else
I don't think you'll find a place on
Earth where there ain't something from
other nature you you have to deal with
since we've been dealing with this you
know um all our
lives well this is where I'm
at I I think it's not only a south
Louisiana a problem I think it's an
American
problem Chris's nextdoor neighbor Jason
offered to show us just how quickly the
land was
disappearing a lot of the
GPS's has our addresses on the um on the
main road up there there uh-huh wow and
uh like when people come to visit that
that has not been here they're like oh
okay where's your house this is all
water
has it affected the fishing I mean oh
yeah what what kinds of things have
affected or or have some kind of impact
in what you do like me personally I fish
oysters um a lot of my family
shrimp um all of that got affected it's
a third of what it used to be maybe when
I was a kid there was you had to worry
about alligators now we got to worry
about sharks
you think your son's kids are going to
be able to see this place I'm hoping so
I I really hope so I uh I don't want to
be the one to tell them stories I want
to be the one taking them out here
fishing are they doing anything the oil
and gas industry to help with the
effects of the land LS I think they
should they help create the problem they
just help have to be the one to help fix
it the state's plan to save the coast
will cost an estimated $50 billion where
that money will come from is still
unclear is there any possibility of
seeing the industry pay for more of the
restoration
efforts I think you're always going to
see the industry be an active part of it
uh uh again when times are good there's
frankly is quite a bit of money floating
around that's available uh right now
it's certainly hard on everybody it's
hard on the economy it's hard on the
industry um the the bright spot is is
consumers are getting a great price for
gasoline at the pump right
now Louisiana's erosion is only
accelerating climate change is predicted
to bring sea level rise in stronger
storms drowning what little marshlands
are left the natural barrier that took
almost 7,000 years to build could be
lost in a single
lifetime my daddy says the oil field
started it and Mother Nature's finishing
it
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you know you I can't live in denial I
can't live in a box there's a whole
other world of things going on out there
that's that's probably against this
place it may not look like much but you
know we're still
here we don't want to see the end of it
[Music]
[Laughter]
just swallow it
down they got a little salt to them
[Music]