Feature Writing: Coastal Erosion

By: Charlie Reisman

Published on October 27th, 2019

With the holidays fast approaching, I can not but help to think how recycling Christmas trees has helped “protect against wave erosion across 15,500 linear feet of shoreline off the coast of Louisiana” (Eason 2019).

The coast of Louisiana is one of the most vulnerable areas of land in the world. According to the Coastal Management Department, Barataria Bay, off Louisiana coast, has had a 30 percent land loss since 1960, and in the next 50 years Jefferson Parish could lose 1,125 square miles” (Eason 2019).

Climate change has affected these areas immensely between hurricanes that erode the land away to rising sea levels that also erode the land. Past hurricanes such as Camille, Katrina, and Gustav have led to major coastal erosion.  To combat this issue, the coast guard recycles old Christmas trees and puts them out in the marshes and swamps to build up the areas in Louisiana that have eroded away. This project has been going on for 23 years, and because of this the Louisiana coastline has grown over hundreds of acres. Not only does this build up the coast, it also creates wave breaks that protects New Orleans from flooding and storm surge from hurricanes and these trees also help fight against rising sea levels due to climate change. 

This is a major problem seen all over the world from New Orleans to Miami to New York to San Francisco many of these coastal cities will be under water in the near future if we do not  do something to stop climate change. Many of these cities have started to build up to slow the effects of climate change like the Christmas trees but these efforts will only go so far. Rusbridger wrote it best, “Sometimes there’s a story so enormous that conventional journalism struggles to cope with it, never mind do it justice” (Wyss 2008). Climate change is one of the biggest issues in society today, and we need more people to write about their personal experiences with climate change to fight against the problem at hand. We need people to express their views to put a stop to climate change before it is to late for us to save the planet.

Sources:

Eason, Rosalyn. The annual Christmas Tree Marsh Shoreline Recycling Project helps restore coastline. nola.com, 2019. Electronic.

Wyss, Bob. Covering the environment: How journalists work the green beat. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.