The sea is consuming Louisiana. It’s fighting back.

October 28, 2022
by RJ Hamster

HOW LOUISIANA IS FIGHTING TO SAVE ITS SHORES

Monday, August 1, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we examine Louisiana’s ambitious plan to save its shores, tour the reputed birthplace of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, hunt for dangerous ‘twilight asteroids’ … and explore the starry roots of the ‘dog days of summer.’ That reminds us—welcome to August!

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN DEPP

No U.S. state is losing more land to rising seas than Louisiana. And no state has done more to try to stem the tide.

An ambitious coastal management plan is underway, aiming to reclaim nearly half of the 2,000 square miles of land Louisiana has lost to the Gulf of Mexico in the past 80 years—and try to stave off new sea advances. Nat Geo examines the cost ($50 billion!) and the results so far in the bold, high-stakes battle against the tide.

“We knew,” said David Muth, a longtime adviser to Louisiana’s coastal plan, “that we would only have one chance.”

Read the full article.

As shown in these images by Nat Geo Explorer Ben Depp, the community of Lafitte was one of many flooded (pictured at top) by last August‘s Hurricane Ida. Above (upper left), pipelines cut through clumps of grass in a marsh; above right, the shoreline at Cameron Parish, which is eroding by as much as 30 feet a year; bottom left, a storm surge pushed this sand into a pasture; bottom right, algae grow in wetlands in Terrebonne Parish. Read more.

Other ways rising seas are affecting the world:

Venice has a massive new way to keep the sea at bay

Can Miami replant mangroves to hold back the Atlantic?

Rising waters threaten the Gullah Geechee. Here’s how they are fighting back

Indonesia’s capital is sinking. Can it be saved?

Please consider getting our full digital report and our magazine by subscribing here. Thanks!

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

PHOTOGRAPH BY ISMAIL FERDOUS

People and wildlife return to NYC’s 500 miles of coastline(Pictured above, passengers on a New York ferry)

Long thought silent, stingrays recorded producing sounds

Astronomers focus on potentially dangerous ‘twilight asteroids’

Why they call these the ‘dog days’ of summer

How multiple COVID-19 infections can affect your body

Welcome to Armageddon: How it and other early cities are yielding new clues

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS MARDEN, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

The end of the ‘wickedest city’: The world has plenty of wicked cities, but the Jamaican trading and pirate center of Port Royal earned its nickname from the swashbuckling thieves who robbed other ships and fought and gambled in what became the Caribbean’s largest community. In 1692, however, a major earthquake shattered the city, killing at least 2,000 people, Nat Geo History reports. The quake and follow-up tsunami also liquified the sand spit Port Royal was built on, “sinking” it. Builders and residents moved across the harbor to expand Kingston, Jamaica’s present-day capital. (Pictured above, removing contents of a bottle found during a 1959 excavation.)

READ ON

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY PRICE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Self-sufficiency: The Baltic republic of Latvia, like its neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, had a lot of rebuilding to do after breaking away from the disintegrating Soviet Union. The three nations also have had to withstand ire and disinformation campaigns from Russia’s bellicose Vladimir Putin after they opposed his disastrous—and deadly—invasion of Ukraine. This image, of family members working their small vegetable garden outside the Latvian capital of Riga, appeared in a November 1990 Nat Geo story on Latvia’s post-Soviet rise. It resurfaced recently in our Photo of the Day archival collection.

MORE VINTAGE PHOTOS

IN A FEW WORDS

Our Indigenous TikTok stars will often put on regalia and dance, and it gathers a lot of likes. But what about a Native doctor in a suit? Because seeing is believing, and our young children deserve to see themselves as they are.

Matika Wilbur

Nat Geo Explorer who’s attempting to photograph all 562 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.

More on her project: Through a lens, documenting Indigenous culture

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY AGE OF STOCK/ALAMY

Rugged—and beautiful: The ancient Greeks held that Cyprus was so beautiful that it was the appropriate birthplace of their fairest goddess, Aphrodite. A trip through the rugged interior of Cyprus is indeed beautiful—and suggests “a time before cruise ships and resort holidays,” Jamie Lafferty writes. (Pictured above, vibrant 11th-century murals in Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis, among a group of 10 regional churches designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)

SEE FOR YOURSELF

Today’s newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Heather Kim, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have a story idea or feedback? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com.

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the Colonial Concours d’Elegance

Eureka Research: News and Highlights!

RJ Hamster

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The sea is consuming Louisiana. It’s fighting back.

The sea is consuming Louisiana. It’s fighting back.

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