Absence of wetlands and increased storm activity create a feedback loop that increases salinity in freshwater systems, including drinking water aquifers. Mangroves and Cyprus trees have unique root systems that trap sediment and protect coastal shorelines from erosion and storm damage but petroleum dredging, chemical pollution and channels are destroying these unique trees.
Once amongst the most beautiful and biologically diverse coral reef ecosystems on the planet, the reef ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico have been rapidly dying off due to siltation (soil runoff), oxygen-depletion, chemical pollution, over fishing and temperature changes caused by industrial dredging, trawling, and especially by drilling and other petroleum activities.
The Gulf Coast has the largest and most valuable shrimp fishery in the United States, and in 1999 the region produced 78 percent of the national total shrimp landings. [16] The large acreage of coastal marshes along the Gulf Coast is thought to be the reason for this bountiful harvest of shrimp. This region also contributed 58 percent of the national oyster production. [17] These “industries” harvesting from the sea are in massive decline all around the U.S. Coast but nowhere is the threat greater than in the Gulf.
The 8000 square mile dead zone of oxygen depleted (hypoxic) water in the Gulf of Mexico just off Louisiana is expanding daily due to toxic industrial flushing, petroleum drilling wastes, chemical run-off and dumping from so-called “Cancer Alley” in the Louisiana Bayou, and wetlands loss further depletes nutrients and feeds the dead zone.
“Clearly, in the Gulf Coast region, where the fossil-fuel industry is the biggest economic sector and where greenhouse-gas emissions are among the highest in the nation,” wrote the Union of Concerned Scientists in an 83-page report about the environmental problems in the Gulf region, “it is critical to find ways to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions without reducing the economic vitality of Gulf states.”
Examination of the massive UCS study, Confronting Climate Change in the Gulf Coast Region (2001) provides a clear example of where those perceived to be watchdogs for the public trust have sold out to big industry, “national security” and the defense of their own organizational and career interests.
There is not one word in the entire report about the extent of environmental devastation wrought by petroleum and defense interests, and almost nothing at all about chemical refineries.
Instead of calling for an immediate moratorium on gas-flaring—the single most important global source of devastating toxic gaseous emissions—the Union of Concerned Scientists points to the importance of “investment in the region’s substantial renewable energy resources (e.g., solar, wind, and biomass)” and “incentives for new technology development and economic diversification while reducing air pollutants and greenhouse gases.”
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