Shadows on the Gulf

In the spring of 2010, we watched oil gushing unstoppably into the

waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But as bad as the spill was, it is

only the latest chapter in a century-long story of destruction.

At

the height of BP's dispersant madness, the amount sprayed each day

merely equaled the amount of dispersant that washes down the Mississippi

from the Heartland's dishwashers and washing machines. Coastal drilling

has damaged the region's ecology far more than offshore drilling. And

the acres of marshland ruined by oil slicks can't compare to the amount

that disappears in every hurricane, due to the work of the Army Corps of

Engineers. Southern Louisiana is subsiding. Even if we succeed in

restoring every mile of beach and wetland from the oil spill, the entire

Mississippi Delta could be lost this century, and New Orleans will sink

beneath the waves, an American Atlantis.

Surveying

the Gulf Coast by sailboat, skiff, car, and kayak, Jacobsen journeys

from the bayous of Terrebonne Parish, to the last shucking house in New Orleans's French

Quarter. He discovers a little-appreciated ecological wonder of breathtaking

natural beauty and rich culture struggling to hold on to the things that

have always sustained it.

Shadows on the Gulf

details the catastrophe creeping across the region and reveals why the

damage to the Gulf will affect us all. Not only are the Gulf's wetlands

the best oyster reefs and fish nurseries in the world, they also provide

critical habitat to most of America's migratory songbirds and

waterfowl. If the Gulf is allowed to fail, the effects will ripple

across America.