Not a ‘lost’ cause

Some people are born with an innate sense of direction.

They can navigate the one-way streets of Bloomington flawlessly, it doesn’t bother them that Tapp Road has four names and they get offended whenever you have the audacity to remind them where to turn.

I am not one of these people. I routinely miss my own driveway, and I’ve asked for a GPS for every single birthday since I turned 16 (yeah, guys, I was serious).
But while I might be oblivious to a lot of things, I’m pretty sure even I’d notice if an island disappeared.

During a flyover to survey the damage from Hurricane Ike, scientists from the United States Geological Survey noticed just that: Ship Island, a land mass along the Gulf Coast, was missing. Keep in mind, this is real life and not an episode of “Lost.”
It’s gone, and unfortunately we can’t just expect the implosion of a Dharma station to make Ship reappear on our radar screens.  

In the past few years, epic disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Ike have virtually obliterated islands along the Gulf Coast and in the Mississippi delta.
Even when islands aren’t completely taken under, they find themselves in dire straits, with few options other than abandonment or extreme recovery measures. For example, the state of Louisiana has invested millions of dollars recently at the Isles Dernieres chain, erecting dune fences and pumping in sediment to actually elevate the island.
 
But there’s only so much time, money and manpower to go around, and common sense seems to suggest that trying to rebuild the entire planet is a losing effort.
Unfortunately, one of the best ways to mobilize people and resources is through tragedy. Just think of the changes that the Great Depression, or even 9/11, brought about.

To many, waiting until disaster strikes to make policy changes might seem a bit hard-hearted, but then again, you’ve always known “the Man” was out to get you, haven’t you? In this case, though, we’ve got more than a small warning of what we’re in for in the future.

But although many Americans have suffered from the recent whims of Mother Nature, especially in coastal areas, their plight might be the best bet for waking up legislators.
While the recent pounding the world’s taken might not be 100 percent attributable to global climate change, it’s pretty hard to ignore the loss of an island or to write off the destruction of coastlines as “business as usual.” Even if what’s going on now is something entirely different, it’s a fairly decent preview of what’ll happen if sea levels continue to rise as a result of shifting worldwide temperatures.

Adopting sweeping greenhouse gas emissions reduction legislation or making changes in land use policies aren’t easy things to follow through on, but, then again, what’s going on in front of our eyes is pretty serious. And no matter how good your eyes are – or if you ever do successfully sucker someone into donating a GPS to your “lost” cause – you’ll have to look really hard to find Ship Island again.