| Since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi, and | | | | soft, thick pillow - the baseball will bounce off a wall |
| part of Alabama at the end of August of 2005, global | | | | retaining a lot of its energy, but will lose its motion and |
| warming and the destruction of wetlands have shared | | | | its kinetic energy entirely in the soft give of the |
| in the blame for the devastation of the Gulf Coast. An | | | | pillow.)NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric |
| increase in the temperature of the waters of the Gulf | | | | Administration) recently rewarded a multimillion-dollar |
| of Mexico is believed to have fueled the storm, | | | | contract aimed at restoring 1400 acres of wetlands in |
| substantially increasing its intensity, while the | | | | Louisiana's Lafourche County. The aim is to restore a |
| disappearance of wetlands - one U.S. | | | | substantial portion of the wetlands in that area, which |
| Congresswoman estimated that fully 95 percent of | | | | has been impacted negatively by construction, natural |
| U.S. coastal wetlands have been destroyed by | | | | erosion, and subsidence (sinking of the land because of |
| development - has eliminated swamplands which have | | | | oil extraction and other human demands on the |
| traditionally acted as a buffer for hurricanes.Hurricanes | | | | environment). The largest wetlands restoration project |
| travel swiftly over open waters, gathering intensity as | | | | in the U.S. to date, it is just the beginning of a much |
| they absorb energy from the warm waters of tropical | | | | larger restoration project proposed for the region. The |
| and subtropical waters. As they hit land, however, the | | | | hope is that these restored marshes will ameliorate the |
| hurricanes quickly lose energy as the friction of the | | | | impact of the increasingly powerful hurricanes |
| land serves to break up the storm and slow down the | | | | originating in the Atlantic.Aldene Fredenburg is a |
| winds. Swamps and estuaries, with their thick | | | | freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. |
| vegetation and dense, almost spongy quality, actually | | | | She has written numerous articles for local and |
| act as a cushion, absorbing tremendous amounts of | | | | regional newspapers and for a number of Internet |
| kinetic energy from the storm as it passes. (Think of a | | | | websites, including Tips and Topics. |
| baseball thrown against a hard wall as opposed to a | | | | |