Sinking feelings

National headlines this morning:

Front page of today's USA Today:

In the past eight decades, Louisiana has lost 1,880 square miles of coastal marshes, or an area about the size of Manhattan every year. With another hurricane season upon us, it is land that Louisiana and the nation can ill afford to lose. The same threat of lost barrier islands and wetlands stalks more than half of the coastal properties of the continental United States, extending from Maine to Texas. But here in southeastern Louisiana, it's at its worst.

The sub-head adds insult to injury by throwing in a gratuitous line about "climate change-spiced gumbo." Try not to think about that.

Also here's a Mother Jones feature on Bayou Corne:

Bayou Corne is the biggest ongoing industrial disaster in the United States you haven't heard of. In addition to creating a massive sinkhole, it has unearthed an uncomfortable truth: Modern mining and drilling techniques are disturbing the geological order in ways that scientists still don't fully understand. Humans have been extracting natural resources from the earth since the dawn of mankind, but never before at the rate and magnitude of today's petrochemical industry. And the side effects are becoming clear.

And finally there's this local headline:

New Orleans Saints lose receiver Joe Morgan, defensive lineman Kenyon Coleman for season