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Just wanted to give a quick update on the debate surrounding Sunday's "60 Minutes" story about New Orleans, which we previously discussed here. Today, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans prints a lengthy story on the controversy entitled "NOT SO FAST, '60 MINUTES.'" The story quotes a number of experts saying that Tim Kusky, the scientist quoted in the "60 Minutes" piece saying the city would be surrounded by water within 90 years, "went overboard," as the Times-Picayune puts it.



Here's a portion of the article:

In an interview Monday, Kusky said his projection of the city becoming an island was "based on a statement made by the director of the U.S. Geological Survey" in 2000.



But University of Texas at Austin geology professor Charles Groat, who was then director of the U.S. Geological Survey, flatly disagreed with Kusky's conclusions.



Groat said Kusky relied on "an offhand comment that has often been repeated" that was included in a University of New Orleans magazine piece that compared New Orleans to Atlantis.

The story goes on to quote scientists further questioning Kusky's findings, as well as his credentials in the field.

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This Sunday's "60 Minutes" featured a story entitled "New Orleans Is Sinking." The piece included an interview with a St. Louis University professor named Tim Kusky. In the piece, Kusky is shown telling correspondent Scott Pelley that "[w]e should be thinking about a gradual pullout of New Orleans," because, thanks to coastal erosion, New Orleans will be a "fish bowl" by 2095 – a city completely surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico. "New Orleans is going to be 15 to 18 feet below sea level, sitting off the coast of North America surrounded by a 50- to 100-foot-tall levee system to protect the city," he added.



Kusky's argument drew criticism even before the segment aired. After seeing a preview on the "60 Minutes" Web site last week, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's hurricane recovery chief, Andy Kopplin, asked "60 Minutes" to hold the piece in a letter. "We are very concerned about the preview of your story on New Orleans' future posted on the '60 Minutes' Web site and hope it is not an accurate reflection of your work," he wrote. "We know of many scientists and engineers who have spent considerable parts of their careers becoming experts in addressing coastal land loss in Louisiana and who disagree fundamentally with Prof. Kusky's purported comments." He added: "I cannot request strongly enough that you delay the airing of your story and immediately get in contact with some of these scientists in order to provide your viewers with scientific objectivity as well as balance in your report."



Attached to Kopplin's letter was a letter from Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who disputed Kusky's argument and wrote that an op-ed by Kusky published in the Boston Globe in September concerning New Orleans was no better than "an undergraduate paper" deserving of a low grade. "I am extremely disappointed that the widely viewed and well regarded '60 Minutes' would base a story on such an incredibly important issue on an 'expert' with so little standing on the subject and not seek the best scientific perspectives available," Boesch added.

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