Losing Louisiana: The Sinking Time Bomb

Sanaya Tonsekar

Instructor’s Introduction

Sanaya concluded her final reflective essay in WR 152, “American Environmental History,” with this assertion: “Writing is not merely a skill—it is an art that weaves the fabric of human experience into the tapestry of words and a beacon of inspiring change.” That line is beautifully reflective of her approach in both my WR 120 and 152 courses, and in her exceptional paper here, “Losing Louisiana: The Sinking Time Bomb.”   

My WR 120 and WR 152 courses in American Environmental History examine the reciprocal relationships between nature and culture over the past 400 years of North American history. As a culture, we have made assumptions about nature, often to our detriment or that of the natural world, and then nature responds. An example would be living in southern Louisiana, a flooding and hurricane prone area, and assuming that technology will save us, the levees will hold, that we’re smarter than nature, or that we are skilled gamblers and can get away with living in fragile areas or enacting dangerous and self-serving policies. Sanaya examines the choices we have made in the ever-shrinking (and sinking) wetlands of southern Louisiana in the aftermath of the great 1927 Flood, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in the face of subsiding wetlands as sea levels rise. 

This essay represents her project, a re-mediated website, that builds on her second research paper about the Great 1927 Mississippi River Flood. Sanaya skillfully presents multimodal resources and offers a sophisticated presentation of conceptual problems that her claim resolves. And her claim is as sparkling as her in-class engagement both semesters: “A truly balanced vision of Louisiana in the future lies at the intersection of sustainable science, technology and development that bolsters the needs of Louisiana’s population while simultaneously reviving the sinking coastline​for generations to come.” I commend her beautiful presentation to you!

Ted Fitts

From the Writer

My motivation for writing this paper stemmed from a broad interest in the ever-changing American landscape. In my WR 152 class, we explored how the environment has evolved through historical milestones, industrialization, urbanization, and environmental exploitation. Louisiana is a striking example of this shift. Once a defining feature of America’s topography, it now faces rapid land loss and rising water levels. By examining Louisiana’s sinking and reimagining the landscape, my goal was not just to highlight the fate of one state but to use it as a case study of America’s evolving relationship with the environment. The subject is important to me because it defines how I think about home and identity in relation to the environment. Louisiana’s culture, people, and traditions are deeply rooted in its environment, so the loss of land also means the disappearance of whole identities and communities.

A challenge I faced in writing this paper was balancing historical context with current data. Louisiana’s environmental crisis is a result of centuries of human intervention, yet it’s also a dynamic and ongoing issue shaped by modern-day actions. I overcame this by drawing connections between historical land use policies, industrial expansion, and modern climate science across a range of primary and secondary sources. By doing so, I gained a deeper understanding of how environmental history continues to shape the present, and how Louisiana’s story is a critical piece in the larger story of America’s changing landscape.

Losing Louisiana: The Sinking Time Bomb (website)

Losing Louisiana: The Sinking Time Bomb

Sanaya Tonsekar is a sophomore at Boston University, double majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology and Economics. At BU, she is a Dean’s Host in the College of Arts and Sciences and a Research Assistant at the Pratt Lab in the College of Engineering. Sanaya has always had a passion for writing, but it was her professor, Ted Fitts, who encouraged her to explore new writing styles and techniques. She is deeply grateful for Professor Fitts’ thoughtful guidance and support, which were instrumental in bringing her writing piece to fruition.