>> i'm yferl. "on target" tonight, losing ground. new orleans remains vulnerable to another hurricane because the wetlands are disappearing. there's plenty to blame but little to fix it. plus, are men accused of sexual assault getting a fair hearing on college campuses? there is no doubt that new orleans its leaders and the city's residents have made huge progress in recovering from the devastation and death brought by hurricane katrina ten years ago. in the last decade, tens of

billions of dollars of federal aid have helped rebuild neighborhoods and protect the city from katrina. new orleans has also revamped its schools and opened new hospitals helping to attract new residents who fled after the storm destroyed homes and lives. but tonight, i want to look at another reason why new orleans remains vulnerable. the erosion of the state's coastal wetlands. here is what southeastern louisiana looked like back in 1932. you don't see it in the map but new orleans is about 100 miles straight north of here. port fouchon is a major center, transshipment center for oil and gas in the gulf. the area between there and new orleans is filled with wetlands that basically would help buffer

the force of a giant storm surge. look at the same map 78 years later. much of the we wetlands are gon. in the last year, new orleans has lost 19 miles of coastal land which means, new orleans has a lot less separating it from the hundreds of thousands of people that live in new orleans and the other parts of the coast. some scientists say if nothing is done about this situation another 700 miles of new orleans coast would vanish by 2050. it is important to remember that despite all of the progress that new orleans has made in the decade since katrina, louisiana continues to lose ground in the battle against rising sea levels. the harm that poses to homes and

businesses. what can be done? as david ariosto reports, the answers are complicated and controversy. controversial. >> imagine if delaware up and disappeared, the entire state vanishing under the waves with nothing but sun and sea. this isn't delaware but an area the size of it slowly sank and disappeared in louisiana where coastal erosion is the greatest danger if there's another katrina type storm. this is an area you see land, this is all bayou here, those are people's homes they used to barbecue and hang out here and exchange crabs and oysters and now this is all water. essentially the water has rushed over the course of several decades and eroded a lot of the natural coastal barriers that used to be here to protect the

communities from storm surges. when hurricane katrina barreled ashore that lack of marsh allowed for further devastation. some parts of louisiana are actually considered more vulnerable. the reason those natural barriers have continued to erode and in the town of burse, only a scattering of throws remain. this is what we're talking about here. this is one of the coastal areas which exist in the town of burse. what it does is act as a speed bump or first line of defense against storm surges that roll in. it slows down the velocity of the storm or the waves that accompany it. without these, the towns like burse are made more vulnerable. >> we come out here eat oysters until we are blue in the face. >> that vulnerability is something that ryan lambert knows well. katrina once put him out of

business. >> it's not a matter of if a hurricane is going to hit, it's a matter of when. you live with it. >> a tour boat operator whose home was destroyed by katrina, he's now trying to sound the alarm about how dangerous the area has become. state officials have developed a 50 year, $50 million fund to restore some of these areas buttists not clear how it will be funded and lambert says it's not a priority. >> if they knew the jeopardy we are in at land lost, it came up 24 foot in 15 minutes in my launch. >> the conventional wisdom is that every mile of land is reduced by one foot. during katrina, the 21 foot breached the levees where lambert lived. >> it was four foot over the top

of that levee. that would have been six and a half foot of tidal surge that would have been knocked down. it's 17 and a half foot now might not have went over the levee if we still had the marsh. >> reporter: i wanted to see that marsh or at least something like it. so lambert took me further inland, offering me a rare glimpse of the way that most of louisiana's coastal barriers once were. >> this is what it used to look like, thick veg station on both sides, a lot of birds flying around, vegetation, and it smells different. >> that's river coming through here. this is all getting filtered. >> this is all fresh water by looking at it. >> yeah, let me show you here. when you take had and you shake it, see that dirt? that's what is filtering out. look. what happens when the wave action comes that sediment falls and that's how land is built.

>> reporter: these areas are smeardisappearing as waters ris. because of energy development. >> these are oil wells everywhere in louisiana. >> all these are appliance, all these white markers? >> these are two appliance and i --these are all pipelines. >> a matrix of 10,000 miles of pipelines through pristine marsh land. the oil and gas administration previously acknowledged that these pipelines caused 37% of wet land loss. dredging of major shipping routes along mississippi and the redirection of the river itself are major problems. >> reservoirs and dams have all reduced the amount of supply of sediment coming down the river

every year to a small fraction of what actually built this land every year. >> louisiana loses land each year, allowing the reach of hurricanes further and further inland. >> the overall level of elevation is getting lower and lower. it's not coming back, there's no recovery so every hurricane season represents another year that they're lower and that are water levels are higher. >> 80% of the total loss of wetlands has occurred right here in louisiana making the threat of hurricanes on local residents more potent every year. >> even smaller storms which we see much more frequently in bigger storms is having a severe impact on the area. >> making this increasingly expensive for insurance holders and taxpayers. >> the cost of living here is actually going to continue to grow, in terms of the investment people are going to have to make, taxpayers, in terms of

maintaining and enhancing and elevating these flood protection systems. >> but until marsh land erosion is reduced, those who continue to make their living on the coast also continue to face the threats of another katrina-like disaster. david ariosto, al jazeera, burris, louisiana. >> up next, figuring out what to do and who's to blame for wetland disappearance, may be unnecessary but as always, it comes down to money, i'll have that story, next. next.

>> ten years after hurricane katrina, we're talking about coastallal erosion in louisiana. experts say the disappearance of coastal lands make the city vulnerable when a hurricane hits. acting like speed bumps, erosion is caused by, shipping lanes and perhaps most contentious are the oil and gas pipelines that line that area and the action of the oil and gas industry. louisiana has 10,000 miles of pipelines. causing vegetation to die and land to erode away.

says these claims are overhyped. joins us now from new orleans. chris good to see you, thank you for being with us. i want to start with the fact that you probably take exception to what that gentleman was saying to dierts david ariosto,e it's getting worse every year. you say that's not true. >> well, that's not true. the numbers that are quoted so often, we're losing a football field an hour that's a misrepresentation. that comes from a usgs study, scientific study which you can find online. what they took was aerial photography, since 1932, the first basis from which we have to measure. they measured the change in the total area for every vintage of aerial photography or flight imagery after that. the average change over that 78 year period was equivalent to a football field an hour.

but interestingly, as the study progressed into the last two years, between 2008 and 2010 the total area of the wet landi lanf south louisiana actually increased. >> it's a ms. representation to say we're losing thatful in a year when in fact we have lost that much in aggregate than the study was looking at. we are losing more then than we are now. >> we actually have gained some area in the last couple of years. not that that -- nothing should be drawn from that. it's just -- it's just an example of how science has been misused in this conversation. >> understood. >> and this -- >> and i really respect your dedication to the idea that we should look at these numbers correctly. we're not in the business of misrepresenting it. we're taking the aggregate. a map then, map now, anybody including you would say hmm a lot of what used to be land now appears to be water.

>> right but on the other hand, the football field an hour, the, we are losing present tense a football field an hour, is being used to create a sense of emergency. you know for purposes -- >> okay. >> and i would contend that land loss is not really the fundamental issue. the fundamental issue is subsidence. subsidence has been concentrated in hot spots, the area just west of burris, the area that david looked at. >> subsidence is because of a geological fault, which consequently has to be the area of where we look for gas and oil anyway. >> there doesn't happen to be any oil and gas exploration in that area. what do i for a living is map geological faults in the

subsurface. they are directly related to oil and gas accumulation. me and several other people that work with the data that is used to image it, noticed as data quality got better and better we could see those faults come to the surface. at the point where they intersected the surface you could see that's where land area change is occurring. the rate as which land loss is occurring has dropped substantially. subsidence continues. in other words all of the land if those areas has already been lost but now we're reaching the point where the subsidence is going instruct infrastructure. and that's what we need to focus on. >> let me ask you this. i hear your argument and in fact there's no allegation that the oil and gas industry is responsible for all or even most of it. but we do have studies and i'm going to hazard a guess you're going to take exception to this. it may be the same u.s. geological study maybe it's a different one that says oil and

gas is responsible for 36% of wetland erosion in the united states. we have had oil and gas companies, you may work for some of them that said the dredging we do does contribute to some of it. do you go by that 36% number? >> that's a number from a different u.s. geological survey report. than what i recall. that one i think it's open file report 00418. so your viewers can find that on shore from the year 2000. that was replaced by the one i referenced so quoting that report is a little bit like quoting the articles of confederation when you are talking about federal law. when the new study came out in 2011 they removed all reference to cause. and in fact the lead author shay penan did a separate peer

reviewed scientific study and reattributed cause and he called it 8% erosion, 9% direct removal which is the digging of the canals and 83% submergence which is the combination of subsidence and sea level rise. >> chris mclendon, thank you so much for coming. new orleans is known all around the world as the big easy. but there was nothing easy about recovering from the hurricane. caused $185 billion worth of damage. damage. but the storm couldn't silence the music in the city. the documentary called only in new orleans. take a look. ♪ ♪ [♪ singing ] not ♪ can't seem o

fine my keys ♪ ♪ meanwhile >> they told me nine years ago i'd be living in austin, texas, i'd say you're on something, i'm never leaving here then the storm comes and changes everything and katrina was changed. >> be sure to dune into only in new orleans. airing this weekend often al jazeera america. up next, fighting sexual assaults on campus. you'll hear one story of an accused man who said, the deck was stacked against him. i'll ask him why. why.

>> this was the worst civil engineering disaster in the history of the united states.

>> college students are returning to campus this week and many colleges are putting them through seminars about sexual assaults. this week oning third rail i'm filling in for imran garda. we'll talk about sexual

assaults. suny buff lows state, part of the state college system of new york. physically psychologically abused her over four months. he has denied the accusation. the school found he violated the part of the code of student rights, that barred actions including harassment. he was not responsible for any violation he including sexual assault. he filed an action against the system, he says the rights of men accused of violating the sexual rights of women are routinely violated. you were found not guilty of sexual assault, you still feel the system failed you and you

are representative of men. >> absolutely. >> tell me why? >> i believe the system in place where the campuses are adjudicating allegation he of sexual assault, i don't believe they are equipped to hear felony rape cases. the people that are involved the faculty the administrators the students who are charged with finding my responsibility and countless other males such as myself their responsibility in campus sexual assaults, they are simply not equipped because they don't have the training that an investigator in a criminal body would have to ascertain whether a sexual assault had taken place or not. >> would you have rather that this only be handled the police? >> absolutely. i feel that although i was exonerated at the administrative

level, i believe i would have been exon exonerated at the criminal level, i feel they are absolutely better equipped to undertake that responsibility. >> one of the things that has happened since 2011, the federal government the department of education the office of civil rights has said that this is a title nine responsibility that schools create safe environments for girls. and as such they have to change the standard by which they investigate and pursue cases like the one that was brought against you. that's a different standard, the standard that the school uses to determine responsibility is a lower standard legally than the one courts use. >> absolutely. it's a preponderance of the evidence. so in order for a student to actually be found responsible for committing a campus sexual assault they only have to satisfy the burden of proof to a 51% standard. so if it's 51% or more likely

than not. so if a student is more likely than not to have committed that crime then they are charged and found responsible. >> in the court of law the bar is higher. >> yes. >> a reasonable doubt. >> a reasonable doubt. >> you understand they did this because women felt the court system wasn't protecting them on campus. so you allege that you're discriminated against as a man. where's the middle ground? where is the place where women can feel safe and have that protection on campus and men don't get discriminated against? >> i feel that women absolutely should have the opportunity to attend a state institution or private institution where they feel their rights are equal to that of a man's rights. however, i think that when you have a campus that -- or you have a system that allows students to be tried and without representation, without legal representation, in many cases such as the state university system where -- >> you were not allowed to have legal representation in the system?

>> i was allowed to consult an attorney however -- >> they couldn't be with you? >> they couldn't speak with me. i was the only one that could speak and answer questions, ask questions. i mean -- >> were you able to ask questions? were you able to get all the questions you wanted asked, asked? >> i was not, unfortunately in my hearing i wasn't able to ask all the questions that i felt would have exonerated me, although i was exonerated, because i didn't do what i was accused of. >> why do you think the system is unfair? >> the system is not fair because students are not given equal opportunity to have -- i was lucky. i was part of a very small minority of students who were charged of sexual assault, and i was found not responsible however. there are many more students who are found responsible that perhaps did not do these -- >> perhaps they did? >> perhaps they did it, but the chances are that there are more

likely than not most students who have been charged with campus sexual assault have actually done it. but there are a vast majorities of males young males like myself who did not do it you'll aol i was able to get the truth by asking questions and doing it the right way there are students whether they don't know how to go about doing it or they don't have the resources available to them they're simply not going to overcome the flaws in the system as they stand. >> so representatives of victims, victims rights advocates, the representatives of the accusers say, more victims get their life shattered because of unresolved cases of sexual assault than men who are rightfully found responsible? what do you think of that? >> i can't speak to that cam i'm unaware of what the actual statistics behind that are. however it would not surprise me there would be a vast majority of women who endure a sexual

assault and are afraid or they're just not sure how to go about reporting that sexual assault for fear of embarrassment or however their peers may view them. so there may be some truth to that as far as women being not coming forward with campus sexual assaults. >> are you able to move on with your life? >> it's a very tough road. i am someone who -- i've wanted to go to law school for many years. and that's the path that i've undertaken now. and i have just begun to pick up the pieces of my life emotionally and socially and there's a very negative stigma that goes around even being accused of sexual assault regardless whether i was found responsible or not just the accusation that i could be liable for committing that egregious act it's really something that you don't forget. >> it's a tough topic. thank you for joining us to talk about it. i appreciate it. edward bryant there about this and for more about this debate

tush in to "third rail." sun 6:00 p.m. i'm ali velshi. thank you for joining us. >> facing disaster. thousands of refugees dying on europe's roads or crossing the mediterranean. european authorities respond today with arrests of accused human traffickers. tracking erika. the tropical storm cuts a deadly path through caribbean, now taking aim at florida. where the governor has declared a state of emergency. resilience and recovery.