Expedition Blue Planet: Louisiana, Life on the Edge Part 2

This week, Alexandra Cousteau and the crew with Expedition Blue Planet finish their tale about the impact that the loss of wetlands has had on local communities.

New Orleans is sinking because the wetlands that naturally would form new land have been destroyed for the construction of navigation channels along the Mississippi River. But this is what many coastal areas will look like in 50 to 100 years if global climate change continues at its current rate: abandoned, hopeless, under water.

Expedition: Blue Planet  will chronicle the interconnectivity of water. A key aspect of the project will be its ability to show how individual stories are part of the larger, universal story of an interdependent, global water ecosystem. In this way, we will create a new vision for what it means to live in a world where water is our most precious resource, and a plan for what we must do to protect it.

Vital to all life on Earth, water moves through our world in a constant state of flux. Cycling endlessly through ecosystems, flowing under the poles and through the atmosphere, changing states, laying waste to entire regions or achieving perfection in the shape of a single snowflake -- water is a mystery and a miracle, a source of conflict and a cause for celebration, a blessing and, in its absence, a curse.

The story of our Water Planet has never been more crucial and relevant than it is today. In an era of climate change, desertification, sea level rise, acid rain, drought, falling water tables, dead zones, and widespread pollution, water quality and quantity is becoming more critical by the minute. The global forces of extraction and expansion are jeopardizing the very substance that supports life on our planet.

About Alexandra Cousteau

A globally recognized advocate on water quality and policy, Alexandra continues the work of her renowned grandfather Jaques-Yves and father Philippe Cousteau. At 33, she has already mastered the remarkable storytelling tradition handed down to her and has the unique ability to draw audiences into the weighty issues of policy, politics and action.

Alexandra is dedicated to advocating the importance of conservation and sustainable management of water resources in order to preserve a healthy planet. Her global initiatives seek to inspire and empower individuals to protect not only the ocean and its inhabitants, but also the human communities that rely on the purity of our freshwater resources.

In 2008, she founded Blue Legacy, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to exploring how humans connect to our water-based planet. Through projects like the recent Expedition: Blue Planet, Alexandra combines traditional film and social media to engage global audiences online—showing how individuals and communities contribute to an interdependent global water system, and how they can work together to protect it. In her first book This Blue Planet, to be published in 2011 by Dutton Publishing (a division of the Penguin Group), Alexandra will share stories and findings from her 100-day expedition which took her from the Ganges River in India to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, throughout the Middle East and across both Cambodia and Australia.

Educated in International Relations at Georgetown University, Alexandra brings expertise and energy to the environmental issues that matter most. And she's quickly establishing a name of her own. In 2009, Alexandra joined the Discovery Channel line-up, co-hosting "Blue August" with brother Philippe, Jr and serving as a Chief Correspondent on Water Issues for Discovery's Planet Green. In 2008, she was honored as a National Geographic "Emerging Explorer"—an elite group of eleven visionary young trailblazers from around the world who push the boundaries of discovery, adventure, and global problem solving. She has been honored as an "Earth Trustee" by the UN and regularly delivers testimony on critical policy issues before the U.S. Congress. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Global Water Challenge, Mother Nature Network, and EarthEcho; and the steering committee of The Shark Alliance.

Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, Alexandra has served as a keynote speaker on environmental issues for organizations ranging from the United Nations, National Geographic, Harvard University and the Smithsonian, to the National Press Club, Bioneers and the Telluride Mountain Film Festival. She is regularly featured on CNN International as a Principal Voice, writes numerous columns for the international press, and was named with Tyra Banks as a 2008 Fun Fearless Phenom by Cosmopolitan magazine.