came here to escape settlers 300 years ago, building homes in the marshland. >> our people always had our villages along bayou waterways because it just provided so much for us. >> but today an ecological disaster is unfolding, threatening the tribe's traditions -- and most of all, its land. >> an area of land the size of manhattan is subtracted' from south louisiana every 10 months - it turns to water. a football field every 30 minutes, an area the size of delaware the whole state of delaware since the 1930s... it's just astonishing how much land is being disappeared. >> fault lines is here to find out why southern louisiana is now one of the fastest disappearing landmasses on the planet... ...and to ask who's responsible for the crisis. >> yeah this place used to be really pretty at one time. and not that long ago really. i think in another 10 years, this will all be water. definitely the trees ain't coming back. >> over the past hundred years nearly two thousand square miles of land have been wiped from the map of louisiana. we've come to the isle de jean charles where just two dozen families remain, trying to maintain what's left of the island. >> there's no more protective system no more barriers. everything's gone there was trees and ridges and levees and it was the way it was supposed to be. >> preston mayeaux's family came here when he was just seven years old. >> it's a natural thing. hurricanes are natural to live down here you gotta go with the flow. that's why everything's beat up, and used and rusted. >> but the damage, he says, is due to more than just natural causes... >> destroyed purely by oil and natural gas. the big deep canals brought in the saltwater intrusion, and then they abandoned the canals. and when they abandoned the canals system all it takes is one 5 foot pass, and within 5 years' time it's 300 foot wide, and the saltwater goes in and out in and out killing everything all the vegetation. >> just a couple of generations ago, the island was 11 miles long and five miles wide now 99 percent of that land is gone. >> you can look at a satellite photography of a disappearing coastline, disappearing like a moth-eaten cloth, and you can see the straight lines of the canals and channels that they've scissored 10 thousand miles of them, through that landmass, contributing to the erosion... >> the scale of land loss is so extreme that louisiana is trying to reverse the process ...with projects like this. >> this is what's coming along this pipe. this is what they're sucking up, and bringing out here. >> sand from the bottom of the mississippi river. >> everything we're standing on is we're standing on the bottom of the mississippi river. >> all of this land here has been pumped from there. >> pumped from the bottom of the mississippi river. >> right now we're going to the end of the pipeline, this is where the sediment from the mississippi river has been taken all the way to this fill site. this is where the coastal erosion fight is happening right in front of our eyes. >> in my opinion if we can accomplish the master plan and the projects in the master plan and go beyond it and rebuild south louisiana, and protect it, and restore it i think by the end of the century people will look back and say this is one of mankind's greatest achievements in this century. >> this section of reclaimed land is just one small piece of a plan to spend $50 billion over the next five decades. the only problem: louisiana doesn't have that kind of money. >> we can't protect everyone from everything, and there's an inherent vulnerability living with the coast, it's just the reality. >> jerome zeringue is head of the state's coastal restoration program. >> louisiana is doing what it can to participate and protect this valuable resource but it's a national issue and a national concern we need national interests to support us as well. >> while the state struggles to fund its plan, a question remains: who's responsible for the damage? we decided to go see the evidence for ourselves. ryan lambert and albertine kimble are coastal restoration experts. >> two thousand square miles essentially since 1950. two thousand square miles that's larger than the area of the grand canyon. gone just open water. just like this now. think about that - think about that! >> no wetlands equals no people. if we can't have these wetlands, pretty soon there'll be no habitat, and there'll be no people. that's the way i look at it, that's my simple saying. >> they're taking us to the venice gas fields, where oil giant chevron and other major firms have operated for decades. >> it looks like they've dug lots of little channels >> thousands. as you saw in this canal every 100 yards there's an oil well or a gas well. it's hard to think negative, because i know why and i know who, and but you can't leave it just because you came in here and use it you need to return it to what it was. >> there's been so much land loss here over the last few years, it's just the reeds that are left you can also see the oil pipelines sticking out of the water from the exploration industry's been doing around here. >> how do you quantify the industry's role in creating this problem? >> people have tried to place a certain percent in terms of responsibility associated with it. some people have indicated 30-35% attributable to oil and gas. the problem is it's a pervasive problem, and we're beyond the point of ascribing blame to any particular industry or problem or what caused it. we need to address the issue. >> the oil companies should be involved in it too they've benefited from louisiana, and the people of louisiana, have benefited from the oil companies, so it's all a circle you can't just blame the oil companies, they're complicit sure they are, and they need to come to the table and help. >> catch more "faultlines" episodes on demand or at aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> at one time i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. >> as the amount of drugs grew guns came in. >> murder rate was sky-high. >> this guy was the biggest in l.a. >> i was goin' through a million dollars worth of drugs every day. i liked it. it's hard to believe that a friend would set you up. people don't get federal life sentences and beat them. >> they had been trafficking on behalf of the united states government. >> the cia admitted it. >> "freeway - crack in the system". only on al jazeera america. >> the question of who is accountable for the land loss in louisiana is still disputed. >> here we're looking at aerial 1940 at venice field in plaquemines parish. >> at his office in baton rouge attorney don carmouche says these aerial photos are evidence against chevron and other oil industry. >> you can see the contamination, the killing of the marsh the additional erosion from the canals. those are man-made canals, they made them they didn't revegetate them, they didn't detoxify. by 1983 they had a requirement to re-vegetate detoxify and restore to its natural state, they did not. >> fast forward to 1983, by then you have continued significant production everywhere you see one of these little icons... >> half of its water. >> by then its beginning to erode and die. >> just in the space of 40 years >> just in that space. so you can imagine now fast forward to 2005. >> now here we are... >> oh my goodness. >> water. we've lost our land. >> all that land has disappeared. >> we've lost our land and they have an obligation under the 1978 law to restore that to its original condition, which is 1940. >> can the coastline be restored without industry help? >> no, no state's broke. no, can't be done. and why should it be? they're responsible. >> two years ago officials in one of the worst hit areas sat down with carmouche's team. >> they told us as lawyers you come to us and show us the evidence that these oil companies have destroyed our coast. we did that. they said, file the suit...then the elections happened. >> we've come to plaquemines parish to meet councilman byron marinovich -- who also runs an oyster bar. >> we had to come support ya.. >> did y'all go vote? charlene did y'all go vote? >> yes we did go vote >>we did... >> i know y'all did. >> how you doing? >> oh good... >> ten years ago we had 27 feet of water where you're sitting right now. so what we need to do is start building these coasts back so we don't have these super hurricanes coming through here like katrina and all. that's my biggest concern. >> it was out of that concern that byron backed the lawsuit. but it's led to a backlash. and today, on election day, his political career is on the line. >> when i tried to explain to people what the lawsuit was, good or bad, trying to restore our marsh areas and stuff, that's why i'm in a runoff right now. it's something i would pulled off without even an opponent probably and now it's a big bad issue you know? >> neck and neck in the polls, byron is trying to get out last minute votes. >> all down the river this way is oil platforms we've got about 16 or 17 thousand wells in the parish. some active, some inactive, but we've got a lot of wells a lot of jobs, a lot of local people. i worked for chevron myself for about 17-18 years, but a lot of our money comes in that we rely on oil revenue to come in... i've never voted against any oil and gas permits, we've never turned them down or anything but this one lawsuit all of a sudden everyone just jumps on the bandwagon and throws tens of thousands of dollars to get me out. >> byron's opponent works for a major natural gas company in the parish -- which helped fund the campaign against him. >> she works for big oil and that's her platform. >> so they're quite invested in her victory. >> absolutely, that's her platform. oil and gas lawsuit. >> fault lines tried to reach them for weeks but got no response. but we were able to sit down with a spokesman for chevron -- a company named in the lawsuit. >> what these suits do or what this particular suit that you're interested does, is tend to divide people and tend to freeze the industry out of being a more active part of solving the problem. >> we wanted to ask about an industry-sponsored study from 2000. it concluded that oil and gas activity was responsible for more than a third of the land loss over the last century. >> the number could be any number or no number at all and it's been any number or no number at all. again causation is a very slippery slope and putting a number on it is almost irrelevant at this point in time. >> so the industry's position is that it's not part of this problem in any respect? >> it's not a demonstrable part. again, a way to back into the answer is if you filled in those canals and if you replace those pipelines would wetlands loss and storm surge and risk from hurricanes and flood stop? i think the answer is no and no one's been able to demonstrate anything other than that. >> back at his family's restaurant... byron's supporters gather to tally the election results. >> she beat me. hey y'all we tried that's all we can do. that's all we can do... there's nothing we can do about it... that's it, i'm officially a retired politician. thank you for all your help today i love you... i think it's a loss to the parish...we actually got things done, coastal projects you can go and put your hands on, other than just studies. and i don't think it's gonna happen a lot of this is just gonna go by the wayside.... we hope it don't we wish her well with it and time will tell but i just don't see it right now, you know? >> byron's political career - and his efforts to restore the coast - have come to a halt. >> the oil boys, loga its called, louisiana oil and gas assoc. headed by don briggs who's been there forever announced we're going into plaquemines parish and we're going to beat any council person running for reelection or a new person running for a new seat, we're going to beat them -- unless they agree these lawsuits should be dismissed. >> catch more "faultlines" episodes on demand or at aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> weeknights on al jazeera america. >> join me as we bring you an in-depth look at the most important issues of the day. breaking it down. getting you the facts. it's the only place you'll find... the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". weeknights, 11:30 eastern. on al jazeera america. >> the elections race in plaquemines parish was influenced by an organization known as loga. it's the louisiana oil and gas association. we're coming to one of their meetings to find out why it was so important to be involved. >> today loga is hosting industry power brokers, and they're not happy about the lawsuits. >> one out of every 2 dollars in plaquemines comes from the oil and gas industry. the last place on earth you'd expect lawsuits, and yet, they're happening >> that's gifford briggs loga's vice president. >> when you've got parish councilmen in plaquemines parish filing lawsuits against the oil and gas industry now we have to be paying attention to every council meeting in the parish, and we have to make sure that we have pro oil and gas councilmen elected. this is an incredible amount of money that the industry is having to spend, not investing, not drilling new wells not paying employees not doing the things that we wanna be doing but simply defending lawsuits. >> these all-encompassing lawsuits to sue the industry so you can force a settlement so the lawyers can make a bunch of money isn't going to solve any of the problems that louisiana has with our coast. >> so your assessment of liability is zero? >> i haven't seen anything that would indicate that there was a violation of any permit issues to the oil & gas industry, at this point, no. >> the industry itself has acknowledged that in excess of a third of it is directly a result of industry activity, that's according to a report.... >> there have been studies that have put the impact at very different levels. but again there's only liability if there's a actual violation of a permit. >> while louisiana's oil industry battles environmental lawsuits onshore it's also shifting focus. >> there are some silver linings we can look at. first of all the offshore gulf of mexico. these projects particularly the deep water projects are multi-year multi-billion dollar projects. they're playing years in advance, they're moving forward they're continuing to be brought online today. that area, and that sector it should continue to grow. >> while louisiana's coastline continues to disappear we've heard that industry has gotten permits to open up a new frontier. >> this is it >> we're headed into the gulf of mexico to take a closer look. >> you can actually see some of the rigs here, they're so close to the coastline, they're just appearing into view. we're on the hunt for offshore fracking sites which we've heard are happening all around this area. >> we're riding with jonathan henderson, an environmental watchdog who's raised concerns about offshore fracking. >> there's been a lot of secrecy about offshore fracking, industry has kept pretty silent about amount of fracking going on and the federal agencies charge with issuing permits, and forcing environmental laws have not revealed very much information. >> some of the boxes on this boat here have a red square to denote that there are chemicals inside. we know this rig has been used for off shore fracking in the past. >> what kind of chemicals? >> i don't know... >> we don't know >> we don't know. that's what i'm trying to find out. >> fracking offshore was revealed to the public only a few years ago in california, where miyoko sakashita has been monitoring it. >> they'll use chemicals and water at really high pressures. and by pushing that into the rock or sand formation they can crack open new fissures and hold the rock open so that more oil and gas can be accessed. >> the federal agencies that regulate offshore drilling refused on-camera interviews. but officials told us offshore fracking is performed on a smaller scale than fracking onshore. >> and then from recent studies it looks like, fracking in 2013 increased to about 15 percent of wells and industry sources predict it will increase another 10% this next year. so what may be small scale now is destine to become bigger. >> fault lines was able to obtain a list of about a 100 sites approved for offshore fracking. it provides one of the first glimpses into these operations in the gulf of mexico. >> you can hear the sounds of activity all around us fog horns and the sound of generators and now we're seeing another of the rigs appearing out of the mist that's also been permitted for offshore fracking in 2013. >> we also found that many of the companies being sued for violations onshore are now fracking offshore. >> you maybe cannot see the sign but it says chevron usa inc. >> chevron got permits to frack at least 11 offshore sites in 2013. the company told us that it's used fracking safely and efficiently, at its deepest wells. >> we're talking about fracking all along the louisiana coast. it's in shallow water near communities, its in deep water. some of the fracking was actually permitted in the mississippi canyon where the deepwater horizon accident was -- and it's in some of the most precious sensitive biological areas... >> mississippi canyon, that's where the dp spill happened? that's where they're fracking now? >> that's correct, >> how is it regulated? >> one of our key concerns is that offshore fracking has barely been regulated at all. what we've found was that the federal government was largely just rubber stamping permits. >> the center for biological diversity is suing federal regulators. >> it's an inherently dangerous technology. it contributes to air pollution, it contributes to water pollution. it can really impact wildlife, and also the coastal communities that live by these offshore oil platforms... >> they allege that offshore fracking is being approved without a full environmental review of its risks. in the meantime, with sea levels set to rise, more and more of louisiana's coastline is disappearing. >> our leading climate scientists all over the world agree it is the combustion of oil coal and natural gas that's driving the sea level rise that's overwhelming the coastline. the fate of nola is tied to the fate of the global climate just as the fate of gdansk and shanghai and all our great coastal cities. if we get more than 2 or 3 feet of sea level rise, all bets are off with all of these cities. >> back in plaquemines parish, while there's a growing awareness of the damage being done the reliance on the industry remains. >> we've always had a love hate relationship with them and it's always been a very fine line because we've become addicted to that money we're talking tens and tens of millions of dollars a year for a parish of only 20 thousand people we are addicted to it, so we have kind of made a deal with the devil. >> catch more "faultlines" episodes on demand or at aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> these people have decided that today they will be arrested >> i know that i'm being surveilled >> people are not getting the care that they need >> this is a crime against humanity >> hands up! >> don't shoot! >> hands up! >> don't shoot! >> what do we want? justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> they are running towards base... >>...explosions going off we're not quite sure... >> fault lines al jazeera america's award winning, investigative series... on al jazeera america a show about innovations that can change lives. humanity and we are doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check the team of hardcore nerds. dr shini somara is a mechanical engineer. tonight saving baby grace. doctors try a cutting edge treatment to heal this little girl's brain, infusing her with her own umbilical cord blood. treatment? >> we hope it rescues the brain