Climate Change Causes Huge Chunk of Louisiana Coastline to Drop Into Gulf

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The republicans don’t believe in climate change, and where they govern, as in Florida for example, where Miami is losing ground every day to the encroaching ocean, they refuse to take steps to protect the city.  The same is happening, albeit on a larger scale, in Louisiana.  Over the past 80 years, at least 2,000 square miles of southeastern Louisiana’s coastline have dropped off into the Gulf of Mexico—the equivalent of a football field-sized plot of land being swept away each hour, Scientific American reports.

Grand Isle, Louisiana's only remaining barrier island, is slowly sinking into the ocean.  Pic courtesy of www.nola.com.
Grand Isle, Louisiana’s only remaining barrier island, is slowly sinking into the ocean. Pic courtesy of www.nola.com.

Unless the state takes action 1,750 more square miles could be lost over the next half-century, and New Orleans could be stranded on a thin strip of land in the Gulf by the year 2085, ProPublica reports. While Louisiana does have a “master plan” to take on this problem, it is unprecedented in scope. Scientists have to factor in everything from how much sediment they can extract from the Mississippi River and future sea-level rise to how to accomplish all this with minimal impact to the energy, shipping, and fishing industries.

Money’s an issue, too: Congress hasn’t ponied up much cash, even though half of US oil and gas refineries and pipelines are in the threatened region; if the port of New Orleans is overrun by tropical storms in such a scenario, it could cost the nation $300 million a day, ProPublica notes. So far there are two viable proposals: pumping sand into the wetlands or bringing in sediment-filled freshwater, which more closely resembles the natural delta-building process but is more expensive upfront and takes longer (and nothing like it has never been done before). “We’ll have to start … on a small scale, and there will be missteps along the way,” a coastal geologist tells ProPublica. “But we have to succeed, because this, really, is our only hope.”

This flooding is taking place in Washington DC as well.  Around the world, the Pacific islands of Kiribati are slowly sinking.

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Chuck
9 years ago

We should bribe Rush Limbaugh to blame these types of consequences on Islamists, “Feminazis” and Liberals then the GOP electorate might put pressure on their officials to take action.

It is a marketing problem – let’s get Rushbo on it.

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