1 / 19

South Louisiana: Do We Accept Global Warming?

South Louisiana: Do We Accept Global Warming?. Edward P. Richards Professor of Law LSU Law Center richards@lsu.edu. Thesis. Worldwide, hard choices need to made about global warming and adaption The US must lead by example Most of south La will be inundated by 2100

lona
Télécharger la présentation

South Louisiana: Do We Accept Global Warming?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. South Louisiana:Do We Accept Global Warming? Edward P. Richards Professor of Law LSU Law Center richards@lsu.edu

  2. Thesis • Worldwide, hard choices need to made about global warming and adaption • The US must lead by example • Most of south La will be inundated by 2100 • Are we denying global warming by our actions in South LA?

  3. 2100

  4. Is 2100 Realistic? • Green house gasses have a long residence time, so there is a 30-50 year lag • It will be decades before there are meaningful reductions • Southern LA is on a sinking crustal plate, so we have been losing ground independent of ocean rise

  5. Can Coastal Restoration Save Us?

  6. Coastal Elevations

  7. What Happens if you Restore The Coast? • Imagine a large, very flat coastal plane, that is barely above sea level even 25 miles inland • The plane is sinking and the water is rising • What happens if you pile up dirt on the edges? • Does this affect the net distance above sea level inland of the edges? • What happens to the marshlands that depend on the long flat low water areas?

  8. What about Levees? • Destroy the land on both sides • Cannot resist hurricanes • Katrina did not hit NO, just brushed it • Structural issues • Feds and state will lose interest • Damage to wetlands to get the clay • Require maintenance - LA? USA? • The Dutch do not have hurricanes

  9. Possible Future 1 - Punctuated Catastrophe • Southern LA and NO continue on current lines • Feds put in enough money to limit criticism and keep projects going • Everyone says we are safe now • Region has catastrophic flood • Relative sea level continues to increase • Repeat until there is nothing left to rebuild on

  10. Example to the World • Same thing is happening in Bangladesh • We are trying to avoid regional war over where the refugees will go • India says, what are you doing in LA? • Why don't you build levees and restore our coast? • Can the US say that is crazy and cannot work?

  11. Possible Future 2 • Same as 1, but some local adaptation like floating houses, but no real changes • Catastrophic storm • Population scatters, this time we restrict development, make some land use changes to protect the core • Buys 50 years for the rich and business • Still not a very good example

  12. Possible Future 3 • We think of south LA and NO as if it were one of those island nations that is going to either wash away or be relocated. • We preserve NO-Atlantis • We create cultural NO up river • We just move Cajun country north toward Eunice and Opelousas, where it already flourishes

  13. How Do We Get to 3? • Reimagine land use • Charge mitigation against owners • ??? • Change Incentives in Flood Insurance • You can get bought out before you flood • You can never rebuild • You fill in the rest - this is intergenerational • This is what we want to work on at LSU

More Related