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Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

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Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#91

Post by erentz »

neverartful wrote: post #82
erentz wrote: post #2

I have real issues with states like this where it's leaders deny climate change and prevent action on it, yet cry when issues like this occur. Similar when the BP oil spill occurred and they cried about the affect on their coast and fishing industries. They seemingly are fine with destroying their environment so long as it occurs over 50 years rather than 5 months.

It's not as simple as you may think. There have been problems with coastal erosion in south LA long before anyone even brought up the idea of global warming. As another poster mentioned, creating canals through the marshes lets salt/brackish water come further inland than it would have (especially with hurricanes). The salt water kills some of the vegetation that holds the marsh together. Another big factor is dredgi…

(I think people are somehow totally misunderstanding what I'm saying but I'm not sure how to say it much clearer.)

To suddenly be concerned and have a change of heart about one historical cause of damage to your coast (dredging, etc), but completely ignore for ideological reasons another major ongoing cause that will make any fixes you do to the prior destruction pointless, is, well, bad, dumb, stupid? What should we call it?

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#92

Post by ZeroGravitas »

obstinate wrote: post #68
treehau5 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I still eat lots of poultry and pork? If so, I'd be down with less beef. I'm down to about one hamburger and one steak a week.

Yes. Cutting beef from your diet and replacing it with other meats cuts about 80% of the difference in carbon emissions between the typical American diet and a vegetarian diet. (Although the total difference in carbon emissions from diet are subsumed by the emissions of one cross-country plane flight [1] [2], so if you're concerned about optimizing the inner loop, that's what you, as a typical reader of this site, pr…

But to extend the metaphor, fixing your own code is kind of pointless if all the other code running on the box runs unchanged. Fixes need to be made to shared libraries to have any impact. This means promoting politicians who aren't taking advantage of the situation to earn kickbacks from corporations who feel they will be negatively affected by fixing the problem, and implementing things like carbon taxes so that every decision made in the economy bakes in the real costs of carbon.

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#93

Post by pdelbarba »

tda wrote: post #89

You can nicely see where land turned to see and vice versa with the aqua-monitor: http://aqua-monitor.appspot.com/ A lot of the Louisiana marshes have disappeared

How does this work? I don't see any explanation of the colors.

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#94

Post by hyperpape »

OliverJones wrote: post #39
adolph wrote: post #29

The first two comments seem to associate anthropogenic climate change with the changes in Louisiana's coastline. A more likely culprit is hydrologic mismanagement. The coastline was formed by waterways that periodically changed channels and dumped sediment in different areas. In relatively recent times cities on the existing waterways became politically influential enough for the federal government to build a series…

Thirty years ago, John McPhee wrote about this very issue. At that time a ship on the Mississippi river could go through a lock, drop FIFTY FEET, and take a shortcut to the ocean via the Atachfalaya river. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/02/23/atchafalaya Just because it's not a new situation doesn't mean it's not an emergency.

Can someone explain the following bit from that article to me:

"As the mouth advances southward and the river lengthens, the gradient declines, the current slows, and sediment builds up the bed. Eventually, it builds up so much that the river spills to one side."

I'm having a little trouble understanding it. What does it mean for the mouth of the river to move southward? Does sediment build up and create new land near what used to be the mouth?

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#95

Post by ZeroGravitas »

scriptkiddy wrote: post #83
obstinate wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we as a world get serious about it and begin taxing carbon emissions from flights (and other sources), I'm confident that we'll be able to handle the problem. There is going to be some extreme global discomfort in 2100-2200, but we're not going to go extinct and things will be getting better by 2400-2500.

I'd only be comfortable with taxing carbon emissions from flights if all of the tax money was directly funneled into clean energy research and development. Otherwise, it's just going into the pockets of politicians and funding defense contractors.

The other alternative is to use the tax income to offset other taxes, or even return it directly to citizens as a dividend.

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#96

Post by obstinate »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #92
obstinate wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Cutting beef from your diet and replacing it with other meats cuts about 80% of the difference in carbon emissions between the typical American diet and a vegetarian diet. (Although the total difference in carbon emissions from diet are subsumed by the emissions of one cross-country plane flight [1] [2], so if you're concerned about optimizing the inner loop, that's what you, as a typical reader of this site, pr…

But to extend the metaphor, fixing your own code is kind of pointless if all the other code running on the box runs unchanged. Fixes need to be made to shared libraries to have any impact. This means promoting politicians who aren't taking advantage of the situation to earn kickbacks from corporations who feel they will be negatively affected by fixing the problem, and implementing things like carbon taxes so that ev…

Fortunately, this is not an either-or situation. :) I advocate all of the above, but it's important not to be in ignorance about where the real issue lies.

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#97

Post by obstinate »

scriptkiddy wrote: post #83
obstinate wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we as a world get serious about it and begin taxing carbon emissions from flights (and other sources), I'm confident that we'll be able to handle the problem. There is going to be some extreme global discomfort in 2100-2200, but we're not going to go extinct and things will be getting better by 2400-2500.

I'd only be comfortable with taxing carbon emissions from flights if all of the tax money was directly funneled into clean energy research and development. Otherwise, it's just going into the pockets of politicians and funding defense contractors.

No, it's still better for it to be taxed than not. I would be perfectly happy to see a revenue neutral carbon tax. What the tax is spent on is orthogonal.

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#99

Post by splawn »

tajen wrote: post #23

Not to diminish the terrible situation of the victims, but looking at maps and pictures [1], it seems to me like a very unstable land: It dried over time, diving under the average sea level, and it's been kept free of water only by humans' constant work. Didn't we do a mistake here by considering it habitable in the first place? Imagining humans as a single entity, should we have settled there, climate change or not?…

Profits have a way of making what would normally be considered an uninhabitable place, habitable. Look at a map, pick a place that seems crazy to live and look it up on wikipedia.. there is usually a natural resource being the reason there are people there and it is usually oil.

Re: Louisiana’s Governor Declares State Of Emergency Over Disappearing Coastline

#100

Post by Filligree »

hyperpape wrote: post #94
OliverJones wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thirty years ago, John McPhee wrote about this very issue. At that time a ship on the Mississippi river could go through a lock, drop FIFTY FEET, and take a shortcut to the ocean via the Atachfalaya river. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/02/23/atchafalaya Just because it's not a new situation doesn't mean it's not an emergency.

Can someone explain the following bit from that article to me: "As the mouth advances southward and the river lengthens, the gradient declines, the current slows, and sediment builds up the bed. Eventually, it builds up so much that the river spills to one side." I'm having a little trouble understanding it. What does it mean for the mouth of the river to move southward? Does sediment build up and create new land nea…

Yes, basically. This is a fairly textbook river delta.
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