The Isle of Jean Charles in Louisiana is slowly being submerged in water:
Joann Bourg stands in front of her new home, about an hour's drive from the low-lying Louisiana island where she grew up — an area gradually sinking into the Gulf of Mexico.
[...] Ms Bourg is one of about a dozen Native Americans from the Isle de Jean Charles who have been relocated to Schriever, less than 60 kilometres to the north-west — the maiden beneficiaries of a federal resettlement grant awarded in 2016.
They are the first so-called "climate refugees" in the United States, forced from their homes due to the consequences of climate change.
[...] Residents are mainly of Native American descent — several tribes sought shelter on the island from rampant government persecution in the 1800s.
But climate change has transformed the island into a symbol of the scourge that plagues much of hurricane-prone Louisiana — coastal erosion.
[...] "This is the first project of its kind in our nation's history," state governor John Bel Edwards, who was on site to see the residents close on their new properties, told AFP.
"We've had people over the years that we would buy their homes out and move them. But we've not done whole communities like this and moved them to one place before because of climate change."
Since the 1930s, Isle de Jean Charles has lost "about 90 per cent" of its surface area to the encroaching bayou waters, explains Alex Kolker, an associate professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.
The island was already fragile, but climate change heightens the risks, he says — sea levels are rising, the ground is sinking and erosion is rampant. More frequent and fiercer storms intensify the problem.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by khallow on Monday September 19 2022, @03:31AM (10 children)
I guess the dust bowl of the 1930s doesn't count? Or the considerable reduction in New Orleans's population after Hurricane Katrina? Surely they would count that, right?
Yet another problem where if you got rid of the real problems - "the ground is sinking and erosion is rampant", then climate change wouldn't be heightening much risk. It's a classic confirmation bias.
Whole communities of a dozen people? Making mountains out of molehills.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @05:04AM
"Climate Change" should be a registered trademark by now. There sure is a lot of money being made from the phrase. No problem! "Artificial Intelligence"™ will fix it! from "The Cloud"™!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 19 2022, @05:05AM (2 children)
I wouldn't mock the size of the community. I will point out that almost all Native Americans have been Cavalry Refugees, many of them multiple times. How many tribes have never been relocated at the point of a sword, or a gun? Not many.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 19 2022, @02:59PM (1 child)
Was I? Or was I mocking the puffery?
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 19 2022, @04:28PM
I thought you were puffing the mockery.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @02:35PM (1 child)
The dust bowl was caused by over-farming, not climate, dumb-ass.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 19 2022, @02:58PM
Like usual it was a combination of a bunch of things.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday September 19 2022, @03:13PM (3 children)
I believe these are the first official climate refugees. For example, you could also reasonably consider everybody who moved out of Puerto Rico after 2 hurricanes wrecked a lot of everything 5 years ago this week to be climate refugees.
Or my aunt, who moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area specifically because she couldn't handle the heat anymore.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @03:32PM (2 children)
> Or my aunt, who moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area specifically because she couldn't handle the heat anymore.
Can confirm, it's hot as fuck. Where's my govt paycheck>
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 19 2022, @08:58PM (1 child)
She didn't get one, she found a sucker to buy her house. That won't work for these islanders, because nobody will buy a house soon to be under the sea on land that will no longer exist.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 20 2022, @01:17AM
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 19 2022, @05:00AM (5 children)
https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/usgs-louisianas-rate-coastal-wetland-loss-continues-slow [usgs.gov]
Click the link, and learn about land loss in Louisiana. I'll summarize the problem in my own words:
For longer than man has existed on this continent, the Mississippi River flooded regularly, carrying sand, rocks, silt, and whatever into the Mississippi delta. Virtually all of the lowlands in Louisiana were created by flood water dumping soil. And, for those who don't know it, most of Mississippi is lowlands.
Projects such as the TVA flood controls in Tennessee have reduced flooding to the point that most years are a big nothing burger. Most people will think that's a good thing, with no downsides. But, not only does Louisiana no longer form new land annually, the land already there is eroding. The closer to the gulf you are, the more erosion you will see. And, if you're on a tiny slice of land in the gulf, you're going to be eroded away pretty quickly.
The sea hasn't risen enough to endanger land in Louisian - erosion is doing all of that.
So, read TFA again, and pay close attention that phrase, "but climate change heightens the risks". Climate change hasn't caused the problem, it only adds some infinitesimal added risk to an already existing problem.
If we want to stop the erosion, we'll have to shitcan all the flood control measures, and allow the Mighty Mississippi to dump soil in the delta again. I don't think very many people will be happy with that idea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @03:35PM (4 children)
Hark the climate expert, last week international geopolitics specialist, and military expert. Next week... constitutional legal pundit.
All for free, 24hr / day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @04:31PM (1 child)
You should get out of Podunk, Pa, and see a little bit of the world. Follow Joe Burden's example, move to Delaware, and leach off the government teat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2022, @06:59PM
Got my farm subsidies and PPP loans already, thanks.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Monday September 19 2022, @09:09PM (1 child)
Just because a person doesn't specialize in a field doesn't mean they are wrong. The problem grandparent brings up is why the Mid-basin sediment diversion [la.gov] program exists. It will be interesting to see if their artificial sedimentation programs work, if they can ever get permits for them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 20 2022, @03:59AM
The problem is that the area isn't stable. The whole delta is basically a giant mud glacier moving very slowly out to sea and sinking. You can dump more sediment at the top end, but the houses built on it are still going under.