Scientists say sinking of Louisianas coast already counts as a worst case scenario

[Judi Lynn]

By Chelsea Harvey WASHINGTON POST JUNE 16, 2017


WASHINGTON — It’s common knowledge the Louisiana coast is quietly sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. But new research suggests we may have been underestimating how quickly it’s happening.

A paper published Wednesday in the Geological Society of America bulletin GSA Today includes an updated map of the Louisiana coastline and the rate at which it’s sinking into the sea, a process scientists call ‘‘subsidence,’’ which occurs in addition to the sea-level rise caused by climate change. The map suggests that, on average, Louisiana’s coast is sinking a little over a third of an inch per year.

‘‘I think it’s a point worth making that we are finding here that what people recently have considered worst-case scenarios are actually conditions that we already see right now,’’ said Torbjörn Törnqvist, a Tulane University geologist and coauthor of the paper.

Subsidence is believed to be a natural process that has probably been occurring in the region for thousands of years. But scientists believe it has been enhanced by human activities in the Mississippi Delta over the past century, including oil and gas extraction and the building of levees affecting the flow of the Mississippi River, which carries mud and sediment to the Gulf of Mexico and helped build up the delta in the first place.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/06/15/scientists-say-sinking-louisiana-coast-already-counts-worst-case-scenario/HwrR5sEFb5lSP5MxJSwChM/story.html

(Short article, no more at link.)

[hatrack]

1. Dead State Walking . . .

Unless they take down the mainstem Missouri River dams, nothing is going to change, either.

[Docreed2003]

2. This is entirely man's doing and it's observable...

We caused this by our, arguably, misguided attempts to prevent Mississippi River flooding. The silt and sediment are no longer reinforcing the coast.

My father-in-law and I fish for striped bass and redfish down on the coast and it's clearly visible there how the land is slipping into the ocean. Old timers down there have pictures documenting just how severe the erosion has occurred over just a generation.

[Snackshack]

3. The only mistake...

On every climate science study / model / published paper once data became sufficient and computers became a useful tool in understanding / predicting our dynamic environment has been time lines.

[msongs]

4. red state woes - waiting on their republican saviors who ignore the problem and causes nt