This is our final interview of the first season of Walls Plus One and our last topic is the climate crisis. Louisiana knows all too well the damage caused by hurricanes, and the amount and frequency of those storms is increasing.
Our guest on this episode is Corey Miller, the director of community resilience at the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. He explains why Louisiana’s is actually a bit ahead of other states regarding research and mitigation efforts thanks to coastal restoration programs.
“One of the important things for people to understand is that while we do have this wonderful Coastal Master Plan and there’s legislative mandates to continue to reiterate that plan, that plan buys us time.”
The determining factor regarding what will happen next contingent on how we, as a global community, address climate change.
“The end result is on a very wide spectrum of just how much land can we maintain and can we build that is still going to be present in 50 years. While the Coastal Master Plan does a great job of addressing that coastal land loss process that we’re in, it only does so much. And for the state of Louisiana to really thrive beyond that 50 year horizon, we need to be very serious about addressing climate change in addition to being very serious about implementing that master plan.”
No matter what, land loss will continue, it’s just a matter of how much and how fast. What we know is that certain communities will be forced to relocate. And that’s where the discussion about poverty really starts to take shape.
“The unfortunate thing about not planning and not trying to facilitate communities being reshaped and populations shifting is that what happens is that the people who have the resources to get up and move are the ones that do, and you end up depleting your tax base, your population, the community fabric, the cohesion that exists when you have a more populated town or city and it ends up leaving those who don’t have the resources to be able to get out of that environment lower social services because you don’t have the tax base to justify as many fire departments or schools or hospitals, a grocery store. So, those that have are able to move on leaving an even more depleted community left behind.”
The solution is proactive planning and funding. It will also require some very tough decisions, like knowing when to stop rebuilding.
CALL TO ACTION
For so long climate change has been a taboo topic, but that’s changing and it will continue to change the more people start to talk about it.
Have conversations. Talk to your friends and family about climate change. Present the scenario in this episode - when should a city stop rebuilding?
Understand your situation. Do you have flood insurance? Why not? What’s your rate? Will you be able to rebuild? These are all things you should know and understand whether you live in an area that is prone to flooding or not. More areas will experience unprecedented flooding due to the increase in severity of storms. Are you ready to deal with that?
Pay attention and vote. This is the same for every issue we’ve discussed this season because it’s at the root of all the systems that will either work for or against people. Know who is voting for projects and where they see priorities. Make your voice heard.
MEET THE WALLS TEAM
Tom Donley, CFO for the Walls Project, sat down and chatted about how he ended up in Baton Rouge by way of Brussels. It’s a fun, and sweet story that involves his two “little monsters.” If you missed that episode, give it a listen!
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