Spotlight
Podcast | The Guardian of the Wetlands | Ogden Museum of Southern Art
This week on Delta Dispatches we’re talking about the inspirational new exhibit at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art which features works from John Taylor, storyteller, environmentalist, self-taught artist and life-long resident of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. Here to talk about the exhibit is Mikhayla Harrell, the Museum Educator and Teen Intern Coordinator at the Ogden Museum and Amanda Moore Deputy Director, Gulf Program for the National Wildlife Federation. This exhibition features a variety of works by Taylor, including eight walking sticks carved from wood found along the banks of the Mississippi River and eight photographs of the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle as well as historical information about Louisiana wetland loss, and provides a number of ways people can get involved with restoration efforts.
What Are Supporters Saying About Sediment Diversions? - Restore the Mississippi River Delta
From local community members to regional leaders: The future of our coast is tied to the Mighty Mississippi River!
Earned Media
The World Needs More Louisiana
To celebrate Earth Week, we’ve partnered once again with @restoredelta to bring awareness to rebuilding our coastal wetlands which provide a vital buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and our homes. A portion of the proceeds from each shirt sold will help support coastal restoration work led by Restore the Mississippi River Delta partners, including on the ground volunteer-led tree plantings, coastal community clean up events, and oyster shell recycling and reef-building. The World Needs More Louisiana.
Dirty Coast Instagram Post:
To celebrate Earth Week, we’ve partnered once again with @restoredelta to bring awareness to rebuilding our coastal wetlands which provide a vital buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and our homes. A portion of the proceeds from each shirt sold will help support coastal restoration work led by Restore the Mississippi River Delta partners, including on the ground volunteer-led tree plantings, coastal community clean up events, and oyster shell recycling and reef-building. The World Needs More Louisiana.
Rerouting the Mississippi River could build new land—and save a retreating coast
Mentions EDF and NAS and quotes Dr. Alisha Renfro, NWF: The overall coastal plan enjoys bipartisan support from state and federal lawmakers. Major environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Audubon Society, have endorsed the diversions. “This is a critical part of restoring the natural processes that built and sustained Louisiana,” says Alisha Renfro, a sedimentologist with the National Wildlife Federation.
News
Louisiana Senate committee advances coastal funding bill that may affect lawsuits
A Louisiana Senate committee advanced legislation Wednesday that supporters said would ensure money collected for violations of coastal permits is dedicated to coastal restoration and protection.
Louisiana's $2.5B Oil Terminal On A Slave Cemetery Will Emit Over 500,000 Tons Of Air Pollution Annually
Interfering with a diversion that would help protect our state’s residents from storms is not cool. We have been through enough hurricanes to know the disastrous effects of these storms. And these storms will only grow worse as the climate gets warmer. So, opposing something that would help us is senseless.
Climate change and the Louisiana wetlands
Due to climate change, storms are coming more often, they are more violent, and sea levels are rising. The marshes that for generations protected the U.S. state of Louisiana’s coastal residents from flooding are all but gone.
As the world focuses on climate change, CGTN’s Sean Callebs takes a look at how Louisiana got to this point –and what change could mean.
With $1.2B in funding, where are Louisiana's flood risk projects? Officials blame feds for delay
Nearly five years after flood waters ravaged Louisiana, not a single project has broken ground as part of Gov. John Bel Edwards' $1.2 billion initiative to reduce flood risks — infuriating lawmakers who say the delays have left their constituents vulnerable.
“When it rains now, our people are wondering, 'Why aren’t you doing something?', and legitimately I can’t answer the question,” said Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, during a heated hearing before the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday.
Guest column: Joe Biden’s infrastructure team should learn from Louisiana
President Joe Biden’s ambitious 10-year, $2 trillion “American Jobs Plan” includes a pledge that every dollar spent on rebuilding our infrastructure “will be used to prevent, reduce, and withstand the impacts of the climate crisis.” What’s not mentioned is the hard decisions that climate resiliency requires.
This is the lesson of coastal Louisiana. It knows what the rest of the country is just beginning to realize: To continue our way of life in a hotter, wetter world, we need to pay more and get less in return. The alternative is to leave.
Biden would do well to learn from such a place, where many lives have already adapted to a changed climate; where towns that couldn’t find the money to protect themselves are gone, reduced to a collection of boat ramps and sinking cemeteries; where those that could build protection are building it higher.
Geologist: Industry must collaborate with scientists on coastal land loss
The Plaquemines and St. Bernard parish councils recently voted unanimously in opposition to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. Their concerns center on the impacts of flooding the saline and brackish estuaries with river water. An accurate scientific assessment of the project using oil and gas industry data would help them get to the correct answer. The oil and gas industry spends millions of dollars a year defending against the bogus coastal lawsuits. An accurate scientific assessment of the causes of wetlands loss using oil and gas industry data would help them to get the correct answer. The parishes and the industry should find a way to work together.