Spotlight
LA - New Poll Shows Over 80% of Coastal Louisianans Support Sediment Diversions
According to Andrew Baumann, Senior Vice President of Research for Global Strategy Group, “This kind of cross-partisan consensus is virtually unheard of in today’s political climate. I’ve been polling on conservation issues for over a decade, and this is some of the broadest, most intense and most robust support for a policy I have ever seen. It is clear that coastal Louisiana voters are in broad agreement about the urgent need to protect Louisiana’s coast. Moreover, Louisiana’s leaders have a significant political mandate to act to protect Louisiana’s coastal wetlands now and in the future.”
Quotes Steve Cochran, EDF and MRD
Poll: Coastal Louisianians Support Sediment Diversions - Biz New Orleans
Quotes Steve Cochran, EDF and MRD
Coastal Louisianans support sediment diversions - Dredging Today
There is widespread support for action to address Louisiana’s urgent land loss crisis through sediment diversions, Restore the Mississippi River Delta reports.
Earned Media
The End of Mr. Go
Features Amanda Moore, John Lopez, John Taylor, Pontchartrain Conservancy and MRGO Closure Report: "All in all, the coalition’s report concludes that more than a million acres of wetlands have been affected positively by the rock dam. “We did not appreciate,” said Lopez, “how important that simple act of plugging a hole in the ridge would be.” It’s an unexpected and hopeful sign of what could happen with further restoration. “The closure of the MRGO has been such a reset that it’s like the table is set,” Lopez said."
News
Rising sea levels, stronger hurricanes: Climate report paints grim picture for Louisiana coast
Burkett said sea level rise is more significant in Louisiana because of the underlying rates of subsidence, which is largely a consequence of the Mississippi River being leveed in the first half of the 20th century.
“I’ve worked on this for 30 years, and that sinking of the delta has become less and less of an influence, compared to the main global rate of sea level rise,” Burkett said. Twenty years ago, that sinking made up 80% to 90% of the total, but now actual water rise has overtaken subsidence, she said.