Sea Level Rise

Rising global temperatures has led to the melting of land ice in the Arctic, adding water to the ocean and causing sea level rise. Additionally, absorption by heat from the sun causes ocean water to expand. Sea level rise can result in flooding and damage to coastal areas. New Orleans is especially vulnerable to this issue because it is already below sea level and therefore susceptible to extensive flooding. 

Sea level rise has led to an annual rate of about thirty-four square miles of land lost on Louisiana’s coast. At this rate, thirty-three square miles of Louisiana towns and New Orleans itself could be underwater by 2040. 

This statistic is terrifying for all New Orleanians; however, flooding caused by sea level rise disproportionately affects marginalized communities. At their lowest, primarily black neighborhoods such as the Lower Ninth Ward are up to four feet below sea level. As floods intensify due to climate change and cause huge disruptions to these communities, racial and social inequalities exacerbate the issues by not providing proper support to the areas that need it most.   

Wetlands

Wetlands are essential to the health of our coastal ecosystems and cities. They improve water quality, serve as natural flood and erosion protection, and provide homes to hundreds of species. With their continual degradation, cities like New Orleans are even more at risk to the effects of global warming. The Louisiana levee system prevents the annual flooding of the Mississippi river which is an integral part of the coastal ecosystem. When the river floods, sediment is dispersed and then it is left behind when the water recedes, but due to the levee system this dispersion of soil has failed to occur for many years, resulting in the slow collapse of the coastline.

Severe storms 

The IPCC AR6 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 6) concluded that due to rising temperatures the intensity of global hurricanes are predicted to increase in the 21st century with the proportion of Category 4 and 5 storms increasing as well. If global warming is left unchecked, one can only imagine the possible dangers these predictions pose to Louisiana and New Orleans, seeing as we have already suffered deeply from hurricanes in the past.