Climate change in Louisiana

[1] According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "[i]n the coming decades, Louisiana will become warmer, and both floods and droughts may become more severe.

[2] Louisiana is expected to be the site of substantial climate refugee challenge, because of the loss of coastline, changing environmental conditions that make the humid coastal ecosystems not easily habitable, and declining economic viability of industries in that geography.

[3] In 2021, Louisiana experienced a substantial impact from Hurricane Ida, which was noted as having characteristics that are probably more common in a warmer climate: the intensity, the rapid intensification, and the amount of rainfall over land.

Historically, the river would occasionally overflow its banks and deposit enough new sediment to allow the land surface to keep pace with rising sea level and the delta’s tendency to sink.

But today, river levees, navigation channels, and other human activities thwart this natural land-building process, so coastal lands are being submerged.

Federal, state, and local governments have ongoing projects to slow land loss in Louisiana, but if the sea rises more rapidly in the future, these efforts will become increasingly difficult".

[2] According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment published in 2023, coastal states including California, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas are experiencing "more significant storms and extreme swings in precipitation".

Many coastal roads, railways, airports, and oil and gas facilities are vulnerable to the impacts of storms and sea level rise.

Louisiana is especially vulnerable, because much of New Orleans and other populated areas are below sea level, protected by levees and pumping systems that remove rainwater, which cannot drain naturally.

The resulting high water on the Atchafalaya flooded small towns and about 1,000 square miles of agricultural land, and required temporary levees to protect Morgan City.