Why are Louisiana voters so supportive of global warming-denier Donald Trump? Their state, after all, is leading the nation in loss of coastal land due to climate change-related sea level rise, and a corrective response would seem essential.
Scientists calculate that every 35 minutes in coastal Southeast Louisiana, a tract of land the size of a football field is claimed by salt water intrusion, primarily from climate-related rising tides. Furthermore, for whatever reason, sea levels along the Louisiana coastline have risen at slightly more than twice the global rate. This compounds the state's flooding problems even more when struck by a hurricane or a "thousand year" rain storm such as recently occurred.
That rain storm swamped Louisiana with nearly seven trillion gallons of water. Left in its wake were 13 fatalities, tens of thousands of displaced persons, and some 60,000 water-logged homes.
When action to slow global warming is imperative, why would a majority of Louisiana voters cast ballots against their own best interests? That is especially confounding given the evidence is incontrovertible of their impending doom if nothing is done.
One theory is that they feel powerless before the cosmic force of nature. Couple that with oil industry employment closely tied to the state's economy and Republican Party as well as representing tangible benefits, however transitory.
Louisiana fatalism towards climate change creates another problem, this time for the nation. It relates to federal flood insurance. There are many instances of Louisiana residents living in severely flood-prone areas and repeatedly rebuilding their damaged homes with insurance coverage funded at taxpayers' expense. Indeed, Louisiana leads the nation in repetitive multi-flood homes (more than 7200), with taxpayers having shelled out $1.22 billion in insurance claims since 1978 to keep restoring those structures.
Federal insurance should be available to these repetitive flood victims until the compensation equals the worth of their homes. Then, the government should offer a buyout, with the proceeds being used to relocate the recipient to higher ground.
If the homeowners refuse and insist on staying put and subjecting themselves to endless cycles of property destruction and restoration, they should do so on their own dime.
With some estimates that nearly two million existing properties worth $882 billion will be vulnerable to repeated inundation by 2100 due to climate change, there is little choice. The nation's treasury cannot afford to indulge Louisiana's fatalism indefinitely.