Last Wednesday marked the 45th annual Earth Day. However, judging by the current effects of climate change and our lackluster attempts to fix it, it is unclear how much longer Louisiana will be along to join in the celebration.
By now, you’ve heard reports of California’s unprecedented drought — one that Stanford climate scientists have linked to climate change. Californians, with relatively easy access to clean, safe water, may be able to cope well with the severe water shortage.
People in less-industrialized nations are not so lucky. Droughts caused by climate change have wreaked havoc on developing nations for years.
Take Brazil, where crop failures from lack of rain have forced thousands of farmers into the slums surrounding major cities like Rio de Janeiro. Or Kyrgyzstan, where past increases in water prices have inspired violent riots that have killed hundreds.
In this regard, climate change presents an unfortunate irony. Industrialized nations with the greatest capacity to reduce carbon emissions, a major factor in climate change, have the least incentive to do so. This is because they are also most prepared to deal with the effects of climate change.
In Louisiana, we should be particularly sensitive to the plight of people affected by climate change. After all, Louisiana is subject to its own brand of climate change-sensitive environmental disaster: coastal erosion.
Every hour, Louisiana loses a piece of wetlands the size of a football field. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Grand Isle is eroding faster than almost any coastline in the world.
The EPA says climate change compounds coastal erosion, increasing the vulnerability of coastal populations to hurricanes and oil spills. In a state where 60 to 70 percent of residents live or work in coastal areas, that is a monumental problem.
Yet, we continue to treat climate change as a joke. Florida politicians have banned any mention of the words “climate change” by members of its environmental agency. Businesses are slow to adopt greener forms of energy, and electric cars remain an expensive and impractical option. We bicker about oil pipelines while ignoring the underlying issue: our continued reliance on oil.
Climate change skeptics are another issue altogether.
In all likelihood, politicians will keep arguing, Americans will keep driving Hummers, and factory owners will keep spewing pollution, even as Louisiana sinks into the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps we won’t see the look of realization in their eyes until climate change becomes more than just a coastal issue.
But by then, it will likely be too late.
The time has come for putting aside greed, political arguments and Western excess. The time has come for getting serious about climate change.
We need stringent emissions regulations, robust clean energy initiatives and an attitude overhaul on things like responsible water and electricity usage.
We need these things because without them, Louisiana is going to disappear sooner rather than later. Climate change is going to continue causing disasters across the globe, and it will only be so long before first-world countries start to feel the heat.
Hopefully, when the rest of the nation opens its eyes, Louisiana will still be here.
Alex Mendoza is a 22-year-old political science and international studies senior from Baton Rouge. You can reach him on Twitter @alexmendoza_TDR.