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The energy and fishing industries along the Gulf of Mexico must begin now to adapt to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, more intense hurricanes, loss of coastal wetlands, and the biological effects of warmer water temperatures, according to a report released at a news conference Wednesday by three Louisiana State University scientists.The report is sobering, indeed, and not just for Louisiana, but also for its message on how climate change will affect energy resources in the rest of the country. A good many politicians and citizens in the state, and in the country, for that matter, do not believe that the practices of humans affect the climate of the earth, but rather that global warming is due to nature taking her course and will soon reverse on its own. How much the cautions and warnings will be heeded in Louisiana is an open question because of the widespread suspicion of science. I don't have much hope that the powers will take action as a result of the report.
The number of oil and gas platforms in the hurricane-prone area of Gulf of Mexico is astonishing, and to ride the single, fragile connection to Port Fourchon and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port on the portions of Highway 1 that have not been elevated is to bear witness to the extreme vulnerability of the entryway for a major source of energy imports.
