By Maggie Beidelman and Francesca Fiorentini
In the coastal communities of Louisiana, climate change isn’t a distant concept. It’s directly impacting the people here—displacing communities and threatening their bayou-dependent life.
Sea levels are rising, and land is sinking, as oil and gas companies have dredged 15,000 miles of man-made canals. A quarter of the wetlands in this region — 2,000 square miles — have disappeared into the Gulf of Mexico.
This fuel station in the southern coastal wetlands of Louisiana may not be here 30 years from now. Every 40 minutes, a football field of land disappears as the Gulf of Mexico rises.
Shrimper Shirley Billiot took us out on her boat to point out where she’s seen land swallowed by the sea. Her home, located 15 miles up-canal in Dulac, sits at three feet above sea level. But with the Gulf on track to rise by more than four feet by the year 2100, it may soon join other communities that have been removed from the map.
Joe Smith, left, is a shrimp boat captain and member of the Houma nation tribe in southern Louisiana. He worries about rising sea levels and told us that while he might not be around to see it in 20 or 30 years, the “Gulf of Mexico is going to be in Dulac.”
Phillip, right, is a fisherman from Dulac County, La. He has been shrimping since he was 14. With sea level rise and too much salt water intrusion, shrimp and seafood in the area will soon become scarce.
Check out a more in-depth look at what’s happening:
