2019-09-09

[public] 1.33M views, 52.8K likes, 286 dislikes audio only

Tom Scott

On a coastline that's steadily sinking under the waves, the Wax Lake Delta is rising: which is a wonderful thing for researchers.Historically, every time humans try and mess with the Mississippi, there have been unintended consequences: and even though we can now model it fairly well, there are still surprises.

Thanks to Alex Kolker and all the team at LUMCON in Louisiana. Here's more about his research: https://lumcon.edu/2017/10/20/land-building-in-a-river-delta-can-help-reduce-carbon-dioxide-emissions/

And if your institution subscribes, the paper on carbon storage in the Wax Lake Delta that he worked on is in Nature here: https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo3044

Other references and further reading:

How humans sank New Orleans: How humans sank New Orleans: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/how-humans-sank-new-orleans/552323/

Retiring place names: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/24/us/jean-lafitte-floodwaters.html

Levee wars: https://www.propublica.org/article/deregulate-federal-levees-section-408-permit-secretive-lobbying-effort

Resettling the first American 'climate refugees': https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/us/resettling-the-first-american-climate-refugees.html

CREDITS:

Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin)

Audio mix by Graham Haerther https://haerther.net

Land and sea data and images from NOAA and NASA / Landsat, public domain

Aerial imagery from Google Earth, used with permission

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