Changing The Gulf Forever

Hands down, climate change is serious business. Al Gore was mocked for talking about it in the 1980s, now he has won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Though for some people, large ideas do not have much meaning in their own lives. Now the residents of the Gulf Coast have been dealing with those effects, specifically from Hurricane Katrina for the last two years. Many people have already left the area for good and at this point, the Army Corps of Engineers wants people to leave the area for good so they can try to combat the effects of man on the environment.

From The Guardian:

The United States is working on a multi-billion-dollar plan to depopulate vast swaths of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico in a move which it is hoped would help re-establish a natural barrier against the catastrophic flooding caused by the likes of Hurricane Katrina.

In the first sign that the federal government is favouring a retreat from the coast rather than rebuilding, the Army Corps of Engineers is to present to Congress a radical plan which includes rebuilding the wetlands that have been disappearing at an ever-accelerating rate in recent years.

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The Corps, the engineers responsible for protecting the coastline, has been working on the plan since Katrina struck in August 2005. President George Bush promised after the floods to rebuild New Orleans and other Gulf communities.

But federal agencies and environmentalists have concluded that climate change has increased the threat of further devastation and continued rebuilding makes no sense. To be included in the overall plan is $40bn (£20bn) to be spent on the Mississippi coast. Part of this would be for a voluntary buyout of 17,000 houses in Mississippi, particularly in Bay St Louis, east of New Orleans. The corps is likely to extend the plan to New Orleans and Louisiana.

Of course there will be people that object to a project that encourages people to leave their community behind. It is never a happy day when you just have to pick up and leave. However, people can easily forget that the world is bigger than themselves and larger than life events have a real impact on the individual.

It may be hard to comprehend the realities of climate change, especially when they are staring you right in the face. It is also hard not to sympathize with those that should or must leave the Gulf Coast regions. However, as years go on and we continue to see the planet change at an increasing rate, they will not be the only ones to have their lives significantly altered as temperatures increase and sea levels rise.