New Orleans is locked into a watery future which could see it surrounded by ocean as early as this century, according to a new expert analysis, which says the city must start the relocation process now to avoid chaos.
The paper’s conclusions are stark, but it’s no secret that New Orleans is highly vulnerable to rising seas as the planet warms. Coastal Louisiana is one of the lowest lying regions in the world, and New Orleans, a city of 360,000 people, is particularly exposed. It sits in a bowl-shaped basin, mostly below sea level, in the middle of a rapidly shrinking delta.
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The region has “crossed the point of no return,” the paper’s authors wrote, adding New Orleans “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century.” They argue the city must seize the opportunity to develop strategies for relocation that could make it a model for places facing a similar fate.
The thing is, though, “relocation” would be relocation of the people but not of the Nawlins. A city can’t be relocated, and that’s especially true when the site of the city is why it became a city in the first place and the reason it can’t stay where it is. N.O. is on the Mississippi and near the Gulf; there’s not going to be another city on the Mississippi and near the Gulf. See also New York City, and San Francisco, and Seattle.
It’s possible to build new cities, far from major bodies of water, but they certainly won’t be clones of the old ones.
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