Waves crash over Lake Pontchartrain as Hurricane Zeta makes landfall on Oct. 28, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
Hurricane Zeta slammed into storm-weary Louisiana as a Category 2 storm Wednesday, killing at least one person and breaking the record for the most named storms to hit the state in a single season.
<p>Zeta is the fifth named storm to clobber Louisiana this year and follows the especially devastating one-two punch of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-laura-louisiana-gulf-of-mexico-2647106305.html" target="_self">Hurricanes Laura</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-delta-laura-louisiana-2648175286.html" target="_self">Delta</a> in August and October. Around 3,600 people are still displaced following the two previous storms and most of them are living in six hotels in New Orleans, which took a direct hit from Zeta, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/us/hurricane-zeta-wednesday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>.</p><p>"It's one (storm) after the other. We're just a target. I told my friend they're zeroing in on us. They're looking for us," 71-year-old Laura evacuee Billy Ewing, who has been staying in New Orleans hotels since August, told CNN. "And we can't control it. What's the matter right now is we can't control anything. I'm not in control of what my status is. I'm not in control of where I live."</p>
<p>Zeta made landfall near the fishing village of Cocodrie, Louisiana around 4 p.m. Wednesday, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/hurricane-zeta.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. It then tore through New Orleans and ripped along the Mississippi coast.</p><p>The storm killed at least one person, <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/dead-as-hurricane-zeta-barrels-northeast/2388048/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NBC News Bay Area reported</a>. A 55-year-old man was electrocuted by a downed power line in New Orleans.</p><p>New Orleans had been in the projected path of six different storms this season, but they had all veered east or west. This time, the city's luck ran out and it took a direct hit.</p><p>"This is not a drill," Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned residents ahead of the storm, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>The storm cut out power to more than 500,000 people in Louisiana, and most of New Orleans was dark after it passed, according to NBC News Bay Area. More than 200 trees were downed, and one person was hospitalized with minor injuries after a structure collapsed.</p>
<div id="ebd95" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6944cdac6522e9abb00edf77aabf3d99"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1321604205208129538" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hurricane Zeta knocks out power on Bourbon Street. @FOX8NOLA https://t.co/sgu7JCzYuO</div> — Garland Gillen (@Garland Gillen)<a href="https://twitter.com/garlandgillen/statuses/1321604205208129538">1603929971.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"Although we have made it through, we have been damaged, we have been hit," Cantrell said.</p><p>The storm was and is fast moving. This means that high winds were the biggest safety hazard, even blowing the roofs off of some houses, The New York Times reported. However, the advantage of the fast pace meant that it did not stall and pour rain in one place. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is making storms <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-hurricanes-wetter-2619851055.html" target="_self">wetter</a>, and slow, wet storms have caused major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> in recent years.</p><p>"It's not going to sit there and pound for hour after hour," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a briefing on Wednesday, as The New York Times reported. "It should move through the area relatively quickly."</p><p>However, this also means a wide range of the Southeast will feel its effects, CNN pointed out. Strong winds were projected to reach inland Mississippi and Alabama, while heavy rain was projected to pummel Georgia and the Carolinas Thursday.</p><p>Zeta weakened to a tropical storm over central Alabama early Thursday morning, the <a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1321693259631001601" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported</a>. However, it is still packing a punch. The NHC warned of wind gusts strong enough to down trees and cause power outages in northeastern Alabama, northern Georgia, the Carolinas and southeastern Virginia Thursday.</p>
<div id="d01e1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b31220072eb1b43fbf722e7c774396d4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1321736884666556416" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here are the 4 AM CDT Key Messages for Tropical Storm #Zeta, which is racing across the southeastern United States… https://t.co/Yr7UBOTKMM</div> — National Hurricane Center (@National Hurricane Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/statuses/1321736884666556416">1603961604.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>As of 6:55 a.m., there were already more than 920,000 people without power in Georgia, <a href="https://www.wsbtv.com/weather/live-updates-zeta-brings-risk-flooding-damaging-wind-brief-tornadoes/MPUQUP55GNDLRI2L3GL2TDNYWU/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WSB-TV 2 Atlanta reported</a>.<br><br>Zeta is the earliest 27th named storm on record in an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season and the 11th hurricane, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/27/louisiana-hurricane-warning-mexico-yucatan" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. An average hurricane season has six hurricanes and 12 named storms. In addition to making storms wetter, the climate crisis is also making them <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tropical-storm-intensity-climate-crisis-2646033123.html" target="_self">more intense</a>.<br></p>
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Hurricane Delta Floods Parts of Louisiana Still Recovering From August’s Laura
12 October 2020
Climate
An aerial drone view shows a model home surrounded by flooding from Hurricane Delta in an area still recovering from Hurricane Laura on Oct. 10, 2020 in Iowa, Louisiana. Mario Tama / Getty Images
Record-breaking hurricane Delta made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Creole, Louisiana Friday evening, striking another blow to a region still recovering from Hurricane Laura just six weeks earlier.
<p>Especially hard hit by the one-two punch of storms was the town of Lake Charles, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-tropical-storms-storms-hurricane-laura-hurricane-delta-b79a7554173b9e5730ae0f658be52868" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. While Delta was weaker than Category 4 Laura, which damaged almost every building in the town, the second storm brought more <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a>, inundating hundreds of the same buildings.</p><p>"Add Laura and Delta together and it's just absolutely unprecedented and catastrophic," Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter told The Associated Press. "We are very concerned that with everything going in the country right now that this incident may not be on the radar nationally like it should be."</p>
<div id="b1ead" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c72bcdab8d9280617a4c52d2fbaf7df0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314704983523115008" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Delta is the 2nd #hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana this season (Laura was the other). This is the first ye… https://t.co/dN78re5Pjz</div> — Philip Klotzbach (@Philip Klotzbach)<a href="https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/statuses/1314704983523115008">1602285068.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In addition to walloping Lake Charles, Delta also knocked out power to more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas as of Sunday morning, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/11/weather/hurricane-delta-sunday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>. The outages had deadly results. An 86-year-old man in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana died in a fire after trying to fuel a generator in his shed.</p><p>The storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone and moved north out of Louisiana over the weekend but continued to cause damage. A train derailed in Lilburn, Georgia because of heavy rain, and two <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tornadoes" target="_self">tornadoes</a> also touched down in the state, injuring two.</p><p>By Sunday night, the post-tropical remnants of the storm were located about 60 miles north-northeast of Atlanta, Georgia and were expected to continue to weaken, the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIAWPCAT1+shtml/120245.shtml" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center said</a>.</p>
<p>The back-to-back impacts of Laura and Delta are a reminder of how catastrophes can compound because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"We live today in the age of crisis conglomeration," climate justice writer Mary Annaïse Heglar wrote for <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/2020-crises-wildfires-pandemic-election-climate-crisis-1069907/" target="_blank">Rolling Stone</a> Oct. 4. "It is no longer useful or honest or even smart to look at any of them through a single lens."</p><p>The climate crisis is making hurricanes <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-hurricanes-wetter-2619851055.html" target="_self">wetter</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-delta-2020-2648150767.html" target="_self">more likely to intensify rapidly</a>, as both Laura and Delta did. And the storms together have forced more than 9,000 people in Louisiana into shelters in the middle of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/11/louisiana-surveys-deltas-devastation-wonder-how-much-federal-aid-they-can-expect/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p>
<p>"We are responding to Hurricane Delta and continue to recover from Hurricane Laura in a covid environment," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday, urging people to continue social distancing and wearing masks as they respond to the storm.</p><p>On Sunday, he said 20 more people in the state had died of the disease.</p><p>Hurricane Delta is also the latest record-breaker in an unprecedented Atlantic hurricane season. It was the earliest ever 25th named storm, and the 10th named storm to make landfall in the U.S., the most ever in a single season, meteorologist Steve Bowen pointed out on Twitter.</p>
<div id="e45b8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3de3462f0a6de38226d20e3d0ac27241"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314706724687839232" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Delta has made landfall in Louisiana. This marks a record 10th named storm landfall on the U.S. mainland, and the… https://t.co/wmiNUDq7DL</div> — Steve Bowen (@Steve Bowen)<a href="https://twitter.com/SteveBowenWx/statuses/1314706724687839232">1602285483.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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NHC Director Ken Graham provides an update on Hurricane Delta. NOAA
Hurricane Delta is set to batter southwest Louisiana later today, as residents there prepare to be hit once again by a storm that has rapidly intensified, experts say, largely because of global warming.
<p>Hurricane Delta, the sixth storm so far to meet scientists' threshold for <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/VVqc7S3kg3BlW4l2r149fYKkyW15bp5B4gZtmDN6TZ7st3p_97V1-WJV7CgH_wW7x651w8fYJ6WW3BmKKh5Y9TlZW6gk1MG8zwY45VB_Kqm4qF5cGV6HmBz8CnvZZW75DQSQ3bg5NbW17SFnZ2DDh1fW5dzkM37bKNZgW6swNLK7K9hb7VV_fcP5WCBwxW1vWh7m5VxbqVW824V6V1kSHtWW4l3Qcs5sXdJ1W6QY_z95fGp9cVpc04z263hv2W16HRh-54z8F2N5c0_KJlwG9vW14z4zn1BCYNhM152SpXQflwV4g3Wx134hZ_W655DbX4HG_3hW4byG5Q8yJ8hhW7sT63X7PC5-tW3B3_0V3vv-nL3k9K1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rapid intensification</a>, exploded from an unnamed storm into a 140 mph monster in just 36 hours. </p><p>"It's more likely that a storm will rapidly intensify now than it did in the 1980s," NOAA climate and hurricane scientist Jim Kossin told the AP. </p><p>The proportion of storms rapidly intensifying in the Atlantic has nearly doubled since 1982, according to a study published last year by Kossin and Princeton climate scientist Gabriel Vecchi, who both told the AP climate change, caused by burning gas, oil, and coal, is clearly playing a major role. </p><p>The increase in storms' rapid acceleration is fueled by oceans heated by climate change.</p>
<p>For Louisiana residents, the danger — and trauma — of repeated storms in such close succession is visceral. </p><p>Hurricane Laura slammed two trees through Janice Duren's Lake Charles home less than two months ago, "And we're fixing to get hit again. You might as well hang it up," Duren told the New York Times from the New Orleans hotel to which she evacuated. </p><p>"It looks like somebody put a bomb off down there [in Lake Charles]," she said. "And you turn around and put another hurricane on top of that? … It'll be double the trouble, but we don't have half the help we need." </p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-climate-change-oceans-storms-weather-108ee106d20ab2ab4880011b78e71981?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9rfPWaJ6Nsgh39ouOfPSVKLef_r_36cgDAWETlEjtp8tpqk44rnqrSGV2cUhMxE6r-Bx_aNmAc_sHwmpEd7T1u6OVYZAxEDfqVNZe5bQKwL7iONB0&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">AP,</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/hurricane-delta-gulf-coast.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9L8dBGijtdmosL7fZ-AhP8JzCMAsoEo3Hg5Cx2BT9hQIeEt-UeZ9n11ZEcI-A6jtpa7KshrW1hcQjCrTjgMqC6-u9r_Lf_kZ13472yV_R_acUPuWA&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-delta-gulf-coast-atlantic-hurricane-season/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--gu8ZAhbKFXA8RN9r7lvrxdNKwmCrKnZUBg-sMIhlFJvBBj_yuAb8vf_Ibcsf8VaBHNWUuV_Mv7LXMVE_2rxxjazB6d7QRikhy1BReEtFy5tuPIns&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">CBS</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/09/weather/hurricane-delta-friday/index.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8AbL2KE9vKkKCAyqPtu1p0hQl44_aarTg85BTDEme8YR6ds5rqA-LIarZ7ePPoXpfvWt4_QD_ADpJH5rDtYwn76fvYyjgOXQhaJnwdc71esCA3us0&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/10/still-reeling-louisiana-braces-for-hurricane-delta/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8vR9mG-ez9w7Ze3HSVTmqUDczekLhL90YZLf4xc4MC6VKVAgOYIeBTUgu9gyYI8qh0z4w7wCFiHbgZMVcRf3-KSiTPOJQBYBlBUfZmK9hUS-syqWU&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">National Geographic</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/08/hurricane-delta-louisiana-winds-flooding?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8DeglbJVv7uGemAVvk6k0hsPUK-Iioud-Jb_5Y6T98nSH3GzqZhz-AlhApt1zn4BqjCPUamv_6GkT7RMPiOtc9dpcmc8h0tIkiw0v40jxPgNDeIkI&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2020/10/09/stories/1063715877?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-93N8qM3j32oSXm8jaOZhFBgdHQOvSCLbcT7RX9kTCMTlCXtrwvIC1ZL-_CpqSvhLfRlFDMJHU7YDswb7OzBqkTP-HnyNHOy_ZuxoxP96dERjGHe70&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">E&E</a>; Climate Signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-hurricanes?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9flwzQxQkArxXK_2x651Pu8knSQrQ82oA9N7AFLNBNm9UdggkNJau51twuNiFMRw0DRomvxXLrEy30ePcbmSVCqALnrM_27o3Ywwjysx_wTKy1po0&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Hurricanes</a>; <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/atlantic-hurricane-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97053490&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8r-WjyhSE8jWLf0B3BsLjKv9L6sQyj6liBIqlu7WIVX7i58XG6-ik4pCXrvDbk4n7gkPPGpXhZOTgpSpuAHEZzLE2aJzd9zXSrOoHAjvP6bFtQBk0&utm_content=97053490&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Tropical Storm Beta Makes Landfall in Texas, Drenching Storm-Weary Gulf Coast
22 September 2020
Climate
A portion of roadway is flooded in Corpus Christi, Texas on Sept. 20, 2020 due to storm surge from Tropical Storm Beta in the Gulf of Mexico. Matt Pierce / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus
The National Hurricane Center has run out of names for tropical storms this year and has now moved on to the Greek alphabet during an extremely active hurricane season. Late Monday night, Tropical Storm Beta became the ninth named storm to make landfall. That's the first time so many named storms have made landfall since 1916, when Woodrow Wilson was president, according to NBC News.
<p>Beta is a small but slow-moving storm. Its tropical-storm winds extend 125 miles from the eye of the storm. However, the danger from Beta is not its winds, but the tremendous amount of rain it is expected to drop on towns and cities along the Interstate 10 corridor in Texas and Louisiana, according to the <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-ne-hurricane-teddy-tropical-storm-beta-monday-update-20200921-ppok6b2fbvcf3mh4ykjv7k44ci-story.html." target="_blank">Orlando Sentinel</a>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCUAT2+shtml/220401.shtml?" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center</a> issued an update late last night that the center of Beta made landfall in Texas near the Southern End of the Matagorda peninsula around 10 p.m. CDT.</p><p>The storm's slow movement will stall Beta over Texas and drench the region with five to 10 inches of rain, said Rich Otto, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, MD, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/us/tropical-storm-beta.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. The heavy rains and wind will also create dangerous storm surges.</p>
<p>"Twenty-four hours from now it will be in roughly the same location," Otto said Monday, according to The New York Times.</p><p>That stalled movement has put roughly 11 million people under flash flood warnings that span the Texas and Louisiana coast, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/21/weather/tropical-storm-beta-texas-louisiana-monday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. The sustained rain is also expected to cause river flooding and urban <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a>.</p><p>Early Tuesday morning, Beta was moving no faster than people typically walk, at just 3 miles per hour. It is predicted to stall over inland Texas Tuesday and then move toward the east and northeast later in the day when it will begin to weaken, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/f19bbc72c7ec3d2040c0b942666eee90" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>. It is expected to stay in southeastern Texas through Wednesday and then move over Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday.</p>
<p>Dangerous flash floods may continue through Wednesday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Amaryllis Cotto in Galveston, Texas, who spoke to the AP. Cotto added that 6-12 inches of rain has already fallen in the area and some areas have seen 18 inches of rain.</p><p>On Monday night, Beta's storm surge washed away a pier in Galveston, Texas. The incident was captured on video and posted to <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSHouston/status/1307883681717972992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1307883681717972992%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fweather.com%2Fnews%2Fnews%2F2020-09-21-tropical-storm-beta-texas-louisiana-flooding-damage-galveston" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p><p>The governors of Texas and Louisiana both urged residents to be vigilant during the storm. Texas Governor Greg Abbot issued a disaster declaration for 29 counties Monday, while Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and begged residents still recovering from Hurricane Laura to be especially careful, according to <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2020-09-21-tropical-storm-beta-texas-louisiana-flooding-damage-galveston" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Weather Channel</a>.</p>
<p>Nic Hunter, the mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana, worried that Beta's intense rains may be "an emotional and mental toll for a lot of our citizens," as the city tries to recover after Hurricane Laura damaged 95 percent of the city's nearly 30,000 buildings, according to the AP.</p><p>While Beta slowly drenches Texas, Hurricane Teddy has strengthened in the Atlantic and is churning towards Nova Scotia in Canada. It is expected to make landfall Wednesday.</p><p>"Teddy should turn to the north-northeast and move over eastern Nova Scotia on Wednesday then over the Gulf of St. Lawrence late Wednesday into Thursday," National Hurricane Center forecasters said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.</p>
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Colette Pichon Battle, attorney, founder, and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy. Colette Pichon Battle
By Karen L. Smith-Janssen
Colette Pichon Battle gave a December 2019 TEDWomen Talk on the stark realities of climate change displacement, and people took notice. The video racked up a million views in about two weeks. The attorney, founder, and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP) advocates for climate justice in communities of color. Confronted with evidence showing how her own South Louisiana coastal home of Bayou Liberty will be lost to flooding in coming years, the 2019 Obama Fellow dedicates herself to helping others still reeling from the impacts of Katrina face the heavy toll that climate change has taken—and will take—on their lives and homelands. Her work focuses on strengthening multiracial coalitions, advocating for federal, state, and local disaster mitigation measures, and redirecting resources toward Black communities across the Gulf South.
<h4>How did Hurricane Katrina—which <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/150082.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">displaced more than 1 million people</a> in the Gulf region—propel your work, and how does it shape your mission today?</h4><p>I got into this work in the aftermath of the hurricane in 2005, and it's been 15 years as of August 29. Katrina was a massive disaster that I felt compelled to respond to. It was my hometown. I stayed because I began to understand how that disaster was a manifestation of a global climate reality.</p><p>We are anchoring the <a href="https://m4bl.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Movement for Black Lives</a> work that's centered around a national black climate agenda, and part of that will include in-depth communications to bring climate into the realm of Black lives—into communities that have been marginalized and targeted by our colonizing system. Part of our work is to begin a process of acknowledging the trauma that comes with being a person of color in this country, being in an environmental justice community and being poisoned every day, and going through a climate disaster. <em>We</em> are on the frontlines.</p>
<h4>How do you help communities heal from this trauma when the underlying problems have not been solved? </h4><p>The most difficult and time-consuming layer is building, healing, and strengthening relationships between different communities and acknowledging that many of us, especially people of color, have been systematically pitted against each other as part of a broader social infrastructure. What does it mean to reconcile these communities with each other? For example, we're making a <a href="https://www.gcclp.org/heal-and-reconcile" target="_blank">Sacred Waters Pilgrimage</a> down the Mississippi River for Black and Indigenous women to address the tensions between those two communities in the U.S. and begin to heal those relationships. In the climate movement, these are the people who are tokenized; it's just assumed they can stand on the frontlines together with no acknowledgment that there's a deep history of mistrust and tension between these groups—not of their own creation, and rooted in colonization. You've got to take some time to understand how the cultures are different and how people are perceived. You've got to reconcile and heal before you can work, and only then can the work that you do together stand. Otherwise, the work that you do together will fall.</p>
<h4>In addition to building coalitions, what kinds of services does the GCCLP provide to help residents cope with the impacts of extreme storms?</h4><p>We started out providing free legal services to folks recovering after a disaster. We are there as service providers but we also offer a political education about what is happening to you and why. We don't just get your <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/going-under-long-wait-times-post-flood-buyouts-leave-homeowners-underwater" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FEMA paperwork completed for flood remittance</a>, although that's part of what we'll do. You're also going to leave with an understanding of the frequency of flooding, the climate impacts, and how your area in particular has just been affected and is going to be affected in the future.</p><p>Today, we have four main programs, and in each, we have a level of advocacy within them: We do Equitable Disaster Recovery; Water Equity/Water Economy; <a href="https://www.gcclp.org/copy-of-equitable-disaster-recovery" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sustainable Economy/Energy Democracy</a>; and Land, Labor and Just Transition. Our federal disaster advocacy work centers around the modification and re-envisioning of the Stafford Act, which controls and activates FEMA. We also do some state-level advocacy around mitigation planning here in the five Gulf South states. That involves educating decision makers not just on what the community needs but pointing out what's out there and within our budgetary reach or legislative duty. </p>
<h4>A lot of the initial recovery work following Katrina centered around <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-best-rebuild-hurricane-ravaged-city-listen-residents-says-new-orleans-native" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">building climate-resilient communities</a> that could withstand future storms. Has that work been successful?</h4><p>Over the years, as we've watched people trying to create resilient communities that are more physically ready for the storms that are coming, we've seen it either lead to gentrification or segregation or investment in non-Black, non-Native places. Money never makes it to the frontline. So we've got to put in our own infrastructure systems at the community level, rooted in political education around economy, racialized capitalism, and wealth-building.</p><p>In our understanding of climate change, the economy plays a major (if not <em>the</em> major) role in how we got to this place. The economic philosophy of this country is one of extraction; it's an extractive economy that started with the attempted genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans, all for profit, power, land, and control. So, we help communities to practice receiving, making decisions about, and distributing money to places where they want to see their dollars go—which is basically holding Black wealth. We help local organizations set up community-controlled funds all across the Gulf South region after every disaster. Yes, the community receives dollars, but they also go through a 12-month process to collectively develop a system of shared governance so that, should this happen again, we have systems of our own around our own money and its destination.</p>
<h4>The practice of "<a href="https://qz.com/1876202/new-flood-risk-maps-could-undermine-marginalized-neighborhoods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blue-lining</a>" is a new climate-driven threat that withdraws support for vulnerable communities living in high-risk flood areas. How did that manifest in New Orleans after Katrina, and how might it impact other areas?</h4><p>It's happening already in places south of New Orleans where decision makers have understood we will not make it. We're going to lose those areas. My community is one. You watch as <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/our-national-flood-insurance-program-going-underwater" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">federal flood insurance becomes impossible</a> because of the designations of flood risk by the Army Corps of Engineers. A point comes when you can't even get flood insurance to protect your home. After Katrina, officials said, "Everything below Interstate 10 is pretty much written off so if you live below I-10, you should begin to plan to move."</p><p>I think we're going to see false information about flood lines. On flood maps of south Louisiana, the city of New Orleans is not shown in the flood zone because of the levee system, which was only rebuilt to the standards that failed the first time. As a result, people in New Orleans can get insurance but people south of New Orleans can't.</p>
<h4>How do you reach community members who are not already part of the climate conversation but face climate change impacts in their immediate futures?</h4><p>Outreach is mainly folks just talking to the people they know. And we're part of larger coalitions that help us build new relationships. The problem is that the climate conversation has not yet made it into the daily rhetoric of Black, Indigenous, and brown communities, so giving generic information is not good enough. We're going to do more virtual education because video and social media are just how people get their information now in this COVID reality.</p><p>But the majority of folks we're trying to reach do not sit on a computer all day so there's still the problem of how to make it real. You have to understand that communication is not just words, especially down here in the South. You can sit under a tree next to somebody for a long time without words, yet a lot is actually being communicated, and they can feel that your energy is serious and authentic. I never had a problem communicating urgency to people of the Gulf South. They know I'm from here, that I love this place, and that I wouldn't be taking their time talking like this if it weren't serious.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/connector-gulf-south-15-years-and-counting" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>.</em></p>
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Smoke rises from a burning chemical plant after the passing of Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana on Aug. 27, 2020. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
When Hurricane Laura struck the Gulf Coast early on Thursday with record-setting winds and storm surges that caused flooding, it was bearing down on an area full of chemical plants. The fears about having toxic chemicals in an area increasingly vulnerable to tropical storms are playing out as a chemical plant caught fire and sent toxic plumes into the air throughout the day, as The New York Times reported.
<p>A fire ripped through a chlorine factory, burning throughout the day and into the night Thursday. It released a toxic smoke into the air that forced Louisiana's Governor Jon Bel Edwards to warn residents to turn off their air conditioners, seal off their windows and doors, and stay inside, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/27/hurricane-laura-fire-biolab/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>The fire took place at a BioLab facility that manufacturers chlorine for swimming pools and disinfectants. According to Louisiana State Police Superintendent Kevin W. Reeves, the chlorine in the factory started to decompose, which generated enough heat to start the blaze. From there, a small crew of employees tried, in vain, to extinguish the blaze before calling fire officials, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>Chlorine can be dangerous to the lungs and respiratory passages if inhaled. It also causes blisters and rashes on the skin. State officials quickly installed air quality monitors. During an afternoon press conference, State Fire Marshall Butch Browning said no airborne chlorine was detected, according to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/hurricane-laura-live-updates/2020/08/27/906704215/chemical-fire-burns-near-lake-charles-in-aftermath-of-hurricane-laura" target="_blank">NPR</a>.</p><p>"What they have found is no low-level detection of chlorine offsite, where people walk and where people gather — which is a good thing," Browning said. "The cloud, the plume, as it goes in the air and moves out there is chlorine. Those chemicals are falling in the lake, which is the right place for it because it dilutes the chlorine. So that, we don't believe, is endangering anyone."</p>
<p>The burning chemical factory illuminates the danger the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a> poses to the Gulf Coast, which is dotted with chemical factories and oil refineries, many of which are adjacent to poor and racial minority communities. BioLab, near the community of Mossville, is one of more than a dozen industrial facilities in the area. In Mossville, residents have long breathed air pollutants from the nearby industrial facilities, according to The New York Times.</p><p>"The Biolab facility that's burning out of control right now is part of the toxic soup that Mossville residents have been exposed to for decades," said Monique Harden, assistant director of law and policy at the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in New Orleans.</p>
<p>The exposure to toxic air is reminiscent of the plight of Reserve, Louisiana, a few miles up the Mississippi River, which is home to a chemical plant and was the focus of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/may/06/cancertown-louisana-reserve-special-report" target="_blank">The Guardian's Cancer Alley</a> series. Residents there are 50 times more likely than the general population to develop cancer.</p><p>While residents of Mossville have to deal with the air pollution from industry, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also warning people about creating their own air pollution. Now that power is knocked to out to hundreds of thousands of homes, the CDC issued a <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00435.asp" target="_blank">health advisory</a> warning about the dangers of carbon monoxide, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/health/cdc-hurricane-co-poisoning/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>The CDC is worried that people will use gasoline-powered generators or gas and charcoal grill in the wrong setting. "If used or placed improperly, these sources can lead to CO build up inside buildings, garages, or campers and poison the people and animals inside," the CDC said, as CNN reported.</p><p>The CDC is advising people in the area to look out for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/features/copoisoning/index.html#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20symptoms%20of,CO%20poisoning%20is%20entirely%20preventable." target="_blank">symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning</a>, which are fairly non-descript, but may include nausea, vomiting and dizziness, especially if several people have the same complaint and do not have fever, according to CNN.</p><p>"Appropriate and prompt diagnostic testing and treatment are crucial to reduce morbidity and prevent mortality from CO poisoning," the CDC said. "Identifying and mitigating the CO source is critical in preventing other poisoning cases."</p>
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'Unsurvivable Storm Surge' Expected as Hurricane Laura Hits Gulf Coast With 150 mph Winds
27 August 2020
Climate
A NOAA satellite image of the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 27, 2020 at 7:36 a.m. EST. NOAA
In the middle of the night, Hurricane Laura made landfall, hitting the Gulf Coast in Louisiana with record-setting 150 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center, which warned of an "unsurvivable" storm surge.
<blockquote>"Unsurvivable storm surge with large and destructive waves will cause catastrophic damage from Sea Rim State Park, Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, including Calcasieu and Sabine Lakes. This surge could penetrate up to 40 miles inland from the immediate coastline, and flood waters will not fully recede for several days after the storm."</blockquote>
<p>The storm weakened rapidly as it moved inland, losing strength as it was downgraded to a category 3 hurricane. Early Thursday morning, it was down to a category 2 and the National Hurricane Center expects it will weaken to a tropical storm as it turns northeast and moves over Arkansas Thursday.</p><p>"At the time of landfall, Laura was a ferocious looking hurricane with a clear circular eye, an intense eyewall, and tightly-coiled surrounding spiral bands," the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT3+shtml/DDHHMM.shtml" target="_blank">National Weather Service said</a> in an update on the storm early Thursday, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/08/26/hurricane-laura-updates-texas-louisiana/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_lufbanner-6a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>Cameron, Louisiana on the Gulf Coast, about 35 miles east of the Texas border, bore the brunt of Laura as it moved on shore with near record winds. In Lake Charles, a city of 78,000 people, buildings shook as the storm's winds ripped through the city's streets.</p><p>"There will be parts of Lake Charles underwater that no living human being has ever seen before," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told WWL Radio, as CNN reported. "We are marshaling all of our people and assets to go in ... and start a very robust search and rescue effort."</p>
<p>The National Hurricane Center warned that the storm surges would make a low-lying area, like Cameron, part of the Gulf of Mexico until the storm had passed and the floodwaters receded, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/us/hurricane-laura-update.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>In the run up to the storm, governors from both Louisiana and Texas urged people to evacuate. "I'm asking people right now to pay attention to this storm, to get out of harm's way," said Edwards during a briefing before the storm's arrival, as The New York Times reported. "Understand, our state has not seen a storm surge like this in many, many decades. We haven't seen wind speeds like we're going to experience in a very, very long time."</p>
<p>While the storm is weakening, its heavy winds are still ripping through Western Louisiana and grazing East Texas, causing widespread power outages. Furthermore, the hurricane is dropping five to 10 inches of rain over a wide swath of the Gulf Coast, and up to 18 inches in some areas, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/08/26/hurricane-laura-updates-texas-louisiana/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_lufbanner-6a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. That intense rain is leading to flash flooding in some areas.</p><p>The National Hurricane Center warned that just because the storm is weakening does not mean it is safe. The effects will continue to be felt through the weekend for areas east of the Mississippi River.</p>
<p>In a statement Thursday morning, it said:</p><blockquote>"It should be noted that strong hurricanes like Laura are not just coastal events. Even though Laura's highest winds will decrease quickly as it treks inland, significant impacts from heavy rains and strong wind gusts are likely through at least tonight across portions of Louisiana and Arkansas. Some strengthening as an extratropical cyclone is expected when the storm moves over the Atlantic waters late this weekend and early next week."</blockquote>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU4NTQyMS9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjM1NzEwM30.hPRcCM493arLmJomOA3h9-4NUlVqDlBHKzavR-O8L0M/img.gif?width=980" id="9f9f2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d55d58693229ea2e3cf3dc574c4c639" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="500" data-height="500" />
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An aerial photo shows a flooded New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on September 11, 2005. NOAA / Wikimedia Commons
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph was severely damaged by flooding.
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<p>The nuns moved elsewhere while repairs began. But the following year, lightning struck the roof and started a fire. The convent could not be saved.</p><p>"We began to pray for some kind of insight that would enable us to use the property in a way that would minister to the people of New Orleans," says Sister Pat Bergen.</p><p>She says an architect came to the nuns with an idea – converting the 25 acres into a wetland that helps prevent flooding in nearby areas.</p>
<p>They're calling the project the <a target="_blank" href="https://nola.gov/resilience-sustainability/areas-of-focus/green-infrastructure/hazard-mitigation-stormwater-projects/mirabeau-water-garden-phase-i/">Mirabeau Water Garden</a>. Plans for the site include recreational areas, meadows that absorb stormwater, and retention ponds.</p><p>When the city's drainage system is overwhelmed, water will be diverted to the property and held there until it can be safely released.</p><p>"Healing, strengthening, restoring Earth was a major part of our decision-making, and that's why this design resonated with our hearts right away," Bergen says.</p><p>So when the city breaks ground, it will turn what was once a major loss into a gain for the flood-prone city of New Orleans.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/nuns-agree-to-convert-damaged-convent-into-flood-prevention-project/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Police Condemned for Charging Peaceful Environmentalists With 'Terrorizing' in Louisiana
27 June 2020
Climate
Two Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists are facing felony "terrorizing" charges for leaving a box of plastic pellets collected from Texas waters near a coastal Formosa Plastics facility on the doorstep of a fossil fuel lobbyist in December 2019. MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
At least 40 U.S. climate and environmental advocacy groups on Friday rallied behind two Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists who are facing felony "terrorizing" charges for leaving a box of plastic pellets collected from Texas waters near a coastal Formosa Plastics facility on the doorstep of a fossil fuel lobbyist in December 2019.
<p>Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, respectively the director and a program assistant for Louisiana Bucket Brigade, "turned themselves into the Baton Rouge Police Department Thursday," <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_ebee9ed6-b586-11ea-8819-439269c90a96.html" target="_blank">according to</a> NOLA.com. "Rolfes was booked with terrorizing, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. McIntosh was booked with principal to terrorizing. Each was released Thursday afternoon after posting $5,000 bond."</p>
<p>The new wave of support for the activists and their nonviolent protest against plastic pollution came in a collection of comments <a href="https://earthworks.org/media-releases/intimidation-tactics-in-louisiana-wont-silence-opposition-to-formosa-plastics/" target="_blank">circulated</a> by the nonprofit Earthworks.</p><p>"These charges are mere retaliation in response to the critical work done by Louisiana Bucket Brigade," said Scott Eustis, community science director at HealthyGulf. "Formosa Plastics is a serial offender of the United States Clean Water Act, and discussing their criminal record with executives and government is essential work in this time of climate emergency, when Formosa Plastics seeks to derail all the good work for Coastal Restoration that Louisiana has accomplished."</p>
<p>"It is outrageous and chilling to see people criminalized simply for speaking out and advocating against toxic pollution in their neighborhoods," declared Liz Butler, vice president of organizing and strategic Alliances at Friends of the Earth (FOE). "Louisiana needs to hold Formosa accountable for poisoning St. James Parish, not punish people who are trying to protect their communities."</p><p>Rolfes and McIntosh deposited the box outside the home of lobbyist Tyler Gray on Dec. 11 with a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6956444-Letter-Included-in-Nurdles-Package-Sent.html" target="_blank">note</a> which said in part that the plastic pellets, also called nurdles, "are just some of the billions of nurdles that Formosa Plastics dumped into the coastal waters of the state of Texas, from their Point Comfort production facility."</p>
<p>The note also said the nurdles should not be removed from bags or left around children or pets, and explained that thousands of Louisiana residents are urging state officials to reject a key permit for a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/14/groups-challenge-louisiana-permits-formosa-plastics-giant-petrochemical-complex" target="_blank">controversial</a> $9.4 billion petrochemical complex that Formosa plans to build in a region nationally known as "<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/welcome-to-cancer-alley-where-toxic-air-is-about-to-get-worse" target="_blank">Cancer Alley.</a>"</p><p>Last year, Taiwan-based Formosa <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/10/15/formosa-plastics-pay-50-million-texas-clean-water-act-lawsuit/" target="_blank">agreed</a> to a $50 million settlement for dumping nurdles into Texas' Lavaca Bay. Activists in Louisiana continue to organize in opposition to Formosa's proposed complex in St. James Parish, warning that the facility will adversely impact public health and the environment in the predominantly Black community.</p><p>"Black and Indigenous communities in the Gulf South have long been treated as a sacrifice zone for the profits of the fossil fuel industry, and activists fighting for their health, safety, and future should be thanked, not penalized," Angela Anderson, climate and energy program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), said Friday.</p><p>Tamara Toles O'Laughlin, director of 350.org North America, noted specifically that "Black residents of St. James Parish have been subjected to infamous levels of pollution and outrageous neglect from the agencies that should prevent it."</p><p>"This is a clear instance of the law and law enforcement being used to protect corporations, profit, and property over people," she said of the charges against Rolfes and McIntosh. "Louisiana is criminalizing protesters for speaking out against environmental injustice that the state has done next to nothing to address."</p>
<div id="2d9b4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="aba472beff2e0cc9e7fa9ded595ae9b1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276202787915870210" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here's an incomplete tally of previous attempts to silence us:
📌Charging Pastor Manning with "inciting a riot" for… https://t.co/bz1t3dvowP</div> — LA Bucket Brigade (@LA Bucket Brigade)<a href="https://twitter.com/labucketbrigade/statuses/1276202787915870210">1593105429.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The charges against the pair "come on the heels of a series of incidents where environmental activists have been dealt hefty charges for actions challenging the petrochemical, oil, and gas industries in Louisiana," The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/" target="_blank">reported</a> Thursday.</p><blockquote>In August 2018, Louisiana legislators passed a law <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/08/22/recent-arrests-under-new-anti-protest-law-spotlight-risks-that-off-duty-cops-pose-to-pipeline-opponents/" target="_blank">establishing a new felony charge</a> for anyone who trespasses on critical infrastructure facilities, including chemical manufacturing facilities and oil and gas pipeline construction sites. Over the following couple months, police used the new law to charge 15 people protesting the oil company Energy Transfer's Bayou Bridge pipeline. Local prosecutors have not yet acted on the charges.<br></blockquote><p>Local organizers have responded to the crackdown on Rolfes and McIntosh by forming the<a href="https://defenddemocracyalliance.org/" target="_blank"> Alliance to Defend Democracy</a>. RISE St. James founder Sharon Lavigne says in a statement on the coalition website that "we will not stand by as law enforcement and a toxic chemical company from Taiwan attempt to scare, silence, and intimidate us."</p><p>Representatives for national groups also reiterated their opposition to the proposed Louisiana complex. As Center for Biological Diversity attorney Julie Teel Simmonds put it Friday: "Black communities are being sickened by corporate polluters and these sham charges won't deter our opposition to this terrible project."</p><p>Other organizations that voiced support for the arrested Louisiana Bucket Brigade activists include Amazon Watch, Break Free From Plastic, the Center for International Environmental Law, Earthjustice, Greenpeace USA, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, and Women's Earth and Climate Action Network International.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/26/outrageous-and-chilling-police-condemned-charging-peaceful-environmentalists" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana has been converted to a 1,000-bed field hospital for coronavirus patients to alleviate stress on local hospitals. Chris Graythen / Getty Images
An area in Louisiana whose predominantly black and brown residents are hard-hit by health problems from industry overdevelopment is experiencing one of the highest death rates from coronavirus of any county in the United States.
<p>St. John the Baptist parish, which sits along the Gulf Coast region known as Cancer Alley, has seen 30 of its 43,000 residents die of Covid-19 since the outbreak began – a death rate of 68.7 per 100,000 people, compared to New York City's rate of 29. </p>
<p> "We were getting calls almost every hour," parish coroner Christy Montegut told The Guardian. "...They all died in the same way. They got to a hospital, were on a ventilator, but the body just couldn't keep going. They died in spite of full treatment. The virus is overwhelming." </p>
<h4>For a deeper dive:</h4><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/07/cancer-alley-coronavirus-reserve-louisiana?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=86009723&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9O7CzxMNMlqWquKhJ3PgJMlwB6PdLVXggkKDAgxnwo57ue5pi11mY50_pt26T2aCtPsvxVnJFQ1mtgOSLAO-HZYZOZrUFb9MPvWOad7tp2ei4FELk&_hsmi=86009723" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pke94n/cancer-alley-has-some-of-the-highest-coronavirus-death-rates-in-the-country?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=86009723&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9O7CzxMNMlqWquKhJ3PgJMlwB6PdLVXggkKDAgxnwo57ue5pi11mY50_pt26T2aCtPsvxVnJFQ1mtgOSLAO-HZYZOZrUFb9MPvWOad7tp2ei4FELk&_hsmi=86009723" target="_blank">Vice</a>, <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_ad6caecc-7905-11ea-b8ad-7ff3f62ac403.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=86009723&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9O7CzxMNMlqWquKhJ3PgJMlwB6PdLVXggkKDAgxnwo57ue5pi11mY50_pt26T2aCtPsvxVnJFQ1mtgOSLAO-HZYZOZrUFb9MPvWOad7tp2ei4FELk&_hsmi=86009723" target="_blank">Times-Picayune</a>, <a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/a-look-inside-a-rural-louisiana-hospital-on-the-front-lines-of-a-pandemic/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=86009723&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9O7CzxMNMlqWquKhJ3PgJMlwB6PdLVXggkKDAgxnwo57ue5pi11mY50_pt26T2aCtPsvxVnJFQ1mtgOSLAO-HZYZOZrUFb9MPvWOad7tp2ei4FELk&_hsmi=86009723" target="_blank">CA Healthline</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Lawsuit Appeals Permit for Formosa Plastics to Build in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley'
17 February 2020
Business
Earthjustice says Louisiana has violated the Clean Water Act and given Formosa Plastics Group the "greenlight to double toxic air pollution in St. James" (seen above). Louisiana Bucket Brigade
A coalition of local and national groups on Friday launched a legal challenge to a Louisiana state agency's decision to approve air permits for a $9.4 billion petrochemical complex that Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group plans to build in the region nationally known as "Cancer Alley."
<p>Louisiana residents and environmental justice advocates have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/23/louisiana-officials-urged-rescind-permission-petrochemical-plant-over-cancer-dangers" target="_blank">pressured</a> local, state, and federal officials to reject permits for the proposed project in St. James Parish. Critics have raised concerns that the complex would adversely affect <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health">public health</a> and the environment by emitting cancer-causing chemicals and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/08/climate-watchdog-warns-us-fracking-boom-leading-30-rise-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank">producing</a> an estimated 13.6 million tons of planet-heating emissions annually.</p>
<p>Earthjustice filed the new <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/plastic-production/pdfs/Formosa-Petition_2020Feb13.pdf" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> (pdf) in the Louisiana 19th Judicial District Court on behalf of RISE St. James, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Center for Biological Diversity, Healthy Gulf, No Waste Louisiana, Earthworks, and the Sierra Club. The suit appeals the air permits issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ).</p><p>"Louisiana violated the Clean Air Act when it gave Formosa the greenlight to double toxic air pollution in St. James," Earthjustice attorney Corinne Van Dalen <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/appeal-challenges-formosa-plastics-air-permits-in-louisiana-2020-02-14/" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement. "It's time for LDEQ to put Louisianans first and reject more pollution that puts their health, safety, and environment at risk."</p>
<div id="1a965" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="PHFLV31581958360"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1228400407405383680" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: We’re challenging Louisiana’s decision to approve air permits for a massive proposed petrochemical comple… https://t.co/DzByCNCLGF</div> — Earthjustice (@Earthjustice)<a href="https://twitter.com/Earthjustice/statuses/1228400407405383680">1581708454.0</a></blockquote></div><p>As the lawsuit explains:</p><blockquote>LDEQ granted Formosa Plastics permits to construct 14 separate major facilities, including 10 chemical plants. The planned chemical complex would manufacture ethylene and propylene, primarily to produce plastics. The other four facilities would support these operations. Formosa Plastics would build this complex a mile from an elementary school in Welcome, and less than one mile from the community of Union in Convent. Its massive air pollution emissions would vastly add to the significant environmental and health burden that African American communities in and near St. James must suffer—including from two new recently permitted methanol petrochemical plants, and Nucor Steel's major expansion project.<br><br> Formosa Plastics' air emissions will also spread to communities across St. James Parish, contributing to the region's air pollution problems. The permits would allow Formosa Plastics to release fine particulates and nitrogen dioxide in quantities that exacerbate ongoing violations of EPA's mandatory national standards in St. James Parish. And they would allow Formosa Plastics to be one of the largest industrial sources in the state for some of the most dangerous carcinogenic air pollutants, such as benzene and formaldehyde, and one of the largest in the nation for others, such as ethylene oxide.<br></blockquote>
<p>In an email to the Associated Press on Friday, LDEQ spokesperson Gregory Langley <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/groups-challenge-louisiana-permits-for-plastics-plant/2020/02/14/f08a4046-4f63-11ea-967b-e074d302c7d4_story.html" target="_blank">said</a> that "we don't comment on ongoing litigation."</p><p>Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, called the permit approval "a new low" for LDEQ, pointing out that the department received over 15,500 comments from residents opposing the complex.</p><p>"Formosa Plastics would be one of the largest plants in the world, but our state used the same old rubber stamp to approve the project," said Rolfes. "We will act to protect the people of Louisiana since the state has clearly failed to do so."</p>
<div id="6665b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5WQJ8N1581958361"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1223373307707318283" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The proposed Formosa Plastics Plant would increase the cancer risk in the 7th District, according to @Earthjustice.… https://t.co/ikvsokUMG5</div> — LA Bucket Brigade (@LA Bucket Brigade)<a href="https://twitter.com/labucketbrigade/statuses/1223373307707318283">1580509900.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Sharon Lavigne, founder and president of the local organization RISE St. James, declared that "LDEQ doesn't care about people's lives."</p><p>"They should have consulted the citizens of St. James, not the public officials, before approving these permits. It just tells me that people in higher office can do what they want and poison an entire African American community," she said. "RISE is going to fight to save the lives of the people in our community. This approval is making our fight harder, but it's making us stronger, and we will fight until the end to stop Formosa."</p>
<div id="57949" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="YPWS531581958361"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1228374860469915648" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Great profile of Sharon Lavigne, a leader in the fight to #StopFormosa and its massive plastic-making plant in Loui… https://t.co/Ot5eUS9esc</div> — Ctr4BioDiv Ocean (@Ctr4BioDiv Ocean)<a href="https://twitter.com/EndangeredOcean/statuses/1228374860469915648">1581702363.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Representatives from national organizations signed on to the suit expressed support for the community members battling against the project but also put the fight into a broader context.</p><p>"This plant would poison the people of St. James Parish and worsen the climate crisis just so Formosa can churn out more throwaway plastic," said Lauren Packard, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Using our oversupply of fracked gas to create products that add to the plastic pollution crisis is appalling. We stand with the local community in opposing this dangerous project."</p><p>As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/08/climate-watchdog-warns-us-fracking-boom-leading-30-rise-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank">reported</a> last month, Environmental Integrity Project found that greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. oil, gas, and petrochemical industries could jump about 30% by 2025 compared with 2018 because of additional drilling and 157 new or expanded projects "fueled by the fracking boom." The Formosa complex would have the highest potential yearly emissions among all the future and petrochemical and plastics projects included in the analysis.</p><p>"The fight against Formosa's polluting and unjust petrochemical complex is part of a growing national movement to address the triple threat of climate chaos, plastics pollution, and environmental racism," Earthworks energy campaigner Ethan Buckner said Friday. "By issuing these permits to Formosa, LDEQ yet again acquiesced to the fossil fuel industry's reckless plans to rapidly expand in the face of our worsening climate crisis."</p><p><span></span>"As investors sour on oil and gas companies, plastics are Big Oil's lifeline. And LDEQ threw them the rope," Buckner added. "Yet the voices of Cancer Alley's leaders are stronger than ever, and we will defend their right to clean water, air, and a stable climate."<em></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/14/groups-challenge-louisiana-permits-formosa-plastics-giant-petrochemical-complex">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>
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The coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana, is seen. Matthew D White / Photolibrary / Getty Images
The land in the Mississippi River Delta is sinking and eroding. Louisiana has lost about 2,000 square miles since the 1930s. And as seas rise, the loss of land will only accelerate.
<p>If nothing is done to slow this loss, Louisiana could lose an area more than twice the size of the state of Rhode Island in the next 50 years.<em></em></p>
<p>Pat Forbes, director of the Louisiana Office of Community Development, says his state's coastal land is going underwater faster than anywhere else in the U.S.</p><p>He says the state's coastline is a precious cultural and economic resource.</p><p>Louisiana is home to a huge <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fishing">fishing</a> industry. It's among the top <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas/" rel="noopener noreferrer">oil and gas</a> producing states. And 500 million tons of cargo pass through its ports and channels each year.</p>
<p>"We have a lot a people working in our coast and living in our coast," Forbes says. "We have to figure out ways to adapt to this changing reality."</p><p>The state has approved a $50 billion plan to rebuild land, build flood barriers, and implement other projects, such as elevating homes.</p><p>But Forbes says even if the plan is implemented in full, some places cannot be saved.</p><p>"Some communities are going to disappear," he says.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/louisiana-has-a-50-billion-dollar-plan-to-protect-its-coast/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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