An SUV travels down Breakwater Drive in New Orleans, July 12, 2019.
Photo:
Matthew Hinton/Associated Press
Regarding Steven Koonin’s op-ed “Will Climate Change Really Put New York Underwater?” (Jan. 5): Not long ago I took a tour of New Orleans, led by a young person with a modest science background. We visited areas that are subsiding and more prone to flooding. As the tour ended, our guide said that what New Orleans is experiencing is all due to climate change.
No, New Orleans is experiencing subsidence due to the need to drain the areas on which the city is built. Water that is removed from porous sediments leads to compaction and ground subsidence. The coastal flood threat around New Orleans is due in large part to decades of mismanagement of the coastal environments, damaging or destroying flood-protecting dunes and coastal vegetation that protect against erosion. As I explained this to our guide, she gave me a disparaging look and assumed I must be one of those “climate deniers” that society must expunge.
A scientific dialogue wasn’t possible then, nor is it today, in many sectors of our society. We are accepting half-truths, misrepresented science, emotion and beliefs as the guiding principles on which landmark decisions will be made. We need to go back to scientific principles, honor the data and debate the interpretations of these data in an open and fair manner.
Carlos A. Dengo,
Ph.D.
Lago Vista, Texas
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