Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini: New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim

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Fringey Mini: New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  Okay, Chelsea, this one is fairly recent, and
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  it somewhat has to do with our rich person's
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  emotions. Okay. Strand of things, but it's not
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  the rich people, unfortunately. It's the rest
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  of us who have to deal with the emotional stuff.
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  Okay. Intriguing. Remember, again, whenever we're
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  talking about these kind of emotions, they're
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  spelled E -M -O -C -E -A -N. Of course. Because
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  we like a pun that it doesn't sound great when
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  said. This article comes from... The Guardian,
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  written May 4th, 2026 by Oliver Millman. Article
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  title, Point of No Return. New Orleans relocation
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  must start now due to sea level study fines.
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  Do you think it has started now? Maybe that's
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  the article. It might be. You just read it. You
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  might as well. The process of relocating people
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  from New Orleans should start immediately as
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  the city has reached a point of no return that
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  will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades
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  due to the climate crisis, a stark new study
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  has concluded. Ongoing sea level rise and the
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  rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana
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  will swallow up New Orleans' area within a few
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  generations. But the new paper estimating the
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  city may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico
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  before the end of this century. low -lying southern
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  louisiana faces multiple threats with rising
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  sea levels driven by global heating compounded
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  by strengthening hurricanes also a feature of
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  the climate crisis and the gradual subsidence
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  of a coastline that has been carved apart by
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  the oil and gas industry Southern Louisiana is
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  facing three to seven meters of sea level rise
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  and the loss of three quarters of its remaining
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  coastal wetlands, which will cause the shoreline
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  to migrate as much as 100 kilometers inland.
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  Wow. Thereby stranding New Orleans and Baton
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  Rouge, according to the study, which compared
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  today's rising global temperatures with a period
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  of similar heat 125 ,000 years ago that caused
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  a rise in sea levels. The scenario makes the
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  region the, quote, most physically vulnerable
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  coast zone in the world, end quote. The researchers
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  state it requires immediate action to prepare
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  a smooth transition for people away from New
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  Orleans, which has a population of about 360
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  ,000 people, two safer ground. Louisiana has
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  also experienced population loss in recent years,
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  and this trend will accelerate in a disordered
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  way, the paper warns. should no action be taken
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  to confront the perils faced by its largest city
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  and surrounding communities. While climate mitigation
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  should remain the first step to prevent the worst
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  outcomes, coastal Louisiana has evidently already
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  crossed the point of no return. Add the perspective
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  paper published in the Nature Sustainability
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  Journal. A perspective paper is a scholarly article
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  that provides an assessment rather than new data.
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  Quote. Quote. In paleo -climate terms, New Orleans
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  is gone. The question is how long it has, end
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  quote, said Jesse Keenan, an expert in climate
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  adaptation at Tulane University and one of the
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  paper's five co -authors. Keenan said the time
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  frame available to plan a retreat isn't certain,
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  but, quote, it's more likely decades rather than
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  centuries. Isn't that what Venice is? Not quite.
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  I think it's above sea level. It's just like,
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  it's a marsh. Yes. City, state, and federal leaders
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  should begin to work to help support people moving
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  away from New Orleans region in a coordinated
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  way, starting with the most vulnerable communities,
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  such as those in Plaque Mines Parish, who live
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  outside the levy system, Keenan said. Quote,
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  New Orleans is in terminal condition and we need
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  to be clear with the patient that it is terminal.
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  There is an opportunity for palliative care.
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  We can transition people and the economy. We
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  can get ahead of this. But he added, quote, no
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  politicians want to first give this terminal
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  diagnosis. They will speak about it behind closed
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  doors, but never in public. New Orleans faces
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  obvious challenge. Situated in a bowl -shaped
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  basin below sea level, the city already has 99
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  % of its population at major risk of severe flooding.
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  The worst exposure of any city, according to
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  a separate study released last week. Quote, even
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  compared to all other U .S. cities, New Orleans
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  really stands out, which is alarming. End quote,
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  said Wen -Yin Hsiao, co -author of the study
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  and geographer at the University of Alabama.
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  Quote, there's no specific timeline to how long
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  New Orleans has left, but we know it's in big
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  trouble. They're facing one of the highest sea
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  level rises in the world, and I don't know how
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  long human efforts can fight against the tides.
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  It's like a time bomb. End quote. There is quite
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  a bit more of the article. I think we have enough
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  of it to at least get a picture. Yeah. And we'll
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  post the article in the article description.
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  Sorry, in the description. Do you guys read those,
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  I wonder? That should be our question on Spotify
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  this week. Yeah. Do you guys read the articles
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  that we post up to at least starting from the
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  point that we stopped reading? I have some thoughts
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  on this. It's interesting that, like, nobody's
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  talking about it unless it's behind closed doors,
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  and I think it's something that a lot of politicians
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  do, and I don't know why. We were actually talking
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  about something similar just the other day about,
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  you know, nothing is, like, preventative or fixing
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  anything. It's just kind of... Not anymore. No,
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  you're right. They seem to want to not do anything
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  at all, and it just seems to all go down on fire,
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  really. It's just basically rely on everything
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  we have in place and don't even try to fix those
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  things or make sure they're actually prepared
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  for anything. It's super concerning. I do get
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  fully, though, just the worry of being the first
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  person to say, by the way, the city's kind of
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  screwed. We need to evacuate it. And the other
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  politician in a two party system. Saying, I can't
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  believe you're just saying that to this city.
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  It's kind of fucked up though, if you think about
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  it. But that's how it works. And like people
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  will just attach to the emotions of the person
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  who says, why are you saying that? It's uncomfortable.
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  It's uncomfortable. People don't want to be uncomfortable.
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  And therefore that's where, you know, another
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  politician would win. And then in the end, they're
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  going to be super fucked over. And can I just
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  say as a side note to this, which I don't think
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  has much to do with the story, but I had no idea
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  New Orleans was only 360 ,000 people. I thought
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  it was way bigger. Really? Yeah. I thought it
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  was like one of the major cities of the US. I
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  shouldn't say major. I didn't think that, but
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  I would have thought it was bigger. Yeah. Next
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  thing I wanted to mention is, should I be adopting
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  the outlook that New Orleans is gone when people
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  want to talk about it? Should I just say, why
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  are we talking about that is gone? It depends
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  on what you mean by talk about it. Like, should
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  I move there? No, it's gone. should i go on vacation
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  there i mean you could for the next few years
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  might as well while it's still there there's
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  a sense of urgency The next thing I wanted to
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  add quickly, because this is getting long for
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  a mini, what does, like, what would it look like?
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  And maybe that's why it's only talked about behind
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  doors. What would it look like to actually move
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  a city? New New Orleans. You know what the crazy
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  thing, too, is, like, they're saying, like, it's
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  three to seven meters of sea level rise. And
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  I don't know how far below sea level New Orleans
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  is. Yeah. But, like, there's tall enough buildings
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  that, like, they'll still stick above water.
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  yeah that wouldn't that be so creepy but like
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  how does that look like new orleans like essentially
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  starting from scratch a city that has so much
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  history and ghosts you're making like a whole
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  new first of all A whole new more concerning
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  thing for ghosts because, you know, the city
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  is going to be gone. So there's going to be a
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  lot more concerning ghosts, but might not be
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  reachable totally except for scuba divers. Secondly,
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  to like rebuild all of this infrastructure, where
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  does it go? It's not going to be New Orleans,
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  you know, it's going to be new New Orleans and
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  it's going to suck probably compared to... Well,
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  I don't... Old Orleans. I would assume they're
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  not just going to build a new city for people.
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  I assume they would, like, disperse them to all
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  of the cities that already exist and just, like,
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  expand the infrastructure from there. See, and
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  that's... That seems a lot easier. That's where
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  I would have trouble leaving, I think, if my
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  city wasn't going. Yeah, the billionaires out
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  there kind of have... There's some people that
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  kind of want, like, libertarian cities out there,
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  too, like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, where they
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  just get to basically do all whatever they want,
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  which maybe it's... them will be taking these
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  people which sounds awful yeah that does sound
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  awful i think those are all my points and a terrible
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  point to leave it on yeah and hey you guys got
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  48 hours go visit new orleans unless you're listening
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  to this like a decade in the future in which
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  case please do not go visit new orleans anyhow
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  bye