We’ve all heard the alarming statistics comparing coastal marsh to football fields to help convey the urgency of land loss along Louisiana’s coast. And while land loss, subsidence, and sea level rise deserve the attention of every Louisianian, that’s only part of the story. Louisiana’s coastal crisis is also about the people who live on our coast, along with the businesses, schools, community resources, and jobs on which those people depend.
Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order to move Louisiana forward in developing a more comprehensive and coordinated response to the coastal crisis. This establishes a chief resilience officer and asks state agencies to participate in resilience-building by incorporating current and future coastal change considerations into agency plans and investments.
This marks a paradigm shift in our state’s approach to resilience and recognizes that Louisiana’s commitment to a resilient future must be woven into the fabric of state government — the state must lead by example. It acknowledges that resilience is not the responsibility of coastal engineers alone, and it asks state agencies to understand their stake in a changing coast. What does a changing coast mean for the future of social services? Of infrastructure? Of future economic opportunities? How can Louisiana incorporate what we know about our changing coast into strategic planning and decision making across state government?
To be clear, Louisiana is already on the frontier of coastal restoration, and our $50 billion Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast sets an ambitious vision for land building over the next 50 years. But all the sediment in the world cannot make Louisiana resilient unless those investments in engineering are coupled with investments in communities. For over a decade, the Center for Planning Excellence has been working to keep community needs at the forefront of the state’s resilience efforts, and we are proud to be a partner in the important work of the Adaptive Governance Initiative, which supports the executive order announced this week.
Changes to the way state government works will ultimately address more than land loss and coastal restoration. They will help position our state to more effectively manage a threat that affects every part of Louisiana, the nation and the globe — climate change. The governor also signed an executive order to establish a Climate Change Task Force responsible for setting priorities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Louisiana. With strong leadership on both adaptation and mitigation, Louisiana has a chance to maintain and strengthen its economy and its people amidst dramatic changes.
Louisiana, along with the rest of the nation, is in the thick of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis of staggering proportions. During a time when daily activities such as going to work, school or the grocery store have become fraught with fear and risk, it would be easy to set aside efforts to address the slow-moving disasters of land loss and climate change. But that would be a terrible mistake. We do not want to be caught up in an endless cycle of disaster. COVID-19 has illustrated the complex web of connections and disparities between jobs, our economy, our health, and our natural and built environments. It has never been more clear that a comprehensive approach to building resilience is critical for the future of our state and our people.
These executive orders and the Adaptive Governance Initiative are rooted in the philosophy that we are only as strong as our weakest link. While the future is uncertain, we know that climate change, equity, and public health will pose great challenges for our children and grandchildren — now is the time to invest in a next-generation of Louisiana resilience that builds bridges between healthy ecosystems, a vibrant economy, a robust built environment, and opportunity for all residents.
Read the Governor’s press release on his signing of the two Executive Orders here.
This article was featured in The Advocate on August 26, 2020.