By now many of you might have seen the two maps that show what's been happening to the state of Louisiana as the ocean creeps inward, and slowly absorbs portions of the state. In fact, since 1932 - according to the U.S. Geological Services - the state of Louisiana has lost just under 1,900 square miles of low lands to the Gulf of Mexico.
This is the equivalent of losing the entire state of Delaware.
Yeah, I know Delaware's a small state, but it's still a state. Worse, Louisiana is poised to lose another 1,750 square miles to the ocean - an area larger than the state of Rhode Island - by 2064.
While losing your state to the ocean is a big deal, here's what's really bothering people in Louisiana. It turns out that as Louisiana sinks, farmers and families of the lost land are losing control of mineral rights to land that belonged to them but has been lost to eroding shorelines.
Worse, the families are losing their rights to the state of Louisiana, who says it has a public duty to seize land that sinks underwater, which they then hand over to the oil industry.
In Louisiana state law says that all 'navigable' water ways, and the land below it, be placed in the public trust, to be held and protected by the state of Louisiana (then we have the fracking-linked earthquakes and sinkholes in Louisiana; another story for another day).
There's much more to this story, which you can read here.
- Mark
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| Louisiana's two states: The one we see in textbooks (left) and the one that's disappearing (right). |
This is the equivalent of losing the entire state of Delaware.
Yeah, I know Delaware's a small state, but it's still a state. Worse, Louisiana is poised to lose another 1,750 square miles to the ocean - an area larger than the state of Rhode Island - by 2064.
While losing your state to the ocean is a big deal, here's what's really bothering people in Louisiana. It turns out that as Louisiana sinks, farmers and families of the lost land are losing control of mineral rights to land that belonged to them but has been lost to eroding shorelines.
Worse, the families are losing their rights to the state of Louisiana, who says it has a public duty to seize land that sinks underwater, which they then hand over to the oil industry.
In Louisiana state law says that all 'navigable' water ways, and the land below it, be placed in the public trust, to be held and protected by the state of Louisiana (then we have the fracking-linked earthquakes and sinkholes in Louisiana; another story for another day).
There's much more to this story, which you can read here.
- Mark
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