Category: A Deadly Coast

Warming of the Oceans and Implications for the (Re)insurance Industry

• There is new, robust evidence that the global oceans have warmed significantly. Given that energy from the ocean isthe key driver of extreme events, ocean warming has effectively caused a shift towards a “new normal” for a number of…

Louisiana Levee Board Coastal Erosion Law Suit

The legal documents The Original State Court Petition Law Professor’s Brief on Louisiana Public Trust Doctrine Notice of Removal Motion to Remand Plaintiff’s Memorandum in Support of Motion to Remand Order blocking removal from federal court back to state court.…

Hurricane Betsy Resources

Hurricane Betsy: Preliminary Report, with Advisories and Bulletins Issued, September 15th, 1965 DA Godeau & WC Conner, Storm surge over the Mississippi River delta accompanying Hurricane Betsy, 1965, 96 Monthly Weather Review 118–124 (1968). Forrest, Thomas R., Hurricane, Betsy, 1965;…

Congress Reforms the National Flood Insurance Program

Full Text of the Bill – Technical Correction Congressional Committee Report – Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 Homeland Security: Privacy Impact Assessment, National Flood Insurance Program Information Technology System, Oct. 12, 2012 Georgetown Climate Center Analysis of the Flood Insurance Reform…

The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain

The story of the fight against shell dredging in Lake Pontchartrain, one of the great environmental battles in Louisiana. The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain

Protecting Wetlands and Wildlife Habitat While Reducing Flood Losses

Protecting Wetlands and Wildlife Habitat While Reducing Flood Losses: A Guidebook on Interagency Collaboration in the Mississippi River Basin In May 2011, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment (UNC-IE), together with the Wisconsin Wetlands…

Hammond Wetland Wastewater Assimilation Project – Sewage Diversion

This project dumps partially treated sewage into the wetlands. The rationale is that this sewage will build new wetlands. The reality is that it saves fixing the treatment plant and is destroying the wetlands. Hammond-WW-Attainability-5-01-05 Consultant’s report justifying the project. 2005…

Is Mississippi River Water Toxic Waste?

Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities, National Research Council (2008) This report focuses on water quality problems in the Mississippi River and the ability of the Clean Water Act to address them. Data…

Climate and large scale scale human crisis

 https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/docs/PNAS-2011-Zhang-1104268108.pdf (original link) Recent studies have shown strong temporal correlations between past climate changes and societal crises. However, the specific causal mechanisms underlying this relation have not been addressed. We explored quantitative responses of 14 fine-grained agro-ecological, socioeconomic, and demographic…

EPA Green House Gas Regs

Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act Related Links Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the…

Supreme Court rejects federal common law claims over green house gasses

American Elec. Power Co., Inc. v. Connecticut, 131 S.Ct. 2527 (2011) – Supreme Court rejects common law claims against green house gas emitters as preempted by federal regulatory law. State nusiance claims were not brief by the parties and were remanded…

Climate Change: Adapt or Bust

The past few years highlight bluntly the cost of weather-related catastrophes for the global economy and the insurance industry in particular. The industry’s response has proven that it is financially strong and well-equipped to respond to these financial shocks.

It is equally clear that, so far, the industry has not taken changing catastrophe trends seriously enough. Climate change is likely to bring us all an even more uncertain future. If we do not take action now to understand the risks and their impact, the changing climate could kill us.

NOAA – State of the Climate in 2010

State of the Climate in 2010 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center As appearing in the June 2011 issue (Vol. 92) of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). Supplemental and Summary Materials Report at a Glance:…

Fewer but Bigger Hurricanes?

Some models of the effect of climate change on hurricanes predict fewer storms but stronger storms. While all storms are a threat to the Louisiana coast, it is the large storms that threaten the very existence of cities such as New Orleans. Dr.…

Coast Guard Report on Response to BP Spill

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For the nation, the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout and release was unprecedented in scope,scale, and duration. While the response system established by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990(OPA 90) has effectively dealt with approximately 1,500 oil spill…

A Deadly Coast

Southern Louisiana is the most endangered land in the United States. Some risk is due to man made factors, but much of the risk is secondary to long-term geologic and weather cycles that have periodically raised and then inundated the…