Bob Marshall: How We Can Fight for Our Coast in a New Era | Opinions and editorials

Do you stay and fight or do you cut your losses and leave?

That’s the question being asked by people hoping for a future on Louisiana’s coast in an age of accelerating sea level rise, after voters gave science deniers control of the Oval Office, the House and the Senate – the most anti-regulation, pro- Supreme Court of Economics in Modern Times.

It was a defeat for the coast.

While scientists like those at NOAA predict that the Gulf of Mexico could drop most of Louisiana below 90 degrees in 25 years due to fossil fuel emissions, Donald Trump and his Republican chorus came into office promising to increase emissions and to repeal the regulations aimed at reducing these emissions.

Meanwhile, Louisiana’s government and regulatory control is under the control of Gov. Jeff Landry, a Trump wannabe, right down to his denial of science and his support for ever more oil production.

Make this a lose-lose-lose game for the coast.

So what to do?

Many will have no choice but to move in the coming decade as the costs of emissions-related global warming (unaffordable or unavailable insurance, falling property values, corporate exodus, major hurricanes) outpace their paychecks. The steady exodus of educated and employable young people from the state will be joined by older residents looking for financial relief in other states.

Since the election, many of those unwilling or unable to move have asked themselves: “What can we do to fight back?”

I interviewed experts in the fight against bad government to find out the best way to make a difference.

First answer: Given that Trump controls Congress, the most immediate effective resistance to his most heinous environmental policies is to support groups that can use the courts to slow his progress.

Apparently, federal policymaking occurs in the first 18 months of each Congress. This is often the case when, in the rush to implement their plans, the newcomers make mistakes in writing regulations and laws, mistakes that can land them in court. It is also the time when the new election cycle begins and the action begins to die down.

It turns out that progressive rights groups are already working toward this goal. Democracy Forward, which includes more than 200 groups, says it has more than 800 lawyers preparing legal challenges to Trump’s expected actions. You can check the membership list of groups you would like to join and support at democracyforward.org.

And of course it is just as important and costs nothing to make your own voice heard. Contact your congressional delegation and state politicians via email and let them know your thoughts on limiting emissions to improve the state’s coastal future.

Rob Verchick, Loyola professor of environmental law, author and president of the Center for Progressive Reform, recommends concerned residents learn which parts of Trump’s agenda worry them most before taking action.

“Go online and read Project 2025, (Trump’s) playbook, and find the chapter that is most interesting to you,” he said.

Here’s how Trump and his lackeys in Congress want to scrap regulations that reduce emissions, gut agencies that provide science on climate threats, and withdraw from international treaties that address the causes that are already affecting your future Restrict children.

“Then let others know what you’ve found,” Verchick added, “and ask, ‘Is this the future you want?'”

And remember: Most Americans don’t disagree with you.

Despite what Trump claims, he did not win an overwhelming mandate. According to the respected Cook Political Report, Trump will end up with less than a majority of the vote and less than the percentage won by Joe Biden in 2020 (51.3%), Obama in 2012 (51.1%) and 2008 (52nd). .9%) received. George W. Bush in 2004 (50.7%), George HW Bush in 1988 (53.2%), Ronald Reagan in 1984 (58.8%), Reagan in 1980 (50.7%) or even Jimmy Carter in 1976 (50.1%).

So remember this great perspective from the Dalai Lama: “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a tent with the mosquito.”

We need to be the mosquitoes now more than ever.

Bob Marshall, a Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental journalist from Louisiana, can be reached at [email protected], followed by X, @BMarshallEnviro