'Point of no return': New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/04/new-orleans-sea-levels-relocation-climate-crisis

by dmm • 3 months ago

174 187 3 months ago

bypdx• 3 months ago

Rather than relocate, we can make discussion of climate change illegal or just tax the blue states to build a sea wall around the entire city

TacticalCoder• 3 months ago

Rather than relocate, we can make discussion of climate change illegal or just tax the blue states to build a sea wall around the entire city

Like in The Netherlands?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works

kjellsbells• 3 months ago

There's a museum in New Orleans that has a Katrina display and it turns out that they did indeed call in Dutch experts to advise them. The Dutch gave them sensible ideas like building low elevation parks that could flood without issue and hold lots of water, instead of concrete spillways and drainage that just moves water fast until it fails catastrophically when inundated. Louisiana being Louisiana, it was all ignored.

The museum convinced me that New Orleans is doomed in so many ways. Everything from the Atchafalaya ORCS to the paving over of wetlands to build the city to the destruction of the Plaquemines marsh lands to the southeast of the city all seem to be maximally unhelpful for preventing storm damage.

_doctor_love• 3 months ago

For me it's similar to having red tests in my build - it causes me a lot of anxiety to see all the breakage. Plus it shows down shipping. So now I just delete them, feel better already.

msla• 3 months ago

There's precedent:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140747-laws-of-mathema...

“The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,” said Turnbull [the Prime Minster of Australia]

tbrownaw• 3 months ago

Was he wrong? That sounds like it was about some sort of mandatory-mitm scheme or ban on e2e encryption. Like, yes, you can pretty easily make it impossible for the government to decrypt your bits, but the government can just as easily arrest you for it.

vintermann3• 3 months ago

Apropos that, I remember that James Lovelock said basically the same about Australia as this article says about New Orleans: living there is not sustainable, you should all leave.

crystal_revenge• 3 months ago

discussion of climate change illegal

Well discussing it was de facto banned on HN for many years (still wouldn't be surprised if this post disappears soon).

Any climate change post that was anything other than "everything is fine because of electric vehicles/solar/wind/etc", especially if it dare suggest that the situation was dire, would quickly get 'flagged' by the vocal minority (but still surprisingly large group of people) on HN who don't want to believe in climate change. Years ago, on different accounts, I would complain about HN's status-quo enforcing censorship logic, only to be boo'd away. This community is, at it's heart, one that has been a part of the process of encouraging climate change.

I stopped complaining when I realized that nobody is seriously interested in tackling climate change (where you have to keep fossil fuels in the ground), so we're going to experience the full consequences of it (and yes, it does pose an existential risk). The annoying part is that people will continue to deny anything is happening no matter how aggressively visible real the impacts are.

At this point there really is no reason to discuss climate change any more, most people really can't deal with the reality of what it represents (even people who think they are 'green').

otterley2• 3 months ago

Discussing climate change has never been banned; this sort of claim is easily disproved by even the most cursory of searches in the box below. Try it.

Here, I’ll say it right now: climate change is real, it has deleterious effects on our world, and we should take collective action to mitigate or even reverse it.

Now, there’s an expectation that commenters conduct themselves appropriately and contribute to the overall well being of this site. If a person misbehaves when discussing this or any topic, that’s when they get spanked.

danaris4• 3 months ago

If this was true years ago, it is not anymore. There are plenty of stories, and posts, about climate change.

And over the...I dunno, something like 9 years? I've been here, I have observed a distinct but gradual shift to the left in the overall tenor of conversation. Things do change, even here.

beAbU• 3 months ago

And we can make the sea pay for it!!

dmm2• 3 months ago

""" “New Orleans is not going to disappear in 10 years or anything like that, but policymakers really should’ve thought about a relocation plan a century ago,” said Dixon """

People have seen this coming for a long time. Here's a classic article about the channelization of the Mississippi by John McPhee from 1987: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20636254

comrade1234• 3 months ago

I would be surprised if the USA is even able to plan far enough ahead to put in a sea barrier/gates in time to protect New York City, similar to London. New Orleans? At least the old town is elevated.

FireBeyond• 3 months ago

Exactly, we haven't even bothered or cared to rebuild much of Katrina's damage.

dmm2• 3 months ago

Not even old town is safe.

“Even if you stopped climate change today, New Orleans’s days are still numbered,” he added. “It will be surrounded by open water, and you can’t keep an island situated below sea level afloat. There’s no amount of money that can do that.”

Kim_Bruning3• 3 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder

Type 1 is often an island situated below sea level.

For instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flevopolder . Island. Surrounded by open water because that's actually a good idea. Below sea level. 400 000 inhabitants. 2 cities, major agriculture, minor airport.

Ever wanted to grab dinner on the sea floor? Visit Almere Center. Though lots of people find it to be a bit boring in person.

Want the same sort of thing in the US? Consider dropping the Jones act. Right now it's illegal to bring the equipment that builds these things into the US.

calibas• 3 months ago

Our long term plan is for Jesus to come back and fix everything.

I wish I was joking...

MengerSponge• 3 months ago

That's the short term plan, baby! The long term plan is to be the elect who get raptured first.

actionfromafar2• 3 months ago

And war in the middle east is going to make it happen faster!

marcosdumay• 3 months ago

AFAIK there's no fixing in the plan. They just expect Jesus to take them away and finish breaking everything down so everybody else suffers.

I don't normally interact with people that believe that. But from a distance it looks like the second half is about as important as the first.

rasz• 3 months ago

Isnt he already running the country now?

nielsbot3• 3 months ago

I do think there are plenty of religious people out there who minimize the ill effects of climate change, believing (hope against hope?) that God would never let mankind destroy itself. Good luck with that.

BowBun• 3 months ago

Be surprised, I guess - https://www.nyc.gov/site/lmcr/progress/battery-coastal-resil...

This project in NYC has been going on for a bit. The difference is LA has a GDP of about $340B+, while NY has a GDP of $2.3T+.

kevin_thibedeau• 3 months ago

The Whitney museum has a whole system for putting up flood walls around the perimeter, plus the ground floor is just the gift shop.

whyenot• 3 months ago

I am increasingly pessimistic about the long term future of the US. What are the chances that we will still be one country in a generation or two? Trump might have poured gasoline on the fire, but the federal government has been in decline for years. Congress is completely dysfunctional. The filibuster prevents the senate from doing anything. The president is at war with the civil servants and more interested in grift, punishing percieved enemies and erecting monuments to himself instead actually leading.

Addressing climate change requires massive changes and a lot of political courage. There is none.

oscillonoscope• 3 months ago

There is no legal mechanism left that could correct course at this point. You would need to have a constitutional amendment to drastically reshape government and that's DOA. All that's left is snow decline and eventual dissolution

munificent2• 3 months ago

New York City will be fine. New Orleans is fucked.

For local stuff like this, the US isn't a country, it's 50 countries in a trenchcoat, and Louisiana is very different from New York.

selimthegrim8• 3 months ago

munificent grew up just outside the city IIRC.

ortusdux• 3 months ago

Miami too. The city is build on porous limestone. No amount of levees, seawalls, or dams will save it.

trunkiedozer2• 3 months ago

Yet those in the know keep building there. Weird isn’t it?

mattnewton• 3 months ago

They are betting they can sell the bag before the music stops.

estearum9• 3 months ago

Uhh... "those in the know" are the actuaries and if you were to take away the subsidies provided for homeowners and developers to deny basic mathematical facts, the entire area would be totally unbuildable already.

Kim_Bruning3• 3 months ago

Right, for Miami, you might want kwelschermen (or a variant thereof: deep impermeable cutoff walls, doesn't need to be concrete, can be made by clay injection too) , californian style water injection, locks that reject salt water. Different place, different geology, different tools. No place is exactly the same.

Thing is I figure you need some form of water board to manage it. A political entity that's all about "here we are and here we stay". Once they're set up they're pretty reliable (there's one that's still paying interest on a 370-year old bond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfSIC8jwbQs )

misiti37807• 3 months ago

what are you talking about, miami is actively investing in fixing this problem

https://www.nbcmiami.com/investigations/miami-beach-resilien...

deadbabe• 3 months ago

Engineers will find a solution, they always do if there is sufficient motivation.

kibwen• 3 months ago

This is a statement of religious faith, not a statement of fact. Engineering is not magic, it is where physical reality crashes into economic reality.

kajman• 3 months ago

Underwriters already have a solution, but there's a national flood insurance program ensuring taxpayers hold the bag instead.

Leonard_of_Q4• 3 months ago

Put dikes around it, make channels to collect the seepage, pump water out of channels over the dikes into the sea. Problem solved in the same way the Netherlands has been solving this problem for many centuries. The pumps can run on solar power with some diesel backups for when the sun doesn't co-operate. As long as the system is kept in good shape and the channels are kept open Miami can lie several meters under sea level without the need for further action. The house I lived in in the Netherlands was at -4.5 m below sea level, it is still standing and will remain doing so if history can be a guide.

selimthegrim8• 3 months ago

The problem is saltwater intrusion into the drinking water table - a problem New Orleans only has one when it comes up the Mississippi river - Miami is a whole different level

mapotofu• 3 months ago

I imagine this type of system is not designed for large, sudden and prolonged inundation of water, something New Orleans faces from seasonal hurricanes and their storm surges. Or maybe it is and it’s just a question of magnitude?

madrox2• 3 months ago

My roots are in Louisiana, and this makes me incredibly sad. It is such a unique place that has no like, and drives all tourism in the state. Where will tourists celebrate Mardi Gras after it's gone? Baton Rouge?

Sadder, still, to know that nothing will be done. No one will be relocated. Just one day a weather event like a hurricane will happen to destroy the area and it will be labeled derelict with no funds to rebuild. People will be left to fend for themselves.

fsckboy3• 3 months ago

[flagged]

2ndorderthought3• 3 months ago

Have you seen housing prices lately? It's insane for the average person especially if no one will be buying your home and you still have a mortagage

kelseyfrog• 3 months ago

Aquaman is going to have to buy a lot of homes.

mort96• 3 months ago

This is decent advice on an individual level. Despite the fact that you probably can't sell your doomed house for a lot due to the current situation, planning a move is probably a good idea for those who can afford it.

But it's not really a solution on a population level. For one, if everyone sold their house because it'll soon be underwater, who'd they sell their house to? Aquaman? For two, a lot of people just won't be able to afford an expense like that. A large portion of the US lives paycheck to paycheck, and it's not easy to "just save up" a few hundred thousand when that means giving up on basic necessities.

californical• 3 months ago

Generally I agree, and we’ve known this for a long time but people stay in denial. It’s the same thing in Miami.

Unfortunately though, the solution isn’t that easy.

For one, if you own property there, you’re basically either caught holding a bag with life changing amounts of money lost, or trying to pass it off to another sucker which just feels unethical.

For two, families and communities make it hard for people. Many rely on their friends and family as support systems. Elderly for example, may only have their family taking care of them and their poker night friends are the only ones they have left - if they go somewhere, that system becomes fragmented and people get left behind. Maybe you are the main caretaker of an elderly relative, so you can’t leave them behind, but if they follow you then they lose the rest of their network.

I’m sure there are tons of other reasons but just knowing there’s an imminent threat at some vague point in the future is sometimes not enough for people to willingly go through all of the suffering that I mentioned above, and more that I’m not metioning

estearum9• 3 months ago

This is why the federal subsidies for flood insurance need to end

doug_durham• 3 months ago

And how exactly will someone do that. Many of the people living in the impacted area are below the poverty line and living paycheck to paycheck at best. How are they supposed to put together funds to relocate. Especially if their property is worth nothing. The minority of people privileged enough to be able to relocate will do that. The majority are stuck.

chabes• 3 months ago

Sell it to who, Ben? Aquaman?

squibonpig• 3 months ago

Either this is ragebait or you're arrogant. Congrats on being a super smart hard worker or whatever you're so proud of. More interested in shitting on people to feel superior than understanding where they're at.

neonstatic2• 3 months ago

but they won't

Then they will look for someone to blame. The usual scape goats are the government and society.

danaris4• 3 months ago

No, you are condescendingly proposing individual solutions to a systemic problem.

vintermann3• 3 months ago

If someone sells their house in an area soon to be underwater, will you buy it? If not you, who? Aquaman? (Apologies to HBomberMan).

The reason people don't move is that for the time being, they're much, much better off than if they move. Especially if they start moving in large numbers.

Yizahi• 3 months ago

What an incredibly out of touch post. This gives off "let them eat cakes" classic. Do you realize how expensive is it to move out of your home? I won't write a laundry list of items here, since you either know all of them already or will dismiss outright with the same attitude. I do want to say is that social darwinism is not something to be proud about.

rayiner7• 3 months ago

I don’t understand this formulation of “no one will be relocated.” People have agency to move themselves. Maybe not everyone, but if the majority of folks started moving out due to the risk of flooding then that would create a strong impetus for the government to assist poor people in relocating.

habinero2• 3 months ago

a strong impetus for the government to assist poor people

Haha. I'm gonna guess you're not American.

stockresearcher• 3 months ago

Where will tourists celebrate Mardi Gras after it's gone?

Mardi Gras is celebrated all along the Gulf Coast, from New Orleans to Pensacola. Go to a parade in Alabama, for example, and every third or fourth person will be from New Orleans - looking to escape the tourist nightmare their city becomes.

In other words, hopefully nowhere ;)

madrox2• 3 months ago

My point is that maybe tourism is a nightmare, but it drives a lot of the economy...something Louisiana can't take for granted.

Every king cake I've ever had was in Shreveport, but you and I both know tourists won't be flying there.

TitaRusell2• 3 months ago

That's the story of the Netherlands. Entire cities and even islands have disappeared under the sea. Humans always rebuild.

yread• 3 months ago

I would argue lost cities are a story in the margins of the story of the Netherlands. The main story would be a move from building towns on little hills that don't get flooded most of the times to building systems to actively manage water (wind- and steam-powered pumps) and flood defenses (Afsluitdijk, Deltaworks). Netherlands never had as much land as it has now so the balance is definitely on reclaiming rather than losing.

xnx• 3 months ago

Where will tourists celebrate Mardi Gras after it's gone?

Somewhere above sea level?

People should live wherever they want but is rude to expect others to be responsible for thei expectedly risky flooding, fires, earthquake, hurricane lifestyle.

shrubble• 3 months ago

Mardi Gras actually originated in Mobile, Alabama; and it is celebrated with big parades and "krewes" all along the Gulf Coast, at least as far as Pensacola, Florida.

SkiFire13• 3 months ago

Mardi Gras actually existed (and still exists) in Europe before the USA were even founded.

moralestapia• 3 months ago

On the flip-side, the urbex that will come with that will be amazing.

trunkiedozer2• 3 months ago

It’s already below sea level isn’t it?

taejavu• 3 months ago

Weren't the Maldives supposed to be underwater like 15 years ago? Seems like the sea is rising much slower than models predicted?

outside1234• 3 months ago

Seas are rising faster than climate models predicted:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10196-1

benchwright• 3 months ago

almost like NOAA, had it not been savaged by this current anti-science admin, would be able to lend further credibility here. As it stands, several researchers that I know of, formerly of NOAA, were banging this drum loudly for decades.

brookst• 3 months ago

No models predicted that.

Plenty of info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_the_Maldives

Of note, most of the country no longer has fresh groundwater, and 50% of the national budget goes to climate mitigation.

selimthegrim8• 3 months ago

One of the authors warned me this paper was coming (I live in New Orleans) but he assured me he still has a house with a mortgage here. As the article says, none of us will be alive to see it.

pjdkoch• 3 months ago

Finally, Ben Shapiro is going to buy that real estate for a bargain! /s

platevoltage• 3 months ago

I was looking for this comment.

0xDEAFBEAD• 3 months ago

According to Wikipedia, tourism makes up of 40% of the tax revenue in New Orleans.

That could grow even higher if they think of an interesting and unusual solution for sea level rise.

How about a floating city of some kind? Alternatively, go in the other direction and rebuild the city underwater.

ArchieScrivener• 3 months ago

I say we wait until 2098 to start relocating so that way we can make a summer tent pole about it and pat ourselves on the back for coming together in the nick of time.

selimthegrim8• 3 months ago

If you employ all the unemployed film people here it's a deal.

adi_kurian3• 3 months ago

New Orleans no longer, would be a fucking tragedy.

"America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland"

misiti37807• 3 months ago

Miami is not Cleveland, and SF sucks.

adi_kurian3• 3 months ago

Agreed. Miami is in Florida.

alexilliamson• 3 months ago

Perhaps you misundestand the Tennessee Williams quote. He's not saying that Miami is literally in Ohio, just that is has no character.

johnea• 3 months ago

I'm almost surprised to see these comments unflagged 8-/

What a disaster in progress in Louisiana.

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost 2,000 sq miles of land to coastal erosion, equivalent to the size of Delaware,

Having been born and raised in the mid-atlantic, I empathize.

If the article is read, while replacing every instance of the word "could", with the words "will not", I think it also states a pretty factual assessment of what will happen...

JojoFatsani• 3 months ago

NOLA is worth saving.

selimthegrim8• 3 months ago

You and I and egypturnash know this but good luck with the rest of this crowd.

sjs3822• 3 months ago

The energy, the community, the corruption, the vibrance, the hopelessness, the resilience, the city that care forgot. You can't relocate New Orleans.

I know it's "gatekeeping" but it's so difficult to talk about with those who haven't had their every day consumed by it.

endofreach• 3 months ago

The graham hancocks of the future are gonna go nuts finding out about this mythical new orleans

snthpy2• 3 months ago

A bit OT but what about the Netherlands?

CWwdcdk7h• 3 months ago

No hurricanes there, so I guess they can just slowly rebuild walls to keep up with sea level and increase number of pumps already used to get rid of excess rainwater. Not great but manageable as long they secure enough money.

snthpy2• 3 months ago

Aha interesting. Thanks!

kungpao42• 3 months ago

Would any of the technology that the dutch have surrounding water control help here? Or is the geography just too complex for it to work?

tim333• 3 months ago

I'm not sure on the math on this one. Google says:

Global sea levels are currently rising at an accelerating rate, measuring roughly 3.6–4.6 mm per year

so in say 30 years time at the higher figure you have 30*4.6mm = 13.8 cm

The sea is broadly at sea level so it's going to be a job to get the "3-7 metres of sea-level rise"?

selimthegrim8• 3 months ago

When ice melts in Greenland and Antarctica there is also a gravity effect

'Point of no return': New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level

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