Changing Climate, Changing Migration
Aug 28, 2026 · 34 min · 10 segments
In 2016, the U.S. federal government provided $48 million to relocate the climate-threatened Louisiana island of Isle de Jean Charles. The effort, which was the government’s first climate-driven…
Jessica SimsGuest
Julian HattemHost
So the reasons for these losses are Amanda Sohl- inclusive and both exact exacerbated by climate change so first you've got relative sea level rise, which means that, at the same time as gulf.
Amanda Sohl- seawater is water is rising on the land itself is sinking, so the the impacts are amplified.
thousands of miles of exploratory oil and gas canals let saltwater into places where there had been none, and the plants and trees whose roots need fresh water to keep them alive were holding the land together, washed away.
Then you have the Mississippi River levees, which were built mostly after the great flood in 1927.
And these do mostly a great job of protecting cities, but it straight jacketed the river and 200 million tons of sediment that had been building the Delta for 7,000 years are now shooting off the continental shelf.
And then finally, you've got hurricanes and storms that can kind of just blast through this weakened network of fragile land and waterways also contribute to the erosion.
If you look at a map of Louisiana, which I have behind me, but it's sort of blocked.
You zoom in on the sole and the toes of the boot, and you can see that they're latticed, like the boot is dissolving in acid.
So since 1932, the state's lost about 2000 square miles, 5,200 kilometers of land.
So I want to kind of paint a picture for you of how you get to the island if you were going to leave from New Orleans for a long time.
Sarah Richardson, Southwest you turn onto island road you cross over an earthen levy of a hurricane protection system, this is the system that the army corps decided on a cost benefit cost benefit analysis in 2002 would exclude the island from protection.
Megan Swanson, Cross over the levy and the water and sky really just open up on both sides of the road, the land ends you're on this two mile two lane ribbon of pavement about level with the water on both sides there's rip rap on on both sides.
um high tides strong winds combine and push water regularly up onto the road and during strong storms the road would just disappear entirely so this was trapping island residents on um the island or oscar island kids couldn't get to school school bus will not cross the road when there's any water on it um people couldn't get to and from work um and of course medical care so This is a statistic that is often cited when the island is referenced.
In the 1950s, the island was about 22,000 acres, 89 square kilometers for the rest of the world, it doesn't, anyways, metric system, about one and a half, this is the size of about one and a half Manhattan.
So the reasons for these losses are Amanda Sohl- inclusive and both exact exacerbated by climate change so first you've got relative sea level rise, which means that, at the same time as gulf.
Amanda Sohl- seawater is water is rising on the land itself is sinking, so the the impacts are amplified.
thousands of miles of exploratory oil and gas canals let saltwater into places where there had been none, and the plants and trees whose roots need fresh water to keep them alive were holding the land together, washed away.
Then you have the Mississippi River levees, which were built mostly after the great flood in 1927.
And these do mostly a great job of protecting cities, but it straight jacketed the river and 200 million tons of sediment that had been building the Delta for 7,000 years are now shooting off the continental shelf.
And then finally, you've got hurricanes and storms that can kind of just blast through this weakened network of fragile land and waterways also contribute to the erosion.
If you look at a map of Louisiana, which I have behind me, but it's sort of blocked.
You zoom in on the sole and the toes of the boot, and you can see that they're latticed, like the boot is dissolving in acid.
So since 1932, the state's lost about 2000 square miles, 5,200 kilometers of land.
So I want to kind of paint a picture for you of how you get to the island if you were going to leave from New Orleans for a long time.
Sarah Richardson, Southwest you turn onto island road you cross over an earthen levy of a hurricane protection system, this is the system that the army corps decided on a cost benefit cost benefit analysis in 2002 would exclude the island from protection.
Megan Swanson, Cross over the levy and the water and sky really just open up on both sides of the road, the land ends you're on this two mile two lane ribbon of pavement about level with the water on both sides there's rip rap on on both sides.
um high tides strong winds combine and push water regularly up onto the road and during strong storms the road would just disappear entirely so this was trapping island residents on um the island or oscar island kids couldn't get to school school bus will not cross the road when there's any water on it um people couldn't get to and from work um and of course medical care so This is a statistic that is often cited when the island is referenced.
In the 1950s, the island was about 22,000 acres, 89 square kilometers for the rest of the world, it doesn't, anyways, metric system, about one and a half, this is the size of about one and a half Manhattan.
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