ADAPTATION TO COASTAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA
DEVELOPING A TRIBAL COASTAL RESILIENCE INDEX (T-CRI) to support NATURAL hazard preparedness
In partnership with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (PACIT) and Louisiana Sea Grant, I am contributing to the EPA-funded project “Developing a Coastal Resilience Index for Use with Indigenous Communities in the Gulf of Mexico Region to Support Coastal Hazards Preparedness.” The project goal is to develop and evaluate a Tribal Coastal Resilience Index (T-CRI) in partnership with the PACIT.
In advance of the T-CRI community workshop, we are investigating threat perceptions, community efficacy, hazard preparedness, and adaptation behavior of Tribal members. Through a novel survey instrument, interviews, and focus groups, co-developed with the PACIT, we seek to understand individual and community adaptation to changing coastal conditions, such as increasing flood and hurricane risk, land loss, and fisheries decline.
Photo: David Muench, Getty Images
“ONLY SAY SEA LEVEL RISE”: CLIMATE SCIENCE DISCOURSE IN COASTAL RESTORATION AND PLANNING IN LOUISIANA
It is estimated that 12% of Americans - and in Louisiana 24% of residents - remain unconvinced that climate change is happening or that humans are the cause of it. However, this does not fully capture the diversity of individual and collective responses to climate change. The term “agnostic adaptation,” was recently coined, identifying adaptive plans, processes, or actions that acknowledge local environmental changes (where climate change is a cause), while simultaneously avoiding a direct link to climate science. In short, agnostic adaptation allows for individuals and communities to address “what” is happening in their environment, without exploring the “why.” Therefore, we ask - under what conditions, and through what social and psychological processes does a community employ agnostic adaptation? Moreover, what are the potential benefits and downsides of agnostic adaptation, within local settings and on the global stage?
This study investigates these questions through an examination of how climate science is discussed, sometimes used, and often avoided in coastal restoration planning in Louisiana. It draws from participation observation of stakeholder meetings, document analysis of government plans, and semi-structured interviews, with a focus on activities and discourse from the past fifteen years. Specifically, the study explores the ways that Louisiana coastal restoration stakeholders - including government officials, scientists, NGO representatives, and community leaders - perceive the motivations for the use and disuse of climate science in coastal restoration and planning. Early findings suggest that so-called climate agnosticism allows Louisiana stakeholders to approach restoration 1) without placing blame on specific industry activities for ongoing contributions to carbon emissions, 2) while avoiding engagement with national-level, hyper-partisan climate science discourses, and 3) by decoupling the primary causes of land loss in the past from those projected into the future. Also this study draws novel links between the psycho-social origins of climate denial to those of climate agnosticism, focusing on the role of social identity, cultural norms, and environmental worldview in supporting an agnostic approach.
