AP speaks with Kelley about Louisiana’s coastal crisis, role of next governor
Joseph Kelley, a professor of marine geology in the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences and Climate Change Institute, was quoted in an Associated Press article about how Louisiana’s next governor will play a crucial role in the state’s coastal crisis. The governor is expected to either aggressively work to save the coast or miss a prime opportunity to stop the state from slipping further into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the article. “Scientists know what to do, it’s the institutions that fail us,” Kelley said, adding political leaders in Louisiana have been unwilling to take bold steps to fix erosion, often because of unwillingness to upset industries and interests. He said Louisiana’s “intractable” problem with land loss will mean “no more Band-Aid” fixes and aggressively pushing ahead with plans to let the Mississippi River run wild again to rebuild the delta, the article states. The Times-Picayune, Shreveport Times and Miami Herald carried the AP report.