Coverage of an analysis deeming a southern city the “canary in the coal mine” on coastal flooding became the latest target of scorn against fearmongering climate alarmism.
“So is this global warming, ozone hole, global cooling, or climate change this time?”
For decades, policy pushers have sought to ramrod their agendas through by taking concerns about conservation to extremes through doomsaying. Now, as President Donald Trump’s administration has been rolling back past regulations, a new analysis is gaining public attention for claiming New Orleans could be fully submerged, along with large swaths of the Louisiana coastline and beyond, before the end of the century.
Published at the beginning of the month in Nature Sustainability, an analysis contended “as much as 100 km,” or about 62 miles, could be underwater, “With global temperatures poised to exceed the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement threshold–a level that triggered substantial ice-sheet collapse during the Last Interglacial–low-elevation coastal zones (LECZ) face sea-level commitments far beyond current planning horizons.”
“Coastal Louisiana has been referred to as a ‘canary in the coal mine’ with respect to climate impacts,” the publication detailed. “As highlighted in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the central US Gulf Coast is the single most exposed LECZ in the world in terms of projected relative sea-level (RSL) rise throughout this century.”
At current levels, such a shift in the coastline would amount to “placing > 1 million inhabitants in harm’s way.”
“It’s very likely that sea level will rise to that elevation in the future,” contended Tulane University geology professor and report co-author Torbjörn Törnqvist to CNN as he referred to a 10-foot-higher coastline, 30 miles north of New Orleans, said to have existed about 125,000 years ago.
The supposed marker was used to support the analysis as the contemporary global temperatures were said to have been between 0.5-1.5 °C higher than pre-industrial metrics.
Coverage of the analysis came only days after it was reported that the United States was one of numerous nations opposed to a resolution passed by the United Nations’ General Assembly calling for reparations to be paid out by countries that don’t lower greenhouse emissions to those negatively impacted by the shifts in climate.
Meanwhile, many were quick to denounce the coverage as little more than fearmongering, having seen these kinds of apocalyptic projections come and go without the same coverage devoted to correcting the record. Others countered the argument by contending sea levels haven’t risen, but that the ground itself is sinking.
What’s more, given the reality of New Orleans existence below sea level to begin with, some couldn’t help but react with dismissive snark at the potential of a reality unfolding that was truly a “self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.”
I lived there 23 years, the sea level is not rising, the ground is sinking.
Every year those I’d dodge rising sewage drains so I didn’t bust my oil pan.
It’s difficult to imagine but there’s stupid people who believe the sea is rising, you’re outnumbered & surrounded by them.
— Rosindabber (@rosindabber) May 25, 2026
Sea levels aren’t rising. That’s a lie. The entire delta is sinking & disappearing because we stopped sediment delivery in the Mississippi with dams. And excessive groundwater withdrawals.
Maybe get with some Dutch civil engineers to build adequate dyke & pump systems.
— ✨ ✨ (@SrsTwist1) May 25, 2026
They said that about the Maldives in the 1980s, still waiting.
— John Nisbet (@jnisbet3) May 25, 2026
They want the land. All rich people have homes by the sea.
— Girl (@Girl18567297) May 25, 2026
New Orleans has levees because it is in a soup bowl and has always been
— Chris Foley (@ChrisFoley51624) May 25, 2026
So is this global warming, ozone hole, global cooling or climate change this time?
— Be Right Back (@brb021) May 26, 2026
I have been hearing about coastal cities going under water due to global warming since 1980. At least they wised up and moved their predictions far enough out so they won’t be around to admit it was false.
— Joseph Zucco (@crabfish1) May 26, 2026
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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