The Atlantic: Why are we spending $1 billion new NOLA airport b/c it will sink into Ocean

By then, the city of New Orleans plans to open a brand new, “state-of-the-art” airport terminal. The $1 billion project is currently under construction across the runway from the existing hodgepodge of concourses. But building a new “world-class” terminal in this sinking city is no straightforward matter. It reveals the precariousness of the world in its current state—a world in which airports may be nearing extinction.

Less so, from the ground. At an average of four and a half feet above sea level, MSY is the second lowest elevation of any airport in the world, just above Amsterdam’s Schiphol. The low elevation of New Orleans, combined with easily overwhelmed pump systems and an elaborate system of levees, makes the area especially vulnerable to flooding. Meanwhile, the nearby coast is eroding at a staggering rate—roughly a football field’s worth every 100 minutes. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that the the federal government is retiring place names by the dozens for islands and bays that have “simply ceased to exist.”

"Extrapolate this to entire airports suddenly rendered useless due to the unstoppable flows of a rising ocean."

"So why build a new, billion-dollar airport here? From an ecological perspective, the site is already doomed."

"CHRISTOPHER SCHABERG is the Dorothy Harrell Brown Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans and the author of The End of Airports."



Synopsis for those who are too lazy to read the entire article is the new New Orleans Airport is a collasal waste of money because climate change is causing rising sea levels coupled with Hurricanes spells doom for the new airport because it will soon be underwater