New Orleans faces up to the climate crisis.
This is the on the Media Midweek podcast.
I'm Brooke Gladstone.
So this year was Earth's hottest on record, and the Atlantic storm season brought with it five major hurricanes.
And yet in December, the Pew Research center found that only some 20% of Americans expect to make major sacrifices in their lifetime due to the climate crisis.
When it comes to planning for a fraught future, writer and essayist Nathaniel Rich recently argued in a piece in the New York Times that his city of New Orleans can set an example that the rest of the country would be wise to follow.
Welcome to the show, Nathaniel.
Thanks for having me.
It's great to be back.
How does New Orleans perspective differ from other places where inevitable natural disaster is foreseen sometime in the future?
And I emphasize sometime in the future.
What do you think?
I think the perspective down here is franker and more honest than you tend to see anywhere else in this country.
Certainly I was struck by this kind of metronomic drumbeat of the reporting this hurricane season from places like Asheville or even to the Florida coast, of people saying things like, I would never would have expected this or who could have imagined?
And nobody says that kind of thing here.
People here live with their eyes wide open to existential risk because we know every hurricane season might be the last.
And how does that perspective play out in how New Orleans plan?
We're ready.
I think everybody here has a fully filled pantry.
They have gallons of water.
Those who can afford it have whole house generators.