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Diary: Louisiana Underwater
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Diary: Louisiana Underwater

Rosa Lyster
London Review of Books, 2021
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Rosa Lyster visits Louisiana during a climate and environmental degradation crisis – but no one she meets there seems to accept the reality of the situation. After four major weather events – including Hurricane Laura – in less than a year, residents fiercely rebuild to old specs, knowing that another weather event will soon ravage them again. Petrochemical plants Sasol and Citgo play an outsize role in the devastation due to their emissions and habitat destruction, but now, even erosion and weather threaten their infrastructure, too. In this strange, almost mystical hellscape, as Lyster writes in the New Yorker, she no longer wonders why everyone yells, “Be safe!” every time she leaves her motel room. 

Take-Aways

  • Lake Charles in Louisiana is a harbinger for the destruction climate change can cause in coastal areas.
  • Petrochemical plants wreak environmental havoc – and are also climate change victims.
  • People in New Orleans believe, “If a drop of rain falls, it must go away.”

About the Author

Rosa Lyster has a book upcoming about the global water crisis and is also the author of a book of poetry, Modern Rasputin. Her work has appeared in numerous publications.

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