Environmental and Cultural Impacts of Climate Change along the Mississippi River Corridor to the Gulf of Mexico
Mentor 1
Holly Denning
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
24-4-2015 10:30 AM
End Date
24-4-2015 11:45 AM
Description
Environmental and Cultural Impacts of Climate Change along the Mississippi River Corridor to the Gulf of Mexico Environmental challenges from climate change to agricultural and industrial pollution along the Mississippi River have direct impacts on local river people whose livelihoods and identities have been tied to the water for generations. Scholarship from Environmental Sociology to Cultural Geography to Political Economy can be integrated as insights drawn across disciplinary divides point the way for innovative ways to build resilience. Paradoxically, manufactured risks have arisen from earlier policies to lessen natural hazards. While the Great Flood of 1927 lead to the expansion of the Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure projects to protect people and farms, massive flooding of the Mississippi River down to the Delta in 2011 illustrated the unintended consequences of hemming in the most powerful river in North America. While high water events continue to wreak devastation on local communities, from the Upper River Valley to the Gulf Coast, other extreme weather events such as the severe drought of 2012 illustrate the dramatic impact of climate change, well beyond challenges from dams and levee systems. This exploratory study illuminates linkages between the upper and lower river. Some examples include practices upstream which exacerbate the “dead zone,” wetlands restoration efforts, potential community relocation plans and other responses to rising seas and land loss.
Environmental and Cultural Impacts of Climate Change along the Mississippi River Corridor to the Gulf of Mexico
Union Wisconsin Room
Environmental and Cultural Impacts of Climate Change along the Mississippi River Corridor to the Gulf of Mexico Environmental challenges from climate change to agricultural and industrial pollution along the Mississippi River have direct impacts on local river people whose livelihoods and identities have been tied to the water for generations. Scholarship from Environmental Sociology to Cultural Geography to Political Economy can be integrated as insights drawn across disciplinary divides point the way for innovative ways to build resilience. Paradoxically, manufactured risks have arisen from earlier policies to lessen natural hazards. While the Great Flood of 1927 lead to the expansion of the Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure projects to protect people and farms, massive flooding of the Mississippi River down to the Delta in 2011 illustrated the unintended consequences of hemming in the most powerful river in North America. While high water events continue to wreak devastation on local communities, from the Upper River Valley to the Gulf Coast, other extreme weather events such as the severe drought of 2012 illustrate the dramatic impact of climate change, well beyond challenges from dams and levee systems. This exploratory study illuminates linkages between the upper and lower river. Some examples include practices upstream which exacerbate the “dead zone,” wetlands restoration efforts, potential community relocation plans and other responses to rising seas and land loss.
