BBC World Service has two programs airing this week that are framed around the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and environmental change to Louisiana. These programs are available via the BBC World Service Partners website.
Science in Action
www.bbc.co.uk/partners/english/programme-slot/scienceinaction
Description: Ten years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf coast, Edward Barbier from the University of Wyoming calls for coastal protection plans like those adopted by Louisiana for the world’s most vulnerable nations.
Hurricane Katrina caused 110 billion dollars worth of damages and more than 1,800 deaths. It also displaced 1.2 million people, prompting a rethink of how the Gulf coastline is managed. Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan, which accounts for how the state’s coastal restoration and protection may have to adapt to differing climate-change and sea-level-rise scenarios, has demonstrated the potential of long-term resilience strategies, Barbier says. He argues that developing countries will need international support to create and implement such plans.
Barbier urges the COP21 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015 to earmark multilateral adaptation funds for a long-term global planning strategy to build resilience in the 15 nations that are home to the populations most vulnerable to climate change. Almost all of the 60 million people who live in rural areas less than 10 metres above sea level reside in these countries, which include Bangladesh, the Philippines, Brazil and China. Many of them depend on agriculture and fishing, and are having to cope with continued erosion to the natural barriers – such as mangroves – that provide protection against the intensifying storms and flooding.
Presented by Jack Stewart
Broadcast Details
First aired: Thursday 20 August
Broadcast window: 20 August – 2 September 2015
Programme duration: 26 minutes 30 seconds (or 30 minutes including the News Summary, billboard & promo)
Download availability on www.bbc.co.uk/partners: from Thursday 20 August 19:30 GMT for 13 days
Assignment – “Losing Louisiana”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/partners/english/programmes/assignment–losing-louisiana
Description: James Fletcher travels to the US to find out why the Louisiana coastline is fast disappearing. Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving over 1,800 people dead and causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage. It was dramatic and destructive but since the hurricane a slow-motion environmental disaster that has continued, almost unabated – the erosion of the coastal wetlands of Southern Louisiana. Caused by the taming of the Mississippi River, and oil and gas exploration, coastal land the size of a football field washes away every hour. With it disappears the homes, places and livelihoods that have sustained the celebrated Cajun culture. James Fletcher travels to Bayou Lafourche and the town of Leeville to understand how one community is facing the reality of losing their past and their future.
Broadcast Details
First aired: Thursday 27 August
Broadcast window: 27 August – 2 September 2015
Number of episodes: 1
Programme duration: 23 mins or 26 mins 30 secs (30 mins including the News Bulletin, billboard & promo)
Download www.bbc.co.uk/partners availability: from Thursday 27 August 03:30 GMT for 7 days