With many in our time-obsessed culture deciding they don’t have time to actually read the news, headlines have become ever more important. Like a glance at online weather pages, they can give a quick update on which direction your important issues are moving.

Unless those issues concern the livability of Louisiana’s coastal zone over the next few decades.

In that case, you might be caught between depression and anger.

One stream of headlines reports the growing mountain of evidence showing that by 2050 — when today’s newborns will be just 26 — accelerating sea level rise caused by global warming could drown most of the area below I-10, turning much of the state’s bottom third into no-go zone for investment.

For example, last week the world was treated to this headline: “New Analysis Finds Rising Seas Could Threaten as Many as 978 of Louisiana’s Critical Infrastructure Assets.”

It’s a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists on the flooding coastal communities can expect as sea levels continue to rise due to human-caused climate change.

And Louisiana ranks first in the nation for important infrastructure at risk of flooding by 2050.

The cause of the flooding is not limited to tropical storms but includes higher wind-driven tides and extreme rain events — which would be no surprise to anyone who tried to drive along our coast last week.

The projections for sea level rise are listed in three scenarios linked to levels of fossil fuel emissions: higher emissions lead to higher sea levels.

Critical infrastructure is broken into six categories: public & affordable housing; energy infrastructure; industrial contamination sites; public safety and health facilities; government facilities and educational institutions.

Using data from several federal agencies, the authors project how much flooding the assets can expect on U.S. coastlines from Maine to Washington State.

An interactive map provides locations and listings of each asset under increased threat.

St. Bernard Parish residents will be interested to know Fire Department Station 12 at 4623 Delacroix Highway, will be at risk of flooding once every two weeks by 2050 even under a medium sea-level rise scenario.

Westwego property owners should be aware the Ninemile Point Plant Toxics Release Inventory site becomes at risk of flooding once a month by 2050 under the medium scenario.

And residents in Lake Charles could be alarmed to see the Gulf State Utilities-North Ryan Street Superfund site could be flooding every two weeks by 2050 under the same scenario.

Other Louisiana projections include:

• By 2050 up to 334 assets would be at risk of being flooded twice annually, 238 once a month and 194 once every other week.
• 72 communities would be impacted by 2050 and 116 communities by 2100.
• By 2100 as many as 978 assets would be at risk of flooding at least twice annually, 928 once each month and 875 every other week.
• The number of assets at risk is expected to more than double by 2050 and increase sixfold by 2100, compared to a 2020 baseline.

It’s a safe bet insurance companies calculating risk and entrepreneurs looking for business locations have seen this and other news outlining the growing threats Louisiana faces from climate change.

They also know the causes of these threats is no longer in doubt: fossil fuel emissions.

But if that headline left you depressed, the next one should make you angry — even if it’s no surprise.

“Jeff Landry, other Republican governors call for fewer regulations on energy production.”

Even though burning oil is a major reason we face coastal ruin, and even though America is now producing more oil than any country in history, the governor of the state whose future depends on reducing the use of oil wants to make it easier to produce even more.

I wonder what the headlines will say about Landry’s tenure around 2050?