Nearly 140 cemeteries across south Louisiana are at risk because of flooding and coastal erosion, according to Jessica Schexnayder and Mary Manhein. (Photo: NOLA.com)

For as long as I’ve been covering and opining on coastal and other environmental concerns I’ve heard this refrain from friends and readers: “I hate the environmental policies of that candidate and party (usually Republican), but I can’t vote the other way (usually Democrat) because they’re pro-choice.”

I never questioned their sincerity. Taking them at their word, I respected their decision to make distasteful choices in order to follow a deeply held moral imperative. I certainly questioned the ultimate logic of that decision. After all, studies showed reducing environmental protections led to the deaths of children and fetuses.

Well, as of this week, their ethical wrangling came to an end. With Amy Coney Barrett’s placement on the Supreme Court, anti-abortion forces now have a clear 6-3 majority. If this court doesn’t give pro-lifers rulings that allow state or federal laws to ban abortion, no court ever will.

So, I have a question for these conscientious objectors: Are you now willing to walk your talk?

In three days, Donald Trump and the Louisiana GOP congressmen and a senator who have given him blind obedience will ask you to keep them in office. With your abortion chit now cashed, consider these facts before you vote.

In four years they have conducted the most sweeping assault on environmental and coastal protections in political history.

Trump has aggressively weakened or killed more than 100 regulations to allow more poisons in the air you and your children breathe and the water you drink; weakened or repealed laws protecting the public lands and waters you cherish including national parks, monuments, wilderness areas, forests, swamps, wetlands and beaches, and staffed environmental agencies with former executives and lobbyists of polluting industries.

He did this to give businesses extra profits in a time of record profits, even as polls consistently show Americans of all parties disapprove.

And in the face of overwhelming evidence (sunny day flooding, record temperatures, largest-ever wildfires, droughts and a rise in the number and size of hurricanes) they not only refused to take action against the causes of climate change, but moved to intensify them.

This has harmed Louisiana more than any other state. Allowing Trump and his acolytes four more years to repeat their attacks on climate regulations represents nothing less than an existential threat to residents and industries located south of U.S. 90.

Research and evidence show if fossil fuel emissions are not dramatically curtailed in the next two decades, sea level rise will begin consuming not just homes, but the industrial bases that provide the jobs that allow people to live here. The rapid rise in the Gulf caused by emissions poses unsustainable risks to everything from the massive LNG facilities in the Lake Charles area to the offshore oil industry hubs in Port Fourchon and Houma, to the sprawling commercial and recreational fishing industries and the Port of South Louisiana.

Read the rest of the article at The Times-Picayune.