ALEX KOLKER, PhD

Discharge Study At Bayou Tortillon Alexander S. KolkerLouisiana Universities Marine Consortium H. Dallon WeathersDelta Geo-Marine Read The Technical Report On A Developing Crevasse At Bayou Tortillon.

A Way To Address Emerging Technologies In Climate PlansAlexander S. Kolker, Ph.D. Louisiana now has a climate plan, adopted on February 1 of 2022, that seeks to put the state on a path to net zero emissions by 2050.  However, this plan relies on a range of technologies that are not yet in widespread use. This…

We want to welcome our fellow earth scientists to Louisiana for this week’s American Geophysical Union conference. As a trained oceanographer and a hydrologist, we have been to this meeting many times, particularly during its tenure in San Francisco. San Francisco seemed like an ideal place for an earth science conference. Earthquakes are a near…

Alexander S. Kolker, PhD How should Louisiana’s Climate Initiative project changes in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years? How should it evaluate the ways various actions and strategies impact Louisiana’s emissions in a world that is itself complex and uncertain? This seems challenging- a complex problem, filled with unknowns. A tool…

Alexander S. Kolker, PhD. In the wake of Hurricane Ida, we will inevitably hear comparisons to Hurricane Katrina. I will start off by saying that I do not think this comparison fair on a personal level. For every family that lost a loved one, for every business that lost years of hard work, for everyone…

Alexander S. Kolker, PhD What else do we know about Louisiana’s greenhouse gases, where they come from, and how they are changing over time? Recently, this blog pointed out that many of the state’s largest greenhouse gas emitters come from just a few areas- a corridor along the Mississippi River, the Lake Charles region, and…

Alexander S. Kolker, PhD. Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium This year, many people in Louisiana are examining records of greenhouse gas emissions across the state. This examination is fueled in part by a state-led effort to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gases emissions to net zero by 2050. It also dove-tails with long standing efforts…

This essay was published in the Houston Chronicle on February 5. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/To-combat-climate-change-tide-gauges-are-needed-15030015.php Alexander S. Kolker Earth scientists like me collect data in many ways: with rock hammer and compass, with sediment or ice cores, or with measurements from satellites. As a Gulf Coast scientist working abroad for the year, I have been using a tool…