Letters: We need a "Jaws" for climate change

Fifty years ago, I went to see the movie “Jaws.” It was terrifying. That summer, I went with my family to Destin, Florida, for our vacation. To my parents’ dismay, I wouldn’t go anywhere near the water, be it a lake, a bayou or even a swimming pool. Come to think of it, no one did. We were all convinced a great white shark was lurking in the shallows. Steven Spielberg had created the ultimate bogeyman.

Today, our state (and the world) is facing an existential threat, one far more ominous than a marauding, toothy fish. Our coastline is disappearing at an alarming rate. Soon, the waters from the Gulf will be lapping at the levees surrounding our sinking city. In comparison, the folks from Amity Island had it good.

They also had a single villain (accompanied by a chilling score) to rally against. Meanwhile, we have a menagerie of suspects. They include fossil fuels, levees and canals, natural subsidence, invasive species, deforestation, short-sighted politicians (“Drill baby, drill!”) and bovine flatulence.

Solutions are far more complicated as well. We can’t just stay out of the water or shoot a scuba tank from the bow of a sinking boat. We are addicted to products made from oil, windmills kill birds, the “undeveloped” world wants to develop, change is hard and even New Orleans’ finest chefs can’t convince people to eat nutria.

In 2006, Al Gore tried to convince us of an “inconvenient truth.” Today, Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough are speaking out to unite different generations. But we still haven’t found our own, much-needed Jaws.