Workshop_series
The Gulf of Alaska and the Southern Gulf Coast have been the sites of the two worst oil spills in U.S. history, Exxon Valdez (1989) and Deepwater Horizon (2010), respectively. These spills had devastating impacts on the environment, human health, the local economy, the seafood industry, and local communities’ way of life. While the incidents differed in many ways, the response and recovery efforts both worked to restore the environment and help communities move on from their losses.
To explore best practices and lessons learned from these oil spills, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Gulf Research Program launched a three-part workshop series to bring together people with connections to the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spills to discuss the challenges, successes, and areas where improvements could be made. The first workshop was held in Anchorage, Alaska in October 2024; the second workshop was held in Thibodaux, Louisiana in December 2024; and the final workshop was held in Washington, D.C. in March of 2025. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshops.
244 pages
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6 x 9
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-99440-3
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-60122-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/29176
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Gulf-Alaska Knowledge Exchange: Learning from the Legacy of Past Oil Spills: Proceedings of a Workshop Series. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
On February 19, 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Gulf Research Program and the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences convened a one-day workshop at the 2024 Gulf of Mexico Conference in Tampa, Florida focused on artist and scientist collaborations - and how they could support and inspire a healthy, resilient, and sustainable future across Gulf Coast communities. An ad hoc committee planned a workshop that delved into areas including creative problem-solving, ways to understand and engage with complex topics through creative practices, mutual learning and educational opportunities that result from artists and scientists working together, and how art and science collaborations can elevate community voices.
14 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-73509-2
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/29062
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Science and Art Collaborations: Engaging Gulf Communities in Understanding and Addressing Complex Environmental Issues: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Experiencing a single disaster - a hurricane, tornado, flood, severe winter storm, or a global pandemic - can wreak havoc on the lives and livelihoods of individuals, families, communities and entire regions. For many people who live in communities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region, the reality of disaster is starker. Endemic socioeconomic and health disparities have made many living in Gulf of Mexico communities particularly vulnerable to the effects of weather-climate hazards. Prolonged disaster recovery and increasing disaster risk is an enduring reality for many living in Gulf of Mexico communities. Between 2020 and 2021, seven major hurricanes and a severe winter storm affected communities across the region. As a backdrop to these acute weather events, the global COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding, producing a complex and unprecedented public health and socioeconomic crisis.
Traditionally, the impacts of disasters are quantified individually and often in economic terms of property damage and loss. In this case, each of these major events occurring in the Gulf of Mexico during this time period subsequently earned the moniker of "billion-dollar" disaster. However, this characterization does not reflect the non-financial human toll and disparate effects caused by multiple disruptive events that increase underlying physical and social vulnerabilities, reduce adaptive capacities and ultimately make communities more sensitive to the effects of future disruptive events. This report explores the interconnections, impacts, and lessons learned of compounding disasters that impair resilience, response, and recovery efforts. While Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities, 2020-2021 focuses on the Gulf of Mexico region, its findings apply to any region that has similar vulnerabilities and that is frequently at risk for disasters.
296 pages
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6 x 9
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70716-1
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70717-X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27170
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Compounding Disasters in Gulf Coast Communities 2020-2021: Impacts, Findings, and Lessons Learned. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Communities along the Gulf Coast routinely experience intense weather events. Acute and repetitive shocks - illustrated by the multiple Gulf regional hurricane landfalls during the 2020 hurricane season - have a disproportionate impact on communities in this region that are already burdened by chronic stressors such as systemic and structural racism, poverty, environmental degradation, and health disparities. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the severity of these impacts as disadvantaged and underserved communities fall further behind in their ability to prepare for, respond to, mitigate, or recover from disasters.
On June 24, 2021, the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a panel of three members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to discuss steps that are being taken or that need to occur to advance climate and environmental justice for those who call the Gulf of Mexico region home. The panelists discussed opportunities to equitably improve conditions in the Gulf of Mexico region, particularly within Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. This event provided important perspective, though much work remains to elevate and examine the climate and environmental justice priorities of diverse communities, particularly Indigenous people, and to identify the mechanisms necessary to implement the recommendations offered by the panel members. This publication summarizes the discussion.
7 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-26927-X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26348
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Perspectives on Climate and Environmental Justice on the U.S. Gulf Coast: Proceedings of a Webinar—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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