Community Relocation
The First American Climate Refugees?
A century-old tribal community of about 60 people will be relocated using federal funds—a first for the United States. In the past 60 years, more than 90 percent of the island’s original land mass has washed away, eroded by channels cut by loggers and oil companies and decades of flood-control efforts. Sea level rise will lead to complete inundation.
As reporters for the New York Times observe, “The divisions the effort has exposed and the logistical and moral dilemmas it has presented point up in microcosm the massive problems the world could face in the coming decades as it confronts a new category of displaced people who have become known as climate refugees.”
“The location of the new community has not been chosen. Chiefs of the two tribes present on the island have debated who would be allowed to live there beyond the islanders themselves, and whether some islanders could resettle elsewhere. One of the planners involved in the resettlement suggested a buffer area between the new community and its surrounding neighborhood to reduce tension. Chief Naquin wants a live buffalo on site.”
More here.
