Rising sea levels attributed* to climate change is forcing a whole American town to relocate, and many others may soon have to follow.
In January the US Government announced it would spend $63 million to help residents of Isle de Jean Charles in the southern state of Louisiana to move from their homes as coastal erosion threatens to sink the entire community.
The money is part of $1.3 billion the US government set aside for grants to help communities adapt to climate change.
Currently the town can only be accessed by one road and is surrounded by marshlands along the Gulf of Mexico. Town residents have been called the first climate refugees* of the US.
Since 1955, more than 90 per cent of Isle de Jean Charles land has been lost to water inundation*. Fruit trees have died off because of the saltwater in the soil and many properties have been flooded.
“Now there’s just a little strip of land left,” 81-year-old resident Rita Falgout said.
“That’s all we have. There’s water all around us.”
Residents, including the large population of indigenous people from the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and United Houma Nation tribes, have until 2022 to use the government funding to move.
“We’re going to lose all our heritage, all our culture,” Chief Albert Naquin of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw told the The New York Times newspaper.
“It’s all going to be history.”
While these resident may be the first to be forced to have to move, rising waters, regular floods and hurricanes mean more will follow.
A 2016 study found that if sea levels rise to a worst-case scenario of 1.8m by 2100, it could mean 13.1 million Americans would have to move.
“We’re already in for a sea-level rise that will put all low-lying coastal areas out of business, and that’s using US government projections*,” Harold Wanless from the University of Miami said.
“At some point in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be leaving Miami ... we’re all moving somewhere.”
US climate experts think that even US President Donald Trump’s Miami mansion resort could be threatened by rising seas.
South Florida roadways already flood regularly during storms or unusually high king tides, forcing cities to raise or move the roads and install expensive pumping systems.
A Global Problem
Many other parts of the world are facing problems due to rising sea levels.
Last year a report on climate change warned Italy’s picturesque canal city Venice could disappear underwater within a century if action was not taken.
Closer to home, a report released in 2015 by the United Nations stated Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide were the most at risk Australian cities.
SOURCE: Herald Sun
