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The First Official Climate Refugees in the U.S. Race Against Time |
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Most
of us are aware of rising sea levels and the
effects it can and has had on costal areas.
but what happens when the sea is ready to
swallow your land, forcing hundreds if not
thousands of people from their homeland,
elsewhere.
This is exactly what is happening to a
Native American tribe in Louisiana. Since 1955, the Isle de Jean Charles band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe has lost 98 percent of its land to the encroaching Gulf waters.
Only a 320-acre strip remains of the 22,400-acre island
that once stood. The tribe’s identity, food, and culture have slowly eroded with the land.
Luckily for the tribe, the department of Housing and Urban Development awarded them
$48 million to relocate through the National Disaster Resilience Competition. But moving isn’t a simple solution.
Tribal chief Albert Naquin stated: “We don’t have time,”
The chief spent the last 15 years advocating to relocate his
people. “The longer we wait, the more hurricane season we have to go through. We hate to let the island go, but we have to. It is like losing a family member. We know we are going to lose it. We just don’t know when.”
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