Climate change forces Alaskan village to move
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.0210042
NPR : Although they have considered relocating since 1976 , the residents of Shishmaref, Alaska, have now officially voted 94–78 to move. The reason is coastal erosion due to climate change. Shishmaref, an Inupiat native village, is located on a barrier island in the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Strait. For decades, storm surges have been damaging homes and other structures, and rising waters and melting permafrost have been eating away at the island’s land mass. Within the next 30 years, the village will be completely underwater, says resident Esau Sinnok. The plan is to move the entire village to the mainland so that the community can remain together. However, the costs of moving an entire village could ultimately prove to be prohibitive, and some of the residents, particularly members of the older generation, do not wish to move.