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Lands Wash Away as Sea Levels Rise

Lands Wash Away as Sea Levels Rise

Meet the World’s First Climate Refugees.

1. Louisiana:

Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Get $48 Million to Move Off of Disappearing Louisiana Island

In collaboration with Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the PBS NewsHour examines the vanishing coastline of Louisiana and the vulnerability of its native tribes to rising sea levels.

It has taken well over a decade of advocating on behalf of his tribe to keep his scattered community intact as their island on Louisiana’s Gulf coast disappears under Gulf of Mexico waters, but now Chief Albert Naquin of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw is high fiving.

That’s because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in January that it had awarded the state-recognized tribe $48 million to pay for a move, most likely farther north inland, making them the first community of official climate refugees in the United States.

Read more by Terri Hanson, Feb 5, 2016

 

 2. Island nations of Oceania

tuvalu

 

 

“This is a story about people who stand to lose everything—people who may need to flee their native home and never come back. These people are refugees, but they’re not running from war or an oppressive government. They’re seeking asylum from climate change,” the narrator of the Seeker Stories episode below explained.

Read more by Cole Mellino, Ecowatch.com

 

3. Fiji

Rising sea levels prompt relocations in Fiji
Motoriki island-1

Rising sea levels have prompted the Fiji government to relocate one of the country’s most vulnerable seaside communities.

Around 50 families have been relocated to higher ground to escape frequent flooding.

The government says it expects to carry out more relocations within the next decade to help communities adapt to rising sea levels.

Read more bBrianna Piazza, World News Australia Radio