Sea level rise force island dwellers to leave

Inside Climate Change-   Terry Parks stood in the rear of a boat passing the western shore of Tangier Island.  A native of this Chesapeake Bay island, he pointed to an area of bulky rocks with withered and wispy green grasses under the sun. A blue water tower stood in the distance.

“That’s grandma’s house,” Parks said, pointing to the gray peaked roofs of homes. “When I was a kid, about a hundred or so yards off the bank is where I used to play. Now there’s about five feet of water there.” 

Under the blue sky, wind gusts pushed choppy seas into the vessel, causing people to sway as sea water sprayed onto the deck. Crab traps deep below the surface are marked by buoys. Stilted shanties line the channel that cuts through the middle of the archipelago the island is part of.

Locally, some members of the community leave the fate of the island to God and blame natural erosion, the loss of land because of waves crashing into it, knocking sand and dirt free into the sea. In 2017, Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge debated former Vice President Al Gore, claiming that sea level rise is not responsible for what’s happening to the island. The coverage prompted President Donald Trump to call and pledge support to Eskridge. But even the mayor now acknowledges that the climate is changing, from differing wind patterns to extreme low and high tides, though he stopped short of saying fossil fuel emissions are what’s putting his people at risk.

But science shows the culprit is sea level rise driven by climate change. Tens of millions of dollars are being spent to buy more time for the 1.2 square-mile island, which was first settled by Europeans in the 18th century....

.... Southeast of Washington D.C., Tangier Island is about a 50-minute boat ride heading west from the Delmarva Peninsula. ...“Eventually it’s going to affect a lot more people than it already affects. People don’t really pay much attention to it until it really affects them,” said Eskridge, of the flooding. “The climate is definitely changing and changing fast … you’re going to need to adapt. If you’re unable to adapt you are in trouble.”

... Research from BayLand, an engineering and consulting firm working with Tangier Island, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, show that parts of the island have experienced a rate of 32 feet of land loss a year.