727 People on Chesapeake Bay Island Could Become America’s First ‘Climate Refugees'

Tangier Island

Saw this and thought it was worth a share. Tangier Island, home to 727 people in the town of Tangier could be uninhabitable in 50 years due to incremental sea level rise. The island is currently only 3 feet above sea level.

The Chesapeake Bay's Tangier Island, the site of the town of Tangier (population 727), will become uninhabitable under a midrange estimate of sea level rise due to climate change by 2063, researchers report in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Scientific Reports.

Already, more than 500 lower-level islands in the Chesapeake Bay have vanished since Europeans first arrived in the area in the 1600s, said study leader David Schulte, an oceanographer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District. Engineering efforts could shore up Tangier, Schulte told Live Science, but saving the island and its neighbors will ultimately require action on climate.

The area has already seen much change....out of the 500 islands in the area there, there are now only 2 that are currently habitable.

Thirty-nine islands in the Chesapeake Bay were once habitable, Schulte said. Today, Tangier and Smith Island in Maryland are the only two that remain so. Erosion and sea level rise (and, to some extent, other factors like land subsidence due to groundwater pumping) have eaten away at the rest.

The island has already lost more than half of it's land mass and another Island, Goose island is also in trouble.

Already, 66.75 percent of the Tangier Islands' 1850 land mass has been lost, Schulte and his colleagues found. On the west side of Tangier Island, erosion from large storms plays a big role in the loss, Schulte said. On the east side, gradual sea level rise is mostly to blame. [Photos: Beautiful & Ever-Changing Barrier Islands]

A conservative, midrange estimate of sea level rise gives Tangier Island a mere 50 years to live, Schulte said. "If you take the more extreme high sea level rise, they've got about half the time, maybe 25 years," he said.

To the north, Goose Island is likely to be inundated by 2038 in the midrange sea level rise scenario, and Uppards will be mostly inundated by 2063 and gone by 2113. As firm land converts to sea marsh, the town of Tangiers will likely be uninhabitable by 2063.

There are a lot of problems we as a country and a planet as a whole have to deal with and I hope that climate change is one we are going to take care of , but it honestly seems like it might be too late in some places. Here's to hope.

originally posted by: darknessdelmundo

Tangier Island, home to 727 people in the town of Tangier could be uninhabitable in 50 years due to incremental sea level rise. The island is currently only 3 feet above sea level.

How do they want to address the erosion and subsidence issues as well?

A look back in history will tell you that the Seas have been rising and the coastline changing long before Chris Columbus stopped by. Building at sea level is risky and always has been. Nature isn't interested in how much you spent on your lot.

But if tying this to global warming makes it easier to deal with facts, cool.

I am inclined to suggest a study of factors before claiming global rising tides
My local coastline hasn't changed a bit, other than being fished out and polluted

There are issues but better we find the real problems causing them rather than assuming

a reply to: Raggedyman

A better conservation strategy, coupled with a bit of realism about existing structures right on the beach might be in order. The little bit that has been done already has made noticeable differences in fish populations where problems existed. Maybe not restoration, but an increase in numbers for some areas.

If a coastline is about to swallow up a bunch of homes, should we build cement barriers and break walls, only to push the change down or up the coast to another area, changing it? Or should we realize that it was stupid to think the seas would somehow stop rising after 30,000 years of doing so, and let the structures be reclaimed by the sea.

a reply to: network dude

yeah with out a doubt, if you build on an island you have to expect these kind of things. I'm personally 50/50 when it comes to these kind of things. On the one hand, the earth goes through natural changes, sea levels rise, that's just how it is. And if you build your home a few feet above sea level, what do you expect. On the other hand it does seem like climate change certainly is helping things and in many ways is speeding up changes that the earth is going through. I don't think the problems we face are black and white, there are a lot of reasons things like this happen but it does seem like climate change is a factor.

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Over 9 million people live below sea level in the Netherlands.
They forgot to be refugees.

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

As far as who's to blame for the climate, I agree, we don't have much if any data, relative to the scale of time the Earth has had changes. So assuming we have it all figured out today, in my eyes is a bit silly. But we don't need to have anyone to blame to know that change is inevitable. Our option is to adapt, improvise, overcome, or die.

Land vanishing into the ocean , and land rising out of the ocean ,seems to be a natural process . Man is building Islands faster then they are disappearing as well . One of my favourite water places is the Bay of Fundy with it's 40 foot high tides . Not many people build too close to the waters edge because of the mass amount of erosion that goes on there . One Island in particular that is not a Island today is Dorchester Island . " “Keillor” creek is adjacent to [Dorchester Island] at its mouth and extends back across the marshes well into the village [Dorchester]. This creek drains a considerable amount of upland area before emptying into Shepody Bay near the mouth of the Memramcook River. The creek was once called Ruisseau de Port Royal (Port Royal Creek) by the Acadians. A map dated 1779 shows a trail proceeding from Westcock through the forest to Memramcook, thence overland to the Petitcodiac and Edgett’s Landing. It led to Dorchester Island, not Dorchester Corner, on the west side of Palmer’s Pond. (Bowser 1986:8-10)" www2.gnb.ca...

The first Acadians built dike systems and planted crops . These dikes are still in place today and play a important roll in holding the water back . From the pdf above "Rock quarrying, particularly in Rockland and Beaumont, was an industry that prospered in the area for many years. Thanks to a building boom, the market for cut stone expanded (Gaudet 1984: 102; Martin 1990:163; Spicer 1993:103). Since there was no local building stone available for the construction of heavy buildings on the American coast and no railroads or canals to move it from the interior, Americans were attracted by the enormous amount of quality building stone available on the Fort Folly peninsula and the quarries exported by water freight huge quantities of freestone, fine grained sandstone or limestone to expanding cities on the American east coast."

Treasure hunters frequent the place and find old Spanish coins . I have in the past collected old bottles of the eroding shores ,that stick out of the banks that collapse . There seems to have been some kind of a cycle to it all as you find the old bottles embedded in the mud deposits from the past . The old wharf is still there but not in great shape . I have seen high tides with winds that would completely cover the wharf by at least 2 feet . It is a rare thing but it does happen .

From the pdf above "For over forty years, beginning in 1855, stone from the Boudreau Quarry was shipped throughout New Brunswick and the United States. The stone from the quarry was desired because of its olive colour, durability and the ease with which it could be removed in large blocks and worked. Some of the stones removed were up to thirty feet long and twenty tons in weight. “ It was said that one of the stones shipped from the Boudreau quarry was so immense that it made up the cargo of a three master. Its transportation was considered so dangerous that the crew of the ship had to be paid a premium or bonus before they would sign on for the voyage. But the trip was made without mishap and the stone is now part of the fabric of the said state capital [at Albany] (Nampahc 1950:2).

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Over 9 million people live below sea level in the Netherlands.
They forgot to be refugees.

Yes. They did forget a couple of times previously and I was unlucky enough to have been a witness to the last:

The Flood of 1953 cost the lives of 1,835 people, ruined productive agricultural lands with the salts of seawater, and was costly to repair failed flood protection system.

It was the next year that I and my family moved to Canada.

Sea level on the rise is very much a concern in the 'Low Countries'. The control systems installed over the past 60 years has been both extensive and expensive, but are constantly at risk of being overwhelmed by storm surges.

The threat of sea level rise due to Climate Change will test the country’s flood protection system. A breach of this system would be costly to repair, but would be even more devastating to the country’s economy and way-of-life.

As its name suggests, the Netherlands, or ‘low countries,’ is and has been especially prone to flooding. Climate change has the potential to increase sea levels by 20 feet (6.1 m). The lowest city within the Netherlands lies 7 meters (23 ft.) below sea level, much lower than New Orlean's 9th Ward. The expansive system of dams, dykes, and dunes maintained by the country, may not be able to hold back the flood of Climate Change.

www1.american.edu...

a reply to: masqua

Yes. They did forget a couple of times previously and I was unlucky enough to have been a witness to the last: 

Ahhhh, ok.
So over 9 million people don't live there any more and are all refugees???
No. They still live there. In fact, over 150,000 people that live there are expatriates.
Yes, floods happen. There was a flood in the year 1287 that killed 50,000 people in the Netherlands when a sea wall broke. Yet, people still live there.
There was a flood in China that killed nearly 4 million people in 1931.... all above sea level.

a reply to: butcherguy

First of all, the population of Holland is over 17 million, so I have no idea where you got the 9 million number. Also, if you think the Dutch are not concerned about sea level rise, you'd be wrong. I have family in the country and know they are.

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Pardon me if i am incorrect, but those who had to leave the Oklahoma " Dust Bowl " during the 1930's where the first American " Climate Refugees " where they not ?

www.history.com...

originally posted by: masqua
a reply to: butcherguy

First of all, the population of Holland is over 17 million, so I have no idea where you got the 9 million number. Also, if you think the Dutch are not concerned about sea level rise, you'd be wrong. I have family in the country and know they are.

Today, approximately 27 percent of the Netherlands is actually below sea level. This area is home to over 60 percent of the country's population of 15.8 million people. The Netherlands, which is approximately the size of the U.S. states Connecticut and Massachusetts combined, has an approximate average elevation of 36 feet (11 meters).

I found it here: Geographyabout.com

originally posted by: darknessdelmundo

Tangier Island

Saw this and thought it was worth a share. Tangier Island, home to 727 people in the town of Tangier could be uninhabitable in 50 years due to incremental sea level rise. The island is currently only 3 feet above sea level.

The Chesapeake Bay's Tangier Island, the site of the town of Tangier (population 727), will become uninhabitable under a midrange estimate of sea level rise due to climate change by 2063, researchers report in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Scientific Reports.

Already, more than 500 lower-level islands in the Chesapeake Bay have vanished since Europeans first arrived in the area in the 1600s, said study leader David Schulte, an oceanographer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District. Engineering efforts could shore up Tangier, Schulte told Live Science, but saving the island and its neighbors will ultimately require action on climate.

The area has already seen much change....out of the 500 islands in the area there, there are now only 2 that are currently habitable.

Thirty-nine islands in the Chesapeake Bay were once habitable, Schulte said. Today, Tangier and Smith Island in Maryland are the only two that remain so. Erosion and sea level rise (and, to some extent, other factors like land subsidence due to groundwater pumping) have eaten away at the rest.

The island has already lost more than half of it's land mass and another Island, Goose island is also in trouble.

Already, 66.75 percent of the Tangier Islands' 1850 land mass has been lost, Schulte and his colleagues found. On the west side of Tangier Island, erosion from large storms plays a big role in the loss, Schulte said. On the east side, gradual sea level rise is mostly to blame. [Photos: Beautiful & Ever-Changing Barrier Islands]

A conservative, midrange estimate of sea level rise gives Tangier Island a mere 50 years to live, Schulte said. "If you take the more extreme high sea level rise, they've got about half the time, maybe 25 years," he said.

To the north, Goose Island is likely to be inundated by 2038 in the midrange sea level rise scenario, and Uppards will be mostly inundated by 2063 and gone by 2113. As firm land converts to sea marsh, the town of Tangiers will likely be uninhabitable by 2063.

There are a lot of problems we as a country and a planet as a whole have to deal with and I hope that climate change is one we are going to take care of , but it honestly seems like it might be too late in some places. Here's to hope.

Thank you for posting this. It helps to know that not all the creeping climate crises are in someone else's backyard and therefore don't exist.

Climate refugees hahahahahaha. We need to set up a rescue fund for them. LOL!!

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Time for them to act like intelligent people and adapt to the ever-changing climate. These won't be "Climate Refugees," they'll be people who had to move with plenty of warning signs and advanced knowledge of a cyclical natural process.

It's akin to people to live in sinkhole-prone areas, then are just amazed, flabbergasted and devastated when a sinkhole opens up on their property and swallows half of their home...but if they had decades of notice and warning signs as it was gradually happening, and yet they still chose to live there.