Panama prepares to evacuate first island in face of rising sea levels (2024)

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Alaska island village threatened by rising seas fights to protect its way of life Kiribati faces its future, and a rising ocean U.S. could see a century’s worth of sea rise in just 30 years How will rising sea levels change California? Look at Florida to find out 13.1 million U.S. coastal residents could face flooding from rising sea levels, study says More to Read Panama’s next president says he’ll try to shut down one of the world’s busiest migration routes Like water sloshing in a giant bathtub, El Niño begins an inevitable retreat Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says More to Read Panama’s next president says he’ll try to shut down one of the world’s busiest migration routes Like water sloshing in a giant bathtub, El Niño begins an inevitable retreat Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says More to Read Panama’s next president says he’ll try to shut down one of the world’s busiest migration routes Like water sloshing in a giant bathtub, El Niño begins an inevitable retreat Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says Drop in Panama Canal traffic because of severe drought could cost up to $700 million Caribbean island Dominica creates world’s first marine protected area for endangered sperm whale Australia offers to help Tuvalu residents escape rising seas, other ravages of climate change Granderson: The Panama Canal is running dry. That’s the U.S.’s fault and the U.S.’s problem Maui residents consider the unthinkable: Las Vegas, the ‘ninth island’ Hurricane Idalia expected to hit Florida as Category 4 storm, huge storm surge predicted References

GARDI SUGDUB, Panama—

On a tiny island off Panama’s Caribbean coast, about 300 families are packing their belongings in preparation for a dramatic change. Generations of Gunas who have grown up on Gardi Sugdub in a life dedicated to the sea and tourism will trade that next week for the mainland’s solid ground.

They go voluntarily — sort of.

The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are the first of 63 communities along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades.

On a recent day, the island’s Indigenous residents rowed or sputtered off with outboard motors to fish. Children, some in uniforms and others in the colorful local textiles called “molas,” chattered as they hustled through the warren of narrow dirt streets on their way to school.

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Alaska island village threatened by rising seas fights to protect its way of life

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“We’re a little sad, because we’re going to leave behind the homes we’ve known all our lives, the relationship with the sea, where we fish, where we bathe and where the tourists come, but the sea is sinking the island little by little,” said Nadín Morales, 24, who prepared to move with her mother, uncle and boyfriend.

An official with Panama’s ministry of housing said that some people have decided to stay on the island until it’s no longer safe, without revealing a specific number. Authorities won’t force them to leave, the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue.

Gardi Sugdub is one of about 50 populated islands in the archipelago of the Guna Yala territory. It is only about 400 yards long and 150 yards wide. From above, it’s roughly a prickly oval surrounded by dozens of short docks where residents tie up their boats.

Every year, especially when the strong winds whip up the sea in November and December, water fills the streets and enters the homes. Climate change isn’t only leading to a rise in sea levels, but it’s also warming oceans and thereby powering stronger storms.

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Kiribati faces its future, and a rising ocean

Kiribati faces its future, and a rising ocean

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The Gunas have tried to reinforce the island’s edge with rocks, pilings and coral, but seawater keeps coming.

“Lately, I’ve seen that climate change has had a major impact,” Morales said. “Now the tide comes to a level it didn’t before, and the heat is unbearable.”

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The Guna’s autonomous government decided two decades ago that they needed to think about leaving the island, but at that time it was because the island was getting too crowded. The effects of climate change accelerated that thinking, said Evelio López, a 61-year-old teacher on the island.

He plans to move with relatives to the new site on the mainland that the government developed at a cost of $12 million. The concrete houses sit on a grid of paved streets carved out of the lush tropical jungle just over a mile from the port, where an eight-minute boat ride carries them to Gardi Sugdub.

U.S. could see a century’s worth of sea rise in just 30 years

A federal report warns that America’s coasts will be hit hard by ever faster sea level rise between now and 2050.

Feb. 15, 2022

Leaving the island is “a great challenge, because more than 200 years of our culture is from the sea, so leaving this island means a lot of things,” López said. “Leaving the sea, the economic activities that we have there on the island, and now we’re going to be on solid ground, in the forest. We’re going to see what the result is in the long run.”

Steven Paton, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s physical monitoring program in Panama, said that the upcoming move “is a direct consequence of climate change through the increase in sea level.”

“The islands on average are only a half-meter above sea level, and as that level rises, sooner or later the Gunas are going to have to abandon all of the islands almost surely by the end of the century or earlier.”

“All of the world’s coasts are being affected by this at different speeds,” Paton said.

How will rising sea levels change California? Look at Florida to find out

From the California’s Pacific, to Florida’s Gulf of Mexico, the sea is rising and becoming an increasing threat to communities that have settled along the water’s edge.

April 17, 2024

Residents of a small coastal community in Mexico moved inland last year after storms continued to take away their homes. Governments are being forced to take action, from the Italian lagoon city of Venice to the coastal communities of New Zealand.

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A recent study by Panama’s Environmental Ministry’s Climate Change directorate, with support from universities in Panama and Spain, estimated that by 2050, Panama would lose about 2.01% of its coastal territory to increases in sea levels.

Panama estimates that it will cost about $1.2 billion to relocate the 38,000 or so inhabitants who will face rising sea levels in the short- and medium-term, said Ligia Castro, climate change director for the Environmental Ministry.

On Gardi Sugdub, women who make the elaborately embroidered molas worn by Guna women hang them outside their homes when finished, trying to catch the eye of visiting tourists.

13.1 million U.S. coastal residents could face flooding from rising sea levels, study says

As many as 13.1 million people living along U.S. coastlines could face flooding by the end of the century because of rising sea levels, according to a new study that warns that large numbers of Americans could be forced to relocate to higher ground.

March 15, 2016

The island and others along the coast have benefited for years from year-round tourism.

Braucilio de la Ossa, the deputy secretary of Carti, the port facing Gardi Sugdub, said that he planned to move with his wife, daughter, sister-in-law and mother-in-law. Some of his wife’s relatives will stay on the island.

He said the biggest challenge for those moving would be the lifestyle change of moving from the sea inland even though the distance is relatively small.

“Now that they will be in the forest their way of living will be different,” he said.

Delacroix and Zamorano write for the Associated Press. Zamorano reported from Panama City.

More to Read

  • Panama’s next president says he’ll try to shut down one of the world’s busiest migration routes

    May 12, 2024

  • Like water sloshing in a giant bathtub, El Niño begins an inevitable retreat

    May 12, 2024

  • Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says

    April 3, 2024

Panama prepares to evacuate first island in face of rising sea levels (2024)

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