Should We Stay or Should We Go? Low-Lying Coastal Towns Debate Choices

Two U.S. coastal communities are debating the merits of staying or leaving due to effects from climate change and rising sea levels

1 minute read

July 17, 2016, 5:00 AM PDT

By urbanguy


Tangier Island

A fishing pier on Tangier Island in Virginia. | dmvphotos / Shutterstock

Molly Peterson and Carolyn Beeler of PRI report on low-lying coastal communities around the world beginning to reckon with climate change and rising global sea levels. "[I]t's not just happening in far-away places like Bangladesh or the Maldives. It's happening right here in the US. On Tangier Island, Virginia, in the southern Chesapeake Bay, residents are facing the inundation of a place some local families have called home since the 1600s. They are determined to stay. On Isle de Jean Charles on the Louisiana Gulf coast, a disappearing Native American community has made the opposite decision. They are the first community to receive federal money to relocate due to climate change. It's a tale of two towns, confronting a decision no community would ever want to make, but that more and more will have to."

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 in Public Radio International

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