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. 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.
  • ignirtoq
    29•6 months ago

    And this horrible story of uprooting not only your life but your entire community and its history to flee the rising tide is going to be one of the better stories. These islands are “lucky” to be part of a nation that is based on a continent and has room it can move these people to.

    There are many entirely island countries that will have to evacuate to other countries. Maybe some other countries will offer some of them somewhere to go, but I guarantee it won’t be enough. And it’s going to accelerate. And it’s going to be happening at the same time some continental nations in the equatorial region will be evacuating north due to extreme heat or other extreme weather.

    Scientists have been warning this was coming for as long as they’ve been warning about climate change. And it’s here. It’s starting now.

  • @[email protected]
    14•6 months ago

    There are 60 or so million people in the low lying Bangladesh flood plain that will be needing somewhere to move to. They already suffer from regular flooding and heat waves and it will not take much of a rise in sea water levels to make the flooding permanent.

    • BigFigEnglish
      14•6 months ago

      We’re at the climate refuges part now aren’t we

  • 🔍🦘🛎English
    8•6 months ago

    Glad the country is being proactive, and they’re being relocated just a stone’s throw away.

    Still, this is an ominous story. I hope new place doesn’t stay lifeless.