America’s first climate change refugees are preparing to leave an island that will disappear under the sea in the next few years

The Independent

• In March, Louisiana state officials announced that everyone living on Isle de Jean Charles will have to leave.
• Where there were 22,000 acres in 1955 there are only 320 acres today.
• They are one hurricane away from obliteration.
• The evacuation is a test-run for countless coastal communities in Louisiana, who must all move as the seas take over the land.

ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, Louisiana — America comes to an end here. Connected to the marshes and moss-laced bayous of southern Louisiana by two miles of narrow causeway, waters lapping high on each side, Isle de Jean Charles takes you as far into the Gulf of Mexico as you can go without falling in. But the dolour in the salt air is not just about loneliness and separation. It’s about impending demise.

Don’t call it a death sentence – the intention is the opposite – but state officials in late March made the announcement that had been a long time coming. Some on the island, nearly all members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indian tribe, met it with relief; others with hostility.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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