Meet America's First Climate Refugees

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"Sabrina Warner keeps having the same nightmare: a huge wave rearing up out of the water and crashing over her home, forcing her to swim for her life with her toddler son.

"I dream about the water coming in," she said. The landscape in winter on the Bering Sea coast seems peaceful, the tidal wave of Warner's nightmare trapped by snow and several feet of ice. But the calm is deceptive. Spring breakup will soon restore the Ninglick River to its full violent force.

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Warner's vision is not far removed from a reality written by climate change. The people of Newtok, on the west coast of Alaska and about 400 miles south of the Bering Strait, which separates the state from Russia, are living a slow-motion disaster that will end, very possibly within the next five years, with the entire village being washed away."

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/05/americas-first-climate-refugees-newtok-alaska

[NYC_SKP]

1. PBS Listeners to the Car Talk show will know that a caller from NewTok was on yesterday's show.

Interestingly, the caller and many who chose Alaska as their home do so to escape modern civilization.

Um, sadly, modern civilization will track you down and kill you no matter where on the planet you go.

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2. True. Manhattan isn't far behind.

Are there any preparations being considered (seawall, etc)?

[NYC_SKP]

3. The boroughs are at greater risk than Manhattan.

Staten Island and Brooklyn, and Long Island, all working on rebuilding but not with the level of increased tidal surge security that could fight a rise in sea level.

It's all they can do to just to rebuild and to be able to recover more easily from the next ordeal.

[defacto7]

4. It's the way of things now..

So sad they may loose their homes and land over climate change. I am on the opposite end of the spectrum living in SLC at 4500 ft elevation surrounded by mountain ranges. We are suffocating slowly with crazy air pollution from many sources but one of the most sinister ones are the chemical plants that regularly turn off their stack cleaners.. only at night of course.. Our land is safe, but we can't breath clear air at almost a mile above sea level. The monster is everywhere.

[Socialistlemur]

5. Move to 70 ft elevation and you'll be near a beach.

Yet safely away from storms.

Kidding aside, there's no reason to believe sea level will rise more than a few feet ths century. I do think the north eastern states will have to beef up shore protection and sea walls, and remember to plug their subway entrances near sea level. It's not that bad. But I sure wouldn't want to live in Bangladesh.