Climate change: The Panama community that fled its drowning island
On Gardi Sugdub, waves whipped up during the rainy season wash into homes, lapping below the hammocks where families sleep.
Mr Paton says, “it is very unlikely that the island will be habitable by 2050, based on current and projected rates of sea level rise”.
However, the first discussions about relocation began, more than a decade ago, because of population growth, not climate change.
The island is just 400m long and 150m wide. Some residents see overcrowding as the more pressing problem. But others, like Magdalena Martínez, fear the rising sea:
“Every year, we saw the tides were higher,” she says. “We couldn’t cook on our stoves and it was always flooded… so we said ‘we have to get out of here’.”
Magdalena was among those who clambered into motor boats and wooden canoes last June, bound for new homes.
“I brought just my clothes and some kitchen utensils,” she says. “You feel like you are leaving pieces of your life on the island.”
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