The people who chose to build their town on an island are now whining that the bad old USA needs to save them as the island is supposedly sinking.
News flash! Islands submerge and often reappear again over centuries the world over as part of the dynamism that is our planet.
Back in the ’70’s I wrote a report about islands off the coast of Virginia that had whole towns on them (hotels, schools, cemeteries) that began to be uninhabitable by the early 1900’s as they were buffeted by major east coast storms (before cars were widely used! before global warming!). The people simply recognized that it would be foolish to stay, and moved inland. They didn’t cry out to the federal government to save them from their original choice.
Now we have these whiny Alaskan islanders who wonder if the federal government will leave them there to die!
Here is the news at HNGN:
Kivalina is located on a very thin barrier reef island between the Chukchi Sea and the Kivalina Lagoon, in the northwest of Alaska, above the Arctic Circle. And it may not be there in a decade, thanks to climate change.
In approximately 10 years, the village of Kivalina in northwestern Alaska could be submerged, giving its approximately 400 residents the ubiquitous honor of becoming the first climate change refugees of America, so much so that the U.S. government says it may be too dangerous to live there.
Waahhhh! Is the US government going to leave us here to die?
“If we’re still here in 10 years time we either wait for the flood and die, or just walk away and go someplace else. The U.S. government imposed this Western lifestyle on us, gave us their burdens and now they expect us to pick everything up and move it ourselves. What kind of government does that?” Swan (a local elected official) asked while speaking to the BBC.
You pick it up and move it yourself! And, maybe whaling is going the way of the buggy whip anyway!
One more case in the PR campaign that is building for governments (the US taxpayer mostly!) to take care of ‘helpless’ people worldwide while they bash America!
See our category—Climate refugees for more on this newest excuse for the redistribution of wealth and people.