What if you saw your home town literally shrinking as the years have gone by? It might be hard to imagine such a thing, but this is what 600 native Eskimos in Alaska are facing now due to Climate Change. The coastline of their island is eroding before their eyes.

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“The Alaska Native village of Shishmaref, near the Bering Strait, is home to about 600 Inupiat, or Eskimo, people. But the land is rapidly shrinking. “I see a big difference around this island where we as humans will try our best to save it but, it’s not going to be enough,” said Alfred Ningeulook, a lifelong Shishmaref resident. And Molly Snell, another lifelong resident and young mom, said that she fears the right storm could take out their whole island and that climate change has left them vulnerable. Jason Gleck, a Glaciologist at Alaska Pacific University, would agree with them both, “Alaska villages are susceptible to sea level rise because most of them are located not only along rivers but along the coastal areas,” he said. “With climate change and a warming climate, sea ice is being impacted. A lack of sea ice is going to mean that there’s no longer any protection from the fall, winter storms that come in.” Due to these increased storms, which produces continued coastal erosion, the close-knit island community has voted twice to relocate. First in 2002 and again in 2016. But due to the high cost of relocating the whole village and wanting to preserve their traditions like subsistence hunting and gathering, they have decided to stay.”

A satellite view shows Hurricane Ian a few days after it made landfall in Florida on Oct. 5, 2022.

One could only hope Florida’s governor is correct in his prediction that Hurricane Ian was a 500-Year Storm, meaning it will happen only once in 500 years. Unfortunately, many scientists see a different future for the East Coast of the United States. That means more loss of lives and property for the future will impact thousands of people in the path of future hurricanes.

The East Coast of the U.S. will need to brace for more devastating storms like hurricanes Fiona and Ian should the global reliance on fossil fuels remain business as usual, scientists are warning.

Warming temperatures around the world are the root contributor that will cause more storm systems to behave like Fiona and Ian, with increased moisture and the likelihood of rapid intensification as they head toward land, according to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters on Monday.

This will make the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. a “breeding ground” for rapidly intensifying hurricanes, the researchers said.

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It’s been called a “Five Hundred Year Storm” by Florida’s governor DeSantis. But do politicians really know when the next “Ian” will strike Florida, Texas, or another state? What if the next extreme hurricane hits in the next five years instead? Will putting a label help those impacted by such a storm? It’s very doubtful. Already scientists are researching new trends which could be named “Extreme Weather” due to Climate Change.

In fact, “Climate change increased the rainfall from Hurricane Ian by more than 10 percent, two U.S. researchers have found. Ian pummeled parts of Florida, killing dozens and inflicting tens of billions of dollars in damage. Ian pummeled parts of Florida, killing dozens and inflicting tens of billions of dollars in damage. The state has been a hurricane hotspot for decades, but Ian was likely one of the deadliest storms it’s ever seen, and President Biden said last week it will probably rank as one of the most destructive storms in the nation’s history. Much of the devastation has been due to the storm’s relentless rainfall, which the new quickfire analysis found was made worse because of planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution.”

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