Taholah, a village on Washington’s coast, is shrinking. The shoreline of the village is fast receding due to a rise in the sea level, bringing waves closer to the town.

About 3,600 residents of the village -- all of them members of the Quinault tribe -- are witnessing the climate change-led cataclysm play out in real-time. Around 660 Taholah residents who live near the border of the ocean now find themselves in a dangerous flood zone. The only solution is to move uphill.

Experts say that “Taholah signals what’s to come for coastal communities”. Since 1880, sea levels have risen by nine inches, three inches in the last 25 years alone, making coastal towns and cities more vulnerable to floods and submerging them gradually.

According to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), about 15 million American homes are at risk of flooding and the threat is intensifying. The report published in 2020 predicts a mass migration of people from coastline and flood zones while adding that the sea level along the US coastline would rise by 10-12 inches in the next 30 years.

William Sweet, an oceanographer with NOAA, says that the impact of a rising sea level will get worse in the next 30 years with “minor-nuisance flooding” giving way to flooding that’s more “damaging to economies and to infrastructure”.

Also read:

After code red alert, IPCC issues ‘now or never’ warning over 1.5 Celsius climate target

An estimated 13 million Americans living along coastlines would need to relocate inland by 2100, causing a migration crisis in the country. This mass migration would have “economic, social and political consequences”, say researchers.

Despite this very tangible threat, the Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn’t come up with any initiative for the vulnerable coastal communities. In contrast, the Quinault Tribal Council has adopted a relocation master plan according to which people living in the lower enclave of the village would move about a half-mile uphill by 2030. This makes the Quinault tribe among the first in the US to strategies a way out amid the intensifying climate threat.

The tribe council aims to construct 300 housing units, a police station, a courthouse, a K-12 school, and a museum on 200-acre ‘flood-free’ land. While the township goals of the tribe require a huge amount of money, the bipartisan infrastructure bill -- that was signed into law by US President Joe Biden last year -- provided just $ 130 million to support relocation efforts for the 574 federally recognised tribes across the country.

For now, reducing the pace of climate change by bringing down carbon emissions and chalking out a relocation strategy for coastal communities come across as the only possible solutions to an impending global warming-triggered migration crisis in the United States, according to researchers.

Also read: As renewable energy costs dip, usage steadily increases: IPCC report

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)