Gardi Sugdub is a small island off the Caribbean coast of Panama, dotted end to end with housing for about 1,300 members of the indigenous Guna people. The island is sinking under rising waters as the planet warms. That is why Panama has built a housing project inland for the entire population. This month they are moving into their brand new homes.
If only all climate migration could be this simple.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order earlier this month making it harder for people to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest move in a political war over immigration that has divided the country for decades. But as with many consequences of a changing climate, perhaps one day we will look back on the era that gave us election-year panic in the migrant caravans and Donald Trump’s big, beautiful wall as “the good old days.”
