The Alaskan village set to disappear under water in a decade
29 July 2013 Last updated at 20:15 ET
The Alaskan village set to disappear under water in a decade
By Stephen Sackur
Almost no one in America has heard of the Alaskan village of Kivalina. It clings to a narrow spit of sand on the edge of the Bering Sea, far too small to feature on maps of Alaska, never mind the United States.
Which is perhaps just as well, because within a decade Kivalina is likely to be under water. Gone, forever. Remembered - if at all - as the birthplace of America's first climate change refugees.
Four hundred indigenous Inuit people currently live in Kivalina's collection of single-storey cabins. Their livelihoods depend on hunting and fishing.
The sea has sustained them for countless generations but in the last two decades the dramatic retreat of the Arctic ice has left them desperately vulnerable to coastal erosion. No longer does thick ice protect their shoreline from the destructive power of autumn and winter storms. Kivalina's spit of sand has been dramatically narrowed.
More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23346370
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Most of the Arctic Slope will be flooded and take out any village along the coastline.
All of the green area is flat and prone to flood from sea rise
