Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay is disappearing. It has lost two-thirds of its land since 1850, and its shoreline retreats by fifteen feet a year—meaning this storied place will likely succumb first among U.S. towns to the effects of climate change. Experts reckon that, barring heroic intervention by the federal government, islanders could be forced to abandon their home within twenty-five years. Meanwhile, the graves of their forebears are being sprung open by encroaching tides, and the conservative and deeply religious Tangiermen ponder the end times.
We’ll revisit our conversation from August 2018 with Earl Swift, talking about his book Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island.
