Design
Residents Flee Panama's Sinking Islands
The indigenous people of San Blas are forced to relocate, thanks to rising seas and climate change.
The residents of San Blas, a white sand beach archipelago off the coast of Panama, are adapters. Every year, they brace for the rainy season, which fills their homes and shoreline with crashing waves and water. According to Reuters: "Rising ocean levels caused by global warming and decades of coral reef destruction have combined with seasonal rains to submerge the Caribbean islands for days on end. Once rare, flooding is now so menacing that the Guna have agreed to abandon ancestral lands for an area within their semi-autonomous territory on the east coast of the mainland."
Below, a look at the island home many are leaving behind.