Tangier Residents Exceed Fundraising Goal to Save Sinking Island, Despite Trump’s Skepticism

Tangier Island, located on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, is threatened by rising waters. However, Donald Trump believes the tiny island faces no immediate risk from climate change and told the mayor “not to worry” about the increasing sea levels.

This notion has provoked one resident to start an online fundraiser in hopes of drawing attention to Tangier Island’s erosion problem.

“He said, ‘Your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more,” Tangier Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge said Trump told him in a phone call on Tuesday.

The president told him “not to worry about sea-level rise,” Eskridge added.

Since 1850, Tangier has lost approximately 70 percent of its land mass and continues to lose up to nine acres every year. Within the next 20 years, officials fear the remaining residents will be forced to abandon the island due to risks of rising waters and erosion, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. So far, the population has drastically decreased from 1,500 to 450.

After a CNN report came out last week on the island’s vulnerability, the residents — about 87 percent of whom voted for Trump in the November 2016 election — were thrilled with the phone call from the White House and used it to their advantage by prompting that a sea wall should be built for protection.

“We’ve depended on the Chesapeake Bay for a couple hundred years or more, and now it’s the Chesapeake Bay that’s the greatest threat to our existence,” Eskridge told CNN.

Anna Pruitt-Parks, Tangier town council member, started a GoFundMe page with a goal to raise money to purchase 550 copies of a long-form documentary which focuses on the island’s erosion problem. The plan is to distribute the documentary, “Pieces of Tangier,” by filmmaker Jenny Roberts, to all members of the Federal Government, including Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

A letter will accompany each documentary, “detailing Tangier’s history, its current situation and detailing the help that is needed to save our island home from the erosion that is taking us away, piece by piece and day by day,” Pruitt-Parks wrote in the GoFundMe pitch.

As of Sunday, $4,365 was raised, exceeding the goal of $3,200.

“Looks like over 500 copies of ‘Pieces of Tangier’ are going to be send to Congress!” a post on the documentary’s Facebook page said. “There is no pride like Tangier pride!”

Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons