“It’s 100 miles from (Washington) D.C., yet it’s one of the most isolated communities on the eastern coast,” he said. Today it totals less than 740 acres, only 83 of which are habitable, and roughly 460 people, who speak a distinct language Swift describes as a variation of the Hoi Toider dialect Hoi Toider, or High Tider, is a dialect of American English spoken in very limited communities of the South Atlantic United States that can be traced back to influences from 17th-century English. Settled during the American Revolution by fundamentalist Methodists, the island has always been a place apart.

He called Tangier Island a “bizarre” place, which is likely why it has been a popular subject for newspapers and magazines for more than a century. And if you believe Earth was only created 6,000 years ago, science that directly counters that is tough to swallow.” “The island is also sinking, which is a byproduct of the last ice age. “There are elements behind the science of climate change that they have a difficult time theologically buying into,” Swift said. town to succumb to the effects of climate change, with its shoreline retreating at a rate of 15 feet per year, yet its conservative and deeply religious residents are loath to acknowledge mankind’s role in the rising sea levels, interpreting the situation instead as part of a divine, natural cycle. Swift was inspired to write “Chesapeake Requiem” because of Tangier Island’s unique predicament: It is likely to become the first U.S. The public event was part of an initiative on “Apocalypticism, Climate Change, and the American Imagination,” a partnership between the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, the Global Futures Laboratory and the Narrative Storytelling Initiative. “I was struck by just how profound the change was to the landscape,” Swift, an acclaimed journalist, said Wednesday at a panel discussion on Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus to discuss his book, “ Chesapeake Requiem.” Whole swaths of coastline he’d traversed as late as 2000 had completely disappeared by the time he returned in 2015. OctoAcclaimed journalist and author Earl Swift speaks on the power of storytelling to bridge divides on climate changeĪ lot had changed in the 15 years since Earl Swift last set foot on Tangier Island, located in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay.

Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift