Rising Seas And Warming Temperatures Force Alaskan Coastal Community To Move Inland

NEWTOK, AK - JULY 02: The future location of Newtok village, which is having to be relocated to Nelson Island, is seen on July 2, 2015 near Newtok, Alaska. Newtok has a population of approximately of 375 ethnically Yupik people and was established along the shores of the Ninglick River, near where the river empties into the Bering Sea, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1959. The Yupik people have lived on the coastal lands along the Bering Sea for thousands of years. As global temperatures rise the village is being threatened by the melting of permafrost, greater ice and snow melt and larger storms from the Bering Sea. According to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the highest elevated point in Newtok - the school - could be underwater by 2017. Approximately nine miles away, Mertarvik has been established, though families have been slow to relocate to the new village. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)