Tangier Island is a remote fishing community located 18 miles offshore on the Virginia side of the Chesapeake Bay.

Thanks to its isolation,

many of the island 's 500 residents can trace their lineage back to when it was a colonial outpost.

But at only a mile wide and four feet above sea level,

rising waters are claiming more of the island each year,

threatening its future.

So, these, these are restaurants!

Yes, these are the two restaurants on the island.

And right now it's essentially almost impossible to get there without getting wet.

It is impossible, right now.

Dave Schulte is a marine biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers.

He 's been coming to Tangier Island for over a decade.

You 've been studying Tangier Island.

What have you found exactly?

I took a look at Tangier Island in the past,

estimated its rate of land loss,

and then I projected these with different sea level rise scenarios into the future.

And in a nutshell, Tangier Island doesn't have a whole lot of time.

Because of its sandy foundation,

Tangier Island has been slowly sinking over a century.

But thanks to erosion and rising sea levels due to climate change,

that process is accelerating.

Since 1850, the island has lost two thirds of its land mass.

At its current pace, it could lose the rest in a fraction of the time.

The higher the water gets, the more land it can impact directly during every tidal cycle.

So, the island is both sinking and being submerged at the same time.

Yes, that's correct.

This is climate change.

This is sea level rise happening, right here.

Right, because... - Right now!

Carol Putmore is seventh generation Tangier.

Some of her relatives once lived in the town of Canaan on the north part of the island.

Today, only traces of that community remain.

I see bricks.

Well, these are remnants from people 's chimneys and foundations back in the 20 s.

My grandmother lived up here.

The northern part of the island, known as " The Uppards ",

also bears the brunt of increasing erosion.

How do you tell the signs of erosion?

See this point of land right here,

to this point of land which is now under water.

This was land, that was land last year.

So what, like 30 feet, 35 feet, go on, in between here.

From here to here, there was no water last year. - No. - It was land.

In October it was land.

If we don't get a sea wall, this is what you 'll find on Tangier in a few years ;

remnants of homes.

Right, the area where you live.

Where I live, yeah.

Many residents believe that building a sea wall around the island,

could buy Tangier some much needed time.

Though with a $ 30 million price tag, that's a big if.

James Ooker Eskridge has been mayor of Tangier for nine years.

There are gonna be people who are going to react to the situation on Tangier and say,

" You know, this place is beautiful. There are only 500 people here. Is it really worth it to save the island?"

I mean, we 've been here for hundreds of years working the bay, and

Tangier is a unique place in our, it should be saved, it can be saved.

If there was no possible way to save Tangier, and the money wasn't available,

you know, we would be more understandable.

But the money is available.

I refuse to become a climate change refugee.

I mean, we wanna do something about it.

As of now, Congress has not approved funding for the sea wall.

Without one, Tangier will run out of time.

The high range scenario, abandonment within 25 years, and that's everybody.

According to Dave Schulte, Tangier Island isn't an isolated incident.

It's a sign of what's to come.

You know, as climate change is impacting us,

we 're gonna be making these decisions over and over again all over the country.

You know, who we 're gonna move, what are we gonna do?