No, BBC, a Small Panamanian Island is Not Drowning Due to Climate Change
By
Anthony Watts
February 11, 2025
The BBC’s recent article “Climate change: The Panama community that fled its drowning island,” claims that the island of Cartí Sugdupu in Panama is being swallowed by rising sea levels due to climate change. This is false. The reality is that the island’s inhabitants are not being forced to relocate because of rising oceans, but due to overcrowding, poor infrastructure, and a lack of resources—issues that have nothing to do with climate change. Furthermore, real-world examples and peer-reviewed research contradict the idea that small islands are disappearing due to rising seas. Instead, many islands are growing, adapting, and naturally shifting over time. The BBC’s report is misleading at best, deliberately deceptive at worst.
Cartí Sugdupu is one of Panama’s San Blas Islands, home to the indigenous Guna people. The BBC’s article, painting a picture of climate-induced displacement, completely ignores the fact that the island is severely overcrowded, with more than 1,000 people packed into a tiny space of just 0.028 square miles. That’s a population density higher than New York City! The primary reason the residents are moving is not rising sea levels, but poor living conditions, lack of fresh water, and a shortage of space—issues that have been pressing for decades.
Instead of addressing these fundamental concerns, the BBC presents the relocation as a direct result of climate change, despite the absence of evidence that rising seas are responsible. The sea level around Panama has been rising at an average of about 1 to 3 mm per year, a rate consistent with natural post-Little Ice Age trends, a rate that has not increased during the recent period of climate change. As such, there is no indication of an impending climate catastrophe as described in Climate at a Glance. At this pace, it would take centuries before Cartí Sugdupu would face submersion.
Some new islands are even emerging. For example in the article San Blas Reborn: New Islands Emerge Amidst Climate Change Hysteria it has been reported:
https://climaterealism.com/2025/02/no-bbc-a-small-panamanian-island-is-not-drowning-due-to-climate-change/
