'Chesapeake Requiem' Chronicles Life On An Endangered Island

Tangier Island is in trouble — though that's kind of nothing new. The little island in the Chesapeake has been home to a small, self-reliant community for centuries, and it's been washing away little by little for just as long. But now, climate change is driving the waves higher.

Earl Swift was a reporter for the Norfolk, Va., when he first stepped onto Tangier's marshy ground in the summer of 1990. He tells me in an email conversation that he was "dispatched back to the dry, deeply religious island that December for New Year's Eve. While experiencing what had to be the quietest millennial celebration on Earth, I got to explore the place. What I found was a board-flat, watery little squiggle of marsh that barely cleared the tides — largely treeless, open to weather from every direction, and surrounded by miles of moody water. I had to recalibrate my senses to appreciate its