The problem with a giant con game like global warming hysteria is that the baseline dishonesty ends up corrupting other institutions. Academia is pre-eminent among the collateral corruptees, but even a Native American tribe in genuine peril is in on the game. Willis Eschenbach provides the ugly details at Watts Up With That?

He spotted news that a tribe on the seashore of Olympic Peninsula is being touted as the “first climate refugees.” He drily notes eight other separate claims of being the first climate refugees, so he dubs the Quinault Indian Nation the “ninth first climate refugees.”

But that is not the nub of the criticism. It is that the Quinaults are genuinely threatened by tsunamis and in all logic ought to evacuate their current settlement right on the shore, because a major fault is nearby and overdue.

But the money is not in tsunamis; it is in global warming. So, as NPR says:

In the U.S. Northwest, sea-level rise is forcing a Native American tribe to consider abandoning lands it has inhabited for thousands of years. The Quinault Indian Nation, whose small village lies at the mouth of the Quinault River on the outer coast of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, now relies on a 2,000-foot-long sea wall to protect it from the encroaching Pacific Ocean. (snip) The Quinault tribe has developed a $60 million plan to move the entire village of Taholah uphill and out of harm's way. That will mean relocating the school, the courthouse, the police station and the homes of 700 tribal members a safer distance from the encroaching Pacific. "It's a heavy price tag," Sharp acknowledged, adding that she and others with the Quinault will be turning to Congress, philanthropists and the tribe's own financial resources to pay for the project.

NPR plays the usual sympathy game:

This place, right here, where we are, is where my people have lived for thousands of years, and each and every member of this tribe, we're all proud Quinault tribal members, proud Native Americans. I don't ever want to leave this place, but if the ocean keeps rising, we're going to have to.

But Eschebach demonstrates that global warming is not at all the problem.

The Quinault Reservation is on the Pacific side of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. NOAA has a “Climate Explorer” that lets us see just how great the danger might be from a one-foot (30-com) sea level rise. Here’s a blink comparator of the two for their main town, Taholah … Hmmm … as you can see, even a one foot rise will do little to the town, doesn’t even make it in as far as the street nearest to the river. In any case, how long will it take for the ocean to rise that one foot? To answer that, we can take a look at the nearest tide gauge, which is at Neah Bay on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. Here is that record … Ooops … according to the data, the sea level has been falling since the start of the tidal records … go figure. Since 1940 the sea level off of northern Washington has dropped about 15 cm. (6 inches). At that rate, how long will it take to rise one foot?

How long will the swindle last?