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'Venice of Northwest Alaska' sinking because of climate changeThe permafrost has sunk so much in one Northwest Alaska village that bridges are shifting, outdoor stairways hang over the ground and sagging water pipes are prone to break and freeze. Those are a few of the ways climate change is affecting life in the Inupiat village of Selawik, according to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium's Center for Climate and Health. "You essentially have the Venice of Northwest Alaska, where the whole community is gradually sinking and people are struggling with how they'll possibly fix all this," said Michael Brubaker, with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Brubaker runs the center, which is studying the effects of climate change on facilities and people in Northwest Alaska. The consortium plans to turn its attention next to Bristol Bay villages in Southwest Alaska. The effects of a changing climate are widespread in Selawik, some 70 miles southeast of Kotzebue. The village has 180 homes and it seems each has suffered one problem or another related to unstable tundra, said Carrie Skin, the city bookkeeper. Windows are cracking. Doors are jamming. Ceilings are breaking loose from joists. Stand a distance from her house and you'll notice it's not level. One side "lops toward the Selawik River," which is five feet away and coming closer as it erodes, she said. Skin signed up with the tribal housing department to have her house leveled, but that won't happen any time soon. The list for leveling work is long and tribal funds are limited. "You have to be very lucky to be the chosen one," she said. At her mother's house elsewhere in the village, the earth has shrunk away. Steps to the front door had to be extended in order to reach the ground, Skin said. Selawik isn't alone in its efforts to grapple with climate change. In numerous trips to five Northwest Alaska communities over the last year and a half, Brubaker reports finding warmer temperatures are changing life in the Arctic, and often not for the better. Snowmachiners are increasingly at risk of plunging through ice. Chunks of shoreline are crashing away. Electric poles are leaning. Boardwalks are breaking. And water plants are struggling with algae blooms and increased sediment from erosion, raising questions about how villages will pay for such problems. The reports released by the consortium are unique because of Alaska's position on the leading edge of climate change, and the impacts to the state's most remote communities are rarely studied. "Everywhere we go, we're identifying big impacts to infrastructure, quite often in places that haven't been talked about before," Brubaker said. So far, the consortium has published extensive findings on four villages. Some brief highlights from each include:
Well I guess folks who put phrases like "these people" in a post can't be too accurate about understanding a problem. First, Selawick has existed far longer than you can imagine. Second, treaty rights dictate that in exchange for the theft of much land and underground resources, the Inupiaq of Selawick are entitled to payments but mostly they come from their corporation dividends, not welfare. They mostly subsist on their home land. You should have read in the article that they are not receiving any immediate relief, although it certainly is a disaster! Yes, they need disaster relief funds like all those people in the lower 48 who are sucking us dry from their claims of losing houses to floods and tornadoes! justlorraine, Isn't it spelled, "Selawik" and not "Selawick" as you repeatedly typed? You admonish me for using the expression, "these people", when referring to the inhabitants of Selawik. Then you use a similar phrase when you describe some folks in the Lower 48 as, "those people". Obviously, the irony is lost on you. As for "understanding a problem", I would say that the problem is the structures in these communities are being washed away and leaving the inhabitants shelterless. That is the problem and the solution is for these inhabitants to relocate to a new location. Problem--Solution. Simple. They are grown adults and have the ability to relocate. Why do you insist on treating them like children? I encourage the people of Selawik to take back their identity and throw off the yoke of the welfare mentality. -TomClark Who put "these people" in their post? Tom, people livlyhood depends on studies, why fix the problem when you can get monies to study the same problem 5,10,15 years. The problem and solution have been figured out on the first study, but that would end the process and they're wouldn't be anythink else to study...yea right? It's the governments way! The Matanuska River has been studied to DEATH with no solution, except the right on, with the first study and that would be to center trak the river by dredging and sell the gravel to pay for it, but that would end all the study monies, so it will never happen! Just an idea: Instead of "studying the effects of climate change on facilities and people of Northwest Alaska", its time for a more solution oriented approach and encourage these people to relocate to higher ground. A little less thought and a bit more action. Ofcourse, everyone is waiting for a gov't handout to pay for their relocation. -TomClark Fortunately, the people of Kivalina and Selawik have enough in common that they can be moved to the same new village. Agreed; however, I take exception with the concept that they must be 'moved'. -TomClark |
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