Last year at this time, I posted about the Arctic Tug-A-War in which several nations are clamoring for a place in the arctic and access to its resources. But even with all this attention, no one is taking responsibility to ensure the environmental stability of a fragile ecosystem in peril.
Now, one year later, CNN is again reporting on the struggles in the Arctic. This time around, the climate change is literally making the village of Shishmaref disappear. This tiny village sits on the edge of the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Circle, where increasing global temperatures are thawing the permafrost and causing the coastline to erode and fall into the ocean.
Many other villages on the Alaskan coastline are facing tremendous problems due to global warming, including coastal erosion and flooding. Entire houses have slid away from the shore and fallen into the icy waters. This has caused entire villages to relocate, but some residents are not as quick to move as their neighbors.
For many people in these communities, the ground on which stand holds significant meaning for their cultures and families. By moving, some feel they are losing a piece of themselves. This reluctance to move seems almost crazy, as some houses perch dangerously close to the icy ocean waters.
The people of Shishmaref, known as Inupiat, have a history on this island dating back to the early 1900’s. Considered an indigenous “Indian” or “Eskimo” tribe, the Inupait people have a proud history like many other Native American tribes in the United States. Asking them to give up their land is asking them to give up their history.
The report from CNN, which is incredibly extensive, goes on to site a 2009 Government Accountability Office report that “found that 31 Alaskan villages face ‘imminent threats’ because of coastal erosion, flooding and climate change. At least 12 are at some stage in the relocation process.”
Now the finger pointing begins, blaming every thing from industrialized nations to government to the average person driving an automobile, and of course the talk from skeptics who state that global warming is a myth (see this report on “Climategate“). In the meantime, where are the estimated 150 climate change refugees suppose to go?
It is a complex issue and increasing problem without an easy solution. Rather than asking who is to blame, however, perhaps we should be asking who can and is willing to help?