Global warming disrupts Native life in Alaska

Nov 27, 2011

By Paddy Colligan and G. Dunkel

Global warming has hit the Arctic region hard, making the lives of the Native peoples living along the coast of Alaska in isolated communities that depend on hunting and fishing for their survival much, much harder.

In the second week of November, a blizzard whose intensity, tidal surges and wind-driven waves weather forecasters have not seen for decades, hit western Alaska. Forecasters compared its power to Hurricane Irene. It was a thousand miles wide. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that some areas of western Alaska would get 10 to 18 inches of snow.

The village of Shishmaref, located on a narrow barrier island just off the coast, had voted to move years ago after a series of lower intensity storms ate away one end of their village, threatening over a dozen houses. The move would cost over $180 million. People have lived at the present location of Shishmaref for over 4,000 years.

Kivalina, another coastal village north of Shishmaref and also located on a barrier island, is especially vulnerable to tides and storm surges. Volunteers had to struggle through hurricane-force, howling winds to ferry villagers to the village school, the most solidly built structure in Kivalina. (Anchorage Daily News, Nov. 9)

As sea ice has diminished, taking longer to form in the fall and departing earlier in the spring, its dampening effect on the waves and storm surge that come with blizzards is lessened, increasing their impact. Warm weather also lessens the strength of the permafrost so that waves pounding on the shore do more damage. (Climate Central, Nov. 8)

Since the sea is warmer, shore ice hasn’t formed yet, and the villagers in Shishmaref and on other small islands have no access to the mainland to hunt for caribou and moose, a major part of their subsistence food supply.

Global warming not only affects ice forming, it also means the waters in the northern Pacific are warmer. That allows more energy to be transferred from the water to the air, making storms more powerful and changing their tracks further north, so they strike the Chukchi Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean, which has its own storms.

Oil exploration companies planning to locate their rigs on the northern and western coasts of Alaska are obviously worried about the problems these storms will pose, since they are forecast to intensify and more of them will last longer. But that hasn’t stopped the companies from getting exploration licenses and drilling test pits in search of a big payoff.