{"id":45790,"date":"2016-09-05T11:48:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T15:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=45790"},"modified":"2016-09-05T11:48:14","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T15:48:14","slug":"alaska-inupiat-climate-refugees-need-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/alaska-inupiat-climate-refugees-need-new-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska’s Inupiat Climate Refugees Need a New Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
Originally published on EdenKeeper.org<\/em><\/strong><\/a> For over 400 years, this austere, ice-bound Arctic environment has provided home and subsistence for Shishmaref’s community. But now, the forces of climate change are transforming the entire population into climate refugees.<\/p>\n Heavy sea ice once shielded the tribe from powerful storm surges, but ice thawing due to global warming is leaving the island vulnerable to heavy coastal erosion. The permafrost<\/a> layer of frozen soil upon which the community is built is also melting under the residents’ feet.<\/p>\n With few alternatives to protect themselves from flooding and shoreline erosion, the people are losing homes and buildings with every new storm, and up to ten feet of shoreline each year.<\/p>\n On an island of only seven square miles, time is no longer on the side of Shishmaref’s Inupiat Tribe.<\/p>\n There have been numerous attempts to evade the inevitable fate of Shishmaref’s sinking island. Votes to relocate have been held since as early as 1972, and also in 2002. But efforts to find a suitable new home for the climate refugees have failed, time after time.<\/p>\n Previous funding problems have also lately been superseded by soil findings rendering all previously chosen sites unacceptable. However, with new analysis performed last February by AECOM for the state government in Alaska, several potential sites have been identified and deemed acceptable.<\/p>\n With assistance from the US Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, protective seawalls were constructed between 2005 and 2009. The National Guard Armory and several homes were moved away from the shore, as well. The costs were over $27 million, and unfortunately, the lifespan expectancy of this protection is only 15 years.<\/p>\n Once again voting over whether or not to relocate, a community vote taken last week was split 89 to 78 in favor of moving. The official count has not yet been formally announced, and absentee ballots are reportedly<\/a> not yet opened.<\/p>\n Lutheran Pastor Tommy Richter leads Shishmaref’s only church. He reported that the entire community is torn over leaving its heritage behind. He added, “There are people here who have been here for generations and don’t want to leave at all.”<\/p>\n
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\nRetreating onto the uncharted territory of today’s “climate refugees,” the entire indigenous community of Shishmaref, Alaska, is losing the land under its feet. Shishmaref has a population of around 600 members of the Native American Inupiat Tribe, located on Sarichef, a tiny island north of the Bering Strait.<\/p>\nLand is Disappearing Under the Feet of Climate Refugees<\/h3>\n
Community Protections are Only Temporary<\/h3>\n