Returning to Newtok, Alaska

Floodwaters rip through the village of Newtok, Alaska, destroying its infrastructure.

In October 2008, I did a two-part blog on the world's first climate refugees. Those climate refugees were the indigenous persons of Newtok, Alaska. Their village was literally being sucked into the ocean. At the time I did the blogs, the main problem to their relocation seemed to the US government's reluctance to pay for the move. Click here for the first part - then here for the second part.

Here is the latest update regarding the villagers of Newtok, AK.

The tiny coastal village of Newtok, AK has been under siege by the Arctic Ocean for many years now. The ocean has been advancing on this tiny settlement at the rate of 90’ per year. Due to global warming, the permafrost and coastal ice shelves are melting. These natural barriers prevented the ocean from reclaiming the land and helped to protect the villages against summer deluges.

The original plan was to relocate the approximately 340 residents to Nelson Island (by 2012) where the villagers have already built three homes themselves with the aid of government grants in anticipation of the relocation.

When we last visited Newtok, the biggest barrier to the relocation was the government's and other stakeholders’ infighting about who would eventually end up paying the bill.

The community has voted to relocate its residents to new homes 9 miles away – up the Ninglick River. I’m not sure why they are not moving to Nelson Island; although, I suspect the reason has to do with money and the costs involved in moving 9 miles as compared to Nelson Island.

"We are seeing the erosion, flooding and sinking of our village right now," said Stanley Tom, a Yup'ik Eskimo and tribal administrator for the Newtok Traditional Council.

The crisis they are facing is unique and insidious because its devastating effects creep up on communities by eating away at their infrastructure while leaving no apparent impact until the danger becomes imminent. It is unlike sudden natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes or hurricanes which leave a discernable path of destruction immediately following the event.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that situations such as Newtok are part of a growing climate change crisis that will displace 150 million people by 2050.

Tom's and many of the other residents’ ancestors have been living in the region for centuries, Tom said. He expressed a fear of the relocating Yup’ik Eskimos: "Our land is our resource, our source of food; it's our country. We live off of it. If we go to another village or city, we will not be able to survive," Tom said.

Meanwhile 500 miles (800 km) in Anchorage, AK, the first Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on climate change is being attended by more than 400 indigenous peoples from 80 different nations.

The conference attempted to address the global issues effecting indigenous persons, such as the Yup’ik Eskimos of Newtok. They also explored ways to raise global awareness regarding the crisis facing these indigenous communities worldwide and to help them “speak with a more unified voice”. The five-day summit was hosted by the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

Summit delegates will work on a declaration outlining the climate change-related issues facing indigenous people. The declaration will be presented at the Conference of Parties United Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of this year.

"On the international level, the meeting in Copenhagen at the end of the year is incredibly important, it will lay down the road map on how we tackle climate change and who gets to be involved," said Sam Johnston of Tokyo, Japan-based United Nations University, a co-sponsor of the summit.

"Climate change poses threats and dangers to the survival of indigenous communities worldwide, even though they contribute least to greenhouse emissions," United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto said at the summit.

Indigenous populations in Alaska are not the only threatened native persons globally. Papua, New Guinea has experienced an increase in population coupled with rising sea levels that is decreasing the amount of farmland available to feed the increasing population.

In the African nation of Kenya, the Samburu tribe is on the verge of a food and economic crisis as lengthy droughts kill livestock that provides income and sustenance for the community.

In Mexico, highland Mayan farmers are battling decreasing rainfall, unseasonal frosts and unprecedented changes in daytime temperatures. These conditions will not support their traditional crops forcing the farmers to plant alternative crops. They also have to search for other sources of irrigation.

"We are the ones that are the most effected" by climate change, said Saul Vicente-Vasquez, a Mexican economist and longtime human rights activist for indigenous peoples.

This phenomenon is becoming so widespread that a new word has been coined just for this type of relocation: climigration. The term was coined by Alaskan human rights lawyer, Robin Bronen, to describe the forced and permanent migration of communities due to severe climate changes and their effects on essential infrastructure. This does not include migration caused by natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes and the like.

"There needs to be a new institutional framework that is created, that's based in human rights doctrines ... that facilitates relocations," Bronen said.

"We have a new village, but we don't have all the funding that the village needs to move right now," said Sally Russell Cox planner with the Alaska division of Community and Regional Affairs.

Meanwhile, village leaders continue to work with the various federal and state representatives, in good faith, while they plan to relocate. As for Tom, he said he's looking forward to getting it over with. "We hope to move to the new village site and be able to get on with regular life.”

We know what we are losing on the ice surface; but, take a look under the ice. This, too, will be lost.

The World's First Climate Change Refugees

In the eroded craters it is possible to see the thin layer of ice that is melting around six feet below the surface. The drips are soaked back up into the soil, causing it to become soft and spongy which allows the sea to slowly undercut and eventually take over the soft soil. Photograph: Brian Adams

Our world is starting to fray around the edges literally. One of the first places to begin to unravel is the land and permafrost under a small village named Newtok on the Alaskan coast (pop. 320).

For years, the men of Newtok have gathered in the qasgiq, the house built of sods dug deep into the tundra and reserved only for the men. This is where the young men would learn of the history of their people; of traditional hunting and fishing methods; survival skills; and, most importantly, bond with the other males of the community.

When the elders of today were young boys, the snow outside lay thick on the ground and the sea was a single block of ice as far as the eye could see. The elders back then warned of a great reversal – a time when seasons would change and the coast of the Bering Sea would never see winter again.

This prediction came from observation of the land, the birds, the animals, the sea, and many other subtle clues for months and years. The elders today are equally observant and they say the change has arrived.

They point to things like snow which used to lie thick on ground until well into June now disappears as early as April. This brings the geese from the south months before they are due. In the old days, the villagers used to take the dog teams out in January or February across the pack ice to fish for sticklebacks. The ice used to be 6’ thick or more. Now it’s a good year if it’s 4’ thick. In the elders’ youth land could be seen stretching far into the distance from the village. Now the water is literally lapping at the village edge.

Newtok has 60 houses and communal buildings, all of which are sinking and tilting at odd angles -- most are tipping downwards at a southern pitch. The boardwalk that connects the homes is sinking and bending in great snake-like curves. It moves slightly when you walk on it.

But how can global warming cause land to fray? Global warming is causing the permafrost underneath the tundra to melt and this is the problem.

Newtok has been described as the Ground Zero of global warming. NASA admits that Alaska has suffered temperature rises approximately double that of any other place on earth in the last 50 years. It has been estimated that Alaska is 4F higher on average; but, can reach 10F higher in winter.

What causes this phenomenon? It’s called positive feedback. Ice and snow have a brilliantly reflective surface which normally would reflect most of the radiation from the sun back into space. However, due to global warming, the ice has started to melt and the exposed land absorbs the radiation, which causes further warming and melting. This starts the melting of the frozen segment of the tundra which forms the permafrost. Scientists feel it could be thinning by as much as or more than an inch a year.

More on this tomorrow!