Almost all of Alaska’s indigenous villages are learning to live with the dramatic changes in the far north: the thinning sea ice, the melting of the frozen sub-soil known as permafrost. But for some villages the consequences of climate change are a direct threat to their existence.

A government report in 2003 found that 86% of all indigenous Alaskan villages – 184 communities – were experiencing consequences from climate change. The most destructive of those effects were erosion, flooding and extreme storms.

Some of the villages considered most at risk are:
Kivalina

An Inupiaq Eskimo village, with a population of about 400, Kivalina is situated on a barrier island in the Chukchi Sea, about 80 miles north of the Arctic circle. Villagers have survived in the area for centuries by hunting bowhead whales.

But climate change has led to their narrow barrier island rapidly losing land to the sea. The village is now overcrowded, with no room to expand with its growing population, and it is dangerously exposed to severe storms.

Last October, the state declared a disaster after the main water line to the village was destroyed by a storm. The village was forced to close the school and impose water rationing.

Engineers have now concluded there is little hope of protecting the village in its current location. In the late 1990s, a severe storm took out a first attempt at a sea wall, put together by the villagers with oil drums and debris. Several years later, another storm destroyed a far more expensive concrete version, just before its official opening.

Residents of Kivalina are desperate to leave – and have voted five times to move to a safer location on the mainland. But they have yet to get government approval for a new site for the village.

Other attempts to escape climate change have also failed. The village lost a law suit last September blaming oil companies for the climate change that has destroyed their way of life. Lawyers are now trying to get the supreme court to take up the case – but admit there is only a slim chance.
Koyukuk

The village is located on the Yukon River near the mouth of the Koyukuk River, and the people are from Athabascan indigenous group. The former fur trading post now faces a triple threat: erosion, flooding, and forest fires. The village, which has a population of about 90, decided to relocate in 2008, but has yet to choose a site, let alone get it approved. The villagers are now back to square one, deciding whether to relocate or try to shore up their existing site – or “re-evaluating” in official parlance.

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