Southwest Alaska Residents Relocated Due to Melting Permafrost
The community is made up of approximately 380 Alaskan Natives from the Yup’ik village and is currently being moved nine miles awayAlaska Native inhabitants of the Yup’ik community of Newtok, southwest Alaska, are forced to move from their ancestral lands due to melting permafrost because of climate change.
This community is made up of approximately 380 people from the Yup’ik village, which was built on the banks of the Ninglick River, near the Bering Strait. It is currently at risk of sinking due to the accelerated increase in erosion, according to a report published by National Geographic. Relocation is a logistical challenge in Alaska Helping move the community to the village of Mertarvik requires financial and logistical resources, said Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. “They suffer from extreme sinking of the village, as well as extreme erosion, so they have no choice but to move. They have lost miles of land to the river,” Schaeffer said in a contact with Yale Climate Connections. According to the expert, the organization prioritizes moving the community to a place nine miles away, on the other side of the river. So far, almost half of the town has been moved. Schaeffer explained that one of the challenges they face is that the construction season in the region is only three months out of the year due to the weather, so progress in infrastructure is slow. “The old community has an outdated electrical system that is no longer well maintained, while in the new town the electrical system is overloaded and not growing fast enough. We have a community split in half. We have a tribal government that tries to govern and run two systems, two communities,” said the representative of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. It was learned that the melting of the permafrost affected the community’s landfill, the tanks where fuel is stored, and dozens of homes are at risk of collapse. Yup’ik people have witnessed the melting of permafrost in Alaska Members of the nomadic Yup’ik tribe moved for thousands of years in search of wild vegetables, seals, moose, berries, and oxen, until the 20th century, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs forced them to settle in Newtok. Since then, they have witnessed climate change and the thawing that occurs beneath the surface, as this has caused the collapse of roads, pipelines, and building foundations. They have also witnessed the rise in sea levels and how close the water is currently to their homes. A study from the early 2000s showed that vast sections of the town could become part of the river by 2027, according to National Geographic. |