Arctic Voices Bring Attention to the Climate Crisis, Need for Inclusive Federal Adaptation Policy in Alaska | Article

The Arctic is experiencing faster and more dramatic temperature changes than anywhere else on Earth. This rapid warming has led to cascading environmental impacts that local people have struggled to adapt to. As sea ice melts, permafrost thaws, and animals become sickly and scarce, Alaskans are left with tough choices on where, or if, to move. This choice is particularly traumatic for Native peoples who have occupied the same land for generations, and whose lives, cultures, and languages are tightly intertwined with the land and water.

On October 5, the House Natural Resources Committee's Democrats held a forum featuring four representatives from Arctic tribes. Panelists discussed shocking environmental changes in the Arctic and policy solutions that could help tribes build resilience in a changing world.

Mary David, Executive Vice President of Kawerak, Inc., and member of the Nome Eskimo Tribal Council, outlined the hardships Native people face in a warming Arctic. David noted the “life threatening challenges for our subsistence hunters, who are having to travel farther to find ice-associated marine mammals [and] they are needing to change timing for fish harvesting because of lack of sea ice.”

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, of Nuiqsut, Alaska, shared a personal anecdote on issues created by melting sea ice, saying “a few years ago I broke through the ice, and the day I broke through, seven other people broke through as we were checking our fishing nets ... what was supposed to have happened with the freezing of the ice becoming our natural highways and transportation routes was not happening.”

Animal life has also been negatively impacted by the effects of climate change and development in the Arctic. Panelists shared observations of sickly fish and caribou, of starving birds dropping from the sky, and of moose and rabbits covered in ticks as warming temperatures facilitate the insects’ move northward. Not only are animals appearing with more physiological abnormalities, but there are also fewer animals to begin with, as Ahtuangaruak observed: “My elders talked about the fish, how we could put our fish nets out in the water and pull out 300 fish in a 24-hour set. Those numbers have not come back to us.”

The health of the animals is closely linked to the well-being of Native Arctic peoples and their cultures, as Bernadette Demientieff, Executive Director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee in Fairbanks, said during the panel: “We live off the land, we eat moose, fish, birds, berries, medicine, and of course caribou; when we do not have our traditional food our people get sick ... our culture suffers when we cannot practice our traditional ways of life.”

The rapid warming the Arctic is experiencing defies easy policy fixes. But panelists highlighted several opportunities policymakers could take to help Native people adapt to their changing environment. David noted that federal requirements for community contributions to disaster aid have prevented tribes from requesting aid at all as they simply do not have the funds to cover their required share. As some communities contemplate relocation, the need for a reevaluation of how disaster aid is allocated becomes more apparent. Other laws, such as bans on ivory that include walrus ivory, have caused economic hardship for Native Arctic people, according to David. Such bans eliminate a source of income that could be used to address community needs.

Panelists also emphasized the need to prevent future oil and gas extraction in Arctic areas. An Obama Administration Executive Order designated the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area in December of 2016. The panelists praised the action because it closed oil and gas drilling in federal Northern Bering Sea waters, required the integration of traditional ecological knowledge in decisions affecting the area, and established an advisory council that would include tribal representatives to guide federal decisions. This executive order was rescinded by the Trump Administration in April of 2017.

Overall, the forum witnesses urged policymakers to improve processes to integrate Native voices in land management decisions. Speaker Maka Monture Paki, Grants and Program Associate at the Alaska Conservation Foundation, summarized this request: “Indigenous people are not always present in the spaces that make decisions about the homes and ecosystems that we live in ... members of Congress must listen to the indigenous communities of Alaska when making decisions about our homes; it’s a collective human right to have a world in the future.”

Author: Amber Todoroff