MODULE VIII



ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How are Arctic sea-ice, climate and culture all connected?

"So he learned that it caused less pain to think about certain things than to speak out about them..." Two Old Women by Velma Wallis



It breaks my heart to think that my son, much less my future grandchildren, might never see the Artic wildlife that I have grown to love and appreciate due to the tragic consequences of global warming! I can't 'bear' the thought of future generations not having the ability to see polar bears or Beluga whales!! Due to the fragility and lack of species diversity in the Artic it is the first place where global warming is having a dramatic and instant effect on both the animals and cultures of the region. This module once again drives home the point of the extreme interconnectedness of the land and its people!
This module was extremely relevant to me because I have to make a monumental decision about where I will choose to work next year. Right now I have narrowed it down to Homer or Barrow. But this module just drives home the fragility of life in Alaska no matter where you go! I was horrified to watch the video about the damaging effects in Shishmaref. Totally unfamiliar with subsistence living it never would have occurred to me that while the natives waited for the ice to freeze for hunting that the animals were moving away from the villages forcing the people to travel further and further from their homes to get food scarce as it was at the time.

Considering the damage caused by storm erosion I think Robert Iyatunguk (Erosion Coordinator) summed it up most succinctly when he laments that "it kinda scares you inside your body. We're like in a panic mode. If our runway gets flooded out there goes our evacuation by plane.We can't predict these storms...we just take it day by day here." As an elementary school teacher of deaf children it horrifies me to envision innocent children being trapped in one of these villages with no escape route possible. I realize that this happens in other parts of the world but it just seems so much more dramatic here in Alaska due to the extreme weather conditions!
This module, as previous ones, was chock full of interesting factoids about the cryosphere. Some of the more interesting ones included: A given water particle in glaciers, ice sheets or ground ice, however, may remain frozen for 10-100,000 years or longer, and deep ice in parts of East Antarctica may have an age approaching 1 million years.The Arctic ecosystem lacks the diversity of most other major ecosystems. So, if the population of one predator or prey animal declines, the entire food web may be affected and the loss rate of sea ice—now up to 10 percent per decade—is such that summer ice could completely disappear by 2040, if not sooner! Now that is a sobering thought!

"Sa' marveled at the power that the land held over people like herself, over the animals and even over trees.They all depended on the land, and if its rules were not obeyed, quick and unjudgemental death could fall upon the careless and unworthy" Two Old Women by Velma Wallis

This is a small detour from the topic of climatic change or is it really? This quote from my recent read forced me to ponder the fate of the Special Ed. teacher who was killed by a pack of wolves recently. Could the change in climate have impacted their food source which in turn drove them closer to the village in search of food? Or was this just some random act of nature that happens when people and animals inhabit the same space?

I read with interest the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change and while I wholeheartedly support the basic premise however, some "calls for action" grabbed my attention more than others. I don't understand why the natives would consider "clean coal" as having a negative impact as they assert in 6. We challenge States to abandon false solutions to climate change that negatively impact Indigenous Peoples’ rights, lands, air, oceans, forests, territories and waters. These include nuclear energy, large-scale dams, geo-engineering techniques, “clean coal”, agro-fuels, plantations, and market based mechanisms such as carbon trading, the Clean Development Mechanism, and forest offsets. The human rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect our forests and forest livelihoods must be recognized, respected and ensured. We express our solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change. We reaffirm the unbreakable and sacred connection between land, air, water, oceans, forests, sea ice, plants, animals and our human communities as the material and spiritual basis for our existence.

This one in particular caught my attention! 8.We call on financial institutions to provide risk insurance for Indigenous Peoples to allow them to recover from extreme weather events. Are they expecting the government just to give them insurance? I thought anyone could purchase insurance to cover certain natural disasters? New Orleans immediately comes to mind and how they were devastated, and lost everything which forced many to relocate. Would Natives ever relocate by choice to any other part of Alaska?
In summation, whether its the shut down or modification of the thermohaline circulation, change of the albedo sea ice or release of methane and CO2 gases from permafrost and the methane hydrate layer as proposed by Eddie Carmack,oceanographer for Fisheries and Oceans,Canada our world as we know it is currently and inevitably heading for a climatic change of epic proportions. Let's just hope we humans and animals can survive the challenge!

Photos:
1) Stuffed Polar Bear inside Alyeska Ski Resort
2) Model Beluga Whale near Girwood, AK
3,4,) Glaciers outside of Girwood, AK