Those of us who live in Northwest Alaska are no strangers to coastal erosion. We have towns who lose many feet of their coastline a year due to climate changes. There are several villages, such as Shishmaref, Newtok and Kivalina are slowing washing out to sea. There have been articles here and there, such as this on in the Anchorage Daily News that details their plight. This is old new in Alaska. Most of us have heard all about it before....but how about the rest of you? Have any of you outside of Alaska heard about this? Nope Probably not...that is until last week.
I woke up one morning last week, poured myself a cup of coffe, stumbled over to the computer to read the morning news and there it was..... Eroding Alaska Town Sues Oil, Power Companies . What the??? I thought maybe I hadn't drank enough coffee. I headed over to ADN.com and there is was again..... Eroding Alaska Village Sues Oil, Power Firms Over Global Warming . I checked other places and realized that this had been picked up by the AP and it was all over the place and it was NEWS! Alaska has been trying to figure out what to do with this mess for years. Hundreds of people are facing being displaced from the only homes they have ever known, and only now because of this crazy law suit does any news agency outside of Alaska give a crap.
Now this is where it really gets wonky. Tonight I am getting ready to head to bed but I figure I will hit adn.com one more time to see if they have any new Iditarod articles and there it is...... PETA Wants Kivalina To Sue Meat Producers . You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. Let me rephrase that title for those of you who do not live in the great state of Alaska.... "Extremist Animal Rights Group, PETA, Who Does Not Believe In the Consumption of Animals For Human Use, Is Sticking Up For a Bowhead Whale Blubber Loving, Beluga Chowing, Seal Eating, Caribou Stew Slurping, Alaska Native Subsistence Village." I think I hear Alanis Morrisette singing in the background.
4 comments:
I had read about it in a National Geographic article a few years back. An entire village had to pick up and move because the shoreline was eroding away. The article also had pictures of a Russian Orthadox church in it, if I recall.
Cathy that was the coolest, by far, phraseology I have heard in a long time. I am smiling from one seal oil covered side of mouth to the other.
Oh No!! Is that my baby girl that's turning into some kind of a political activist? lol.
Who would-a-thunk?
Love,
Dad
You know what I think we should do with our eroding coastline?
Since automobiles cause a big chuck of global warming gas, we should take junk cars (clean them, of course) and piledrive them into the shore to make seawalls.
Bethel did that in a haphazard way in the 70s, but I think it could be done in a more orderly fashion and be sweet, sweet poetic justice, too.
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