Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Feb 27, 2020 17:51:45 GMT 2
(.#A.033).- Alaska natives threatened by global warming, August 31, 2019.
Alaska natives threatened by global warming.
August 31, 2019.
Villages devoured by erosion.
Findings :
• Warren Jones, president of the local Yupiks organization, stands on the edge of an eroded Quinhagak cliff.
• Walter Nelson, a municipal representative from Napakiak, walks into a cemetery that has had to be moved and has become a mass grave due to melting permafrost.
• Children were playing on the ice melting last April in the Yukon Delta, Alaska. The temperature was unusually hot.
NAPAKIAK (AFP) The cemetery has been moved twice, the old school is already submerged and the news will soon suffer the same fate if the erosion continues to devour the land of the small village of Napakiak, in the south-west of Alaska.
"Here, global warming, we face it every day," says Walter Nelson, elected municipal of Napakiak, one of the dozens of isolated indigenous communities whose very existence is threatened by the rising temperatures that hit the country. The largest state in the United States.
"The part of the coast keeps going back, much faster than the forecasts, and we must constantly move away from the river to get higher," he explains to an AFP team. visit this village of 350 inhabitants - mostly Yupiks Eskimos - nestled in the meanders of the Kuskokwim River.
He points all around Napakiak's houses and other buildings, many on stilts, affected by this blistering erosion and the melting of the permafrost, that layer of ground previously frozen throughout the year that covers a large part of the surface of Alaska.
RACE AGAINST TIME
"These a race against the clock. The grocery store, the fire station and a municipal building are currently on the list of buildings to move as a priority, "said Walter Nelson. "The school is next, but we will not be able to move it. We will have to shoot it down and build a new one. "
The same scenario is common in all coastal communities in Alaska, most of which are not accessible by road, except in winter rolling over frozen rivers, less and less passable due to rising temperatures.
In Newtok, on the west coast of the state, 350 people will have to leave their village this summer to exile themselves in a new one, about 15 kilometers away.
In Quinhagak, much further south on the Bering Sea, 700 people are preparing to shelter from the rising waters. "We have already moved twice. The last time was in 1979, "recalls Warren Jones, president of the local Yupiks organization.
"But the erosion is going too fast and now, we are preparing the ground for the new site, which will be further from the water," he says.
TWICE FASTER
According to scientists, Alaska is warming twice as fast as the global average. Gentle records were broken in February and March 2019.
"From 1901 to 2016, the average temperatures in the United States increased by one degree Celsius, while in Alaska, they increased 2.6 degrees," notes Rick Thoman, expert of the Center for Evaluation and Policy of the United States. Alaska climate.
"This disproportionately affects the rural communities of Alaska, whose very existence is threatened in the long term," adds the specialist.
Napakiak, lost in the middle of a desperately flat tundra and riddled with small lakes, is accessible only by boat, using small planes, or via the frozen rivers in winter.
RING THE ALARM
For the past 10 years, Harold Ilmar has been employed full time to protect the village from floods caused by storms and erosion of the riverbed.
He moves an average of five structures each year to places higher up and tries to break the gaps in the banks with sandbags and plastic tarpaulins. "I think it would be better if we just moved the village up, over there," he said, pointing to a promontory about 1.5 km from the shore.
Like many of their indigenous counterparts, Napakiak's elected officials have spoken extensively in various conferences, furrowing the United States in recent years to sound the alarm.
F I N.
Alaska natives threatened by global warming.
August 31, 2019.
Villages devoured by erosion.
Findings :
• Warren Jones, president of the local Yupiks organization, stands on the edge of an eroded Quinhagak cliff.
• Walter Nelson, a municipal representative from Napakiak, walks into a cemetery that has had to be moved and has become a mass grave due to melting permafrost.
• Children were playing on the ice melting last April in the Yukon Delta, Alaska. The temperature was unusually hot.
NAPAKIAK (AFP) The cemetery has been moved twice, the old school is already submerged and the news will soon suffer the same fate if the erosion continues to devour the land of the small village of Napakiak, in the south-west of Alaska.
"Here, global warming, we face it every day," says Walter Nelson, elected municipal of Napakiak, one of the dozens of isolated indigenous communities whose very existence is threatened by the rising temperatures that hit the country. The largest state in the United States.
"The part of the coast keeps going back, much faster than the forecasts, and we must constantly move away from the river to get higher," he explains to an AFP team. visit this village of 350 inhabitants - mostly Yupiks Eskimos - nestled in the meanders of the Kuskokwim River.
He points all around Napakiak's houses and other buildings, many on stilts, affected by this blistering erosion and the melting of the permafrost, that layer of ground previously frozen throughout the year that covers a large part of the surface of Alaska.
RACE AGAINST TIME
"These a race against the clock. The grocery store, the fire station and a municipal building are currently on the list of buildings to move as a priority, "said Walter Nelson. "The school is next, but we will not be able to move it. We will have to shoot it down and build a new one. "
The same scenario is common in all coastal communities in Alaska, most of which are not accessible by road, except in winter rolling over frozen rivers, less and less passable due to rising temperatures.
In Newtok, on the west coast of the state, 350 people will have to leave their village this summer to exile themselves in a new one, about 15 kilometers away.
In Quinhagak, much further south on the Bering Sea, 700 people are preparing to shelter from the rising waters. "We have already moved twice. The last time was in 1979, "recalls Warren Jones, president of the local Yupiks organization.
"But the erosion is going too fast and now, we are preparing the ground for the new site, which will be further from the water," he says.
TWICE FASTER
According to scientists, Alaska is warming twice as fast as the global average. Gentle records were broken in February and March 2019.
"From 1901 to 2016, the average temperatures in the United States increased by one degree Celsius, while in Alaska, they increased 2.6 degrees," notes Rick Thoman, expert of the Center for Evaluation and Policy of the United States. Alaska climate.
"This disproportionately affects the rural communities of Alaska, whose very existence is threatened in the long term," adds the specialist.
Napakiak, lost in the middle of a desperately flat tundra and riddled with small lakes, is accessible only by boat, using small planes, or via the frozen rivers in winter.
RING THE ALARM
For the past 10 years, Harold Ilmar has been employed full time to protect the village from floods caused by storms and erosion of the riverbed.
He moves an average of five structures each year to places higher up and tries to break the gaps in the banks with sandbags and plastic tarpaulins. "I think it would be better if we just moved the village up, over there," he said, pointing to a promontory about 1.5 km from the shore.
Like many of their indigenous counterparts, Napakiak's elected officials have spoken extensively in various conferences, furrowing the United States in recent years to sound the alarm.
F I N.
