And Still, They Won’t Move

And Still, They Won’t Move

A Small Story with a Big Reason

“To move somewhere else, we’d lose a part of our identity. It’s hard to see myself living elsewhere…

My home means my way of life, carried down to me by my ancestors — living off the land, the ocean, the air …the animals that are here. And it’s important to teach it to my children, to my grandchildren

so they can continue the life that we’ve known in our time and before our time.”

Ardith Weyiouanna, resident of Shishmaref, a small Inuit village on an Alaskan island.

"You know it really breaks my heart, it hurts my heart, knowing that my one and only home will

have to soon relocate, and having all the memories that I have on Shishmaref be gone when

Shishmaref is gone, and when the island is underwater."

Esau Sinnok, a younger resident.

And still they won’t move. Most say they cannot afford the cost of relocating. But even more simply cannot bring themselves to leave a land that simply cannot be separated from their cultural, historical and religious definition of who they are. Inuit, also called the Inupiat, residents are linked to their past by this sliver of contracting land by the sea. Writing for the November 5th Associated Press, describes the harsh scientific reality facing this tiny village of about 600:

“That traditional lifestyle that the Inupiat have maintained for thousands of years is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In Alaska, the average temperature has increased 2.5 degrees since 1992, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Arctic had been warming twice as fast as the globe as a whole, but now has jumped to three times as fast in some seasons, according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.

“Shishmaref sits on the small island of Sarichef — just a quarter of a mile wide and about three miles long. Only about half of it is habitable, but hundreds of feet of shore have been lost in past decades… A warmer climate also melts faster a protective layer of ice during the fall, making it more susceptible to storms. In October 1997, about 30 feet of the north shore eroded after a storm, prompting the relocation of 14 homes to another part of the island, according to a report by the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. Five more homes were moved in 2002.

“Today, Shishmaref is one of dozens of Alaska Native villages that face significant environmental threats from erosion, flooding or thawing permafrost, according to a report published in May by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that says climate change ‘is expected to exacerbate’ these threats… ‘I’m scared we will have to move eventually,’ said Lloyd Kiyutelluk, president of the local tribal council. ‘I don’t want it to be declared an emergency. But the way things are, you know, we’re getting storms that we’ve never seen before.’

“Ahead of a powerful storm in mid-September, officials warned that some places in Alaska could see the worst flooding in 50 years. The storm swept through the Bering Strait, causing widespread flooding in several western Alaska coastal communities, knocking out power and sending residents fleeing for higher ground… In Shishmaref, the storm wiped out a road leading to the local garbage dump and sewage lagoon, creating a health hazard for a town that lacks running water.

“Molly Snell said she prayed for a miracle that would save the village where she was born and raised from being forced to evacuate… ‘The right storm with the right wind could take out our whole island that’s more vulnerable due to climate change,’ said Snell, 35, the general manager of the Shishmaref Native Corp… ‘For someone to say that climate change is not real kind of hurts a little bit because we’re seeing it firsthand in Shishmaref,’ she said. ‘People who say that it’s not real, they don’t know how we live and what we deal with every day.’” Bottom line: Shishmaref is home… not like a house you might rent or buy after entering the workforce… home like where you belong, where you were defined and where you really feel like you belong. Where your faith, your ancestors and your culture were born, long before you were conceived.

Hurricanes decimate, most recently Ian in Florida. Wildfires destroy, most recently several mega-blazes in Northern California. Droughts have brought starvation, most recently all over Northeastern Africa. Major flooding is increasing, most recently in Tasmania and New South Wales in Australia. And coastal erosion takes its toll… like Shishmaref. I’m Peter Dekom, and every political and economic power opposing the now obvious steps we need to contain the death and destruction caused by climate change is committing major crimes against humanity… and life itself.

I’m Peter Dekom, and every political and economic power opposing the now obvious steps we need to contain the death and destruction caused by climate change is committing major crimes against humanity… and life itself.