Climate Change-Alaska Natives

Climate Change & Alaska Natives

KNBA | By David House

Published July 15, 2013 at 10:31 AM AKDT

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Ray LaMonde, with the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program, (with unidentified second person) digs for samples on a beach in the village of Sand Point in the Aleutian Islands.

Bruce Wright, Aleutian Pribilof Island Association

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An Alaska Native group reached into Russia in creating a monitoring program for marine toxins. Here, a Russian (unidentified) digs clams on a beach in Nikolskoye, located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.

Bruce Wright, Aleutian Pribilof Island Association

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A young walrus with skin lesions at Point Lay, Alaska, on the Chukchi Sea. First noted in Alaska in 2011, thousands of marine mammals in Alaska and Russia are sick or dead from a disease that causes skin lesions and fur loss. The cause is unknown.

Anthony Fischbach U.S. Geological Survey

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Willard Neakok, a Commissioner with the Eskimo Walrus Commission, takes samples and pictures of a dead walrus near Point Lay, in northwest Alaska. In 2010, for the first time in memory, tens of thousands of migrating Pacific Walrus hauled out on a beach w

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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Hair loss on shoulder and side of polar bear found off the coast of Alaska during a survey of the Beaufort Sea in 2012.

U.S. Geological Survey

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Lesions and hair loss on the face of a seal found in Barrow, Alaska in 2011.

North Slope Borough Division of Wildlife Management

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Lesions on the flipper of a seal found in Barrow, Alaska in 2011.

North Slope Borough Division of Wildlife Management / U.S. Geological Survey

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Aleut leader Larry Merculieff says, 'The first climate refugees in the US are Alaska Natives.'

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Skin lesion on a polar bear found off Alaska during a survey of the Beaufort Sea in the spring of 2012. In all, nine polar bears were found with skin lesions and hair loss.

U.S. Geological Survey

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Facial lesions found on a polar bear in a survey of the Beaufort Sea off Alaska in 2012.

U.S. Geological Survey

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Michael Brubaker, chief investigator for the Alaska Native Health Consortium, heads along the Selawik River to check out erosion caused by melting permafrost in Northwest Alaska.

Photo courtesy of Michael Brubaker, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

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A sign warning people about the presence of the Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) toxin, which can cause serious illness and death, posted by Trident Seafoods on an Akutan beach in the Aleutian Islands.

Antone Shelikoff

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Reporter Johanna Eurich interviews weather expert, hunter, and elder Leonard Apangalook, who has written daily records on the local weather, sea ice conditions, and wildlife in Gamble, a village located on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. Gathered o

Pamela Apangalook

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As seen here at Selawik Lake, melting permafrost creates large cracks or crevasses as the ground slumps and erodes. In the nearby village of Selawik, slumping is undermining utilities, houses and other structures, including bridges over the Selawik River.

Yuri Gorokhovich

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Leonard Apangalook (right rear) and his family on a Saint Lawrence Island beach.

Pamela Apangalook

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To help reduce the cost of using electric heat tapes around a connection between his home and water and sewer lines damaged by melting permafrost, Jack Snyder insulates the connection with a caribou hide. In Selawik, water and sewer is $180 a month per ho

Michael Brubaker, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

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Blue mussels on a beach in Akutan, a village in the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska.

Bruce Wright, Aleutian Pribilof Island Association

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As part of the first ever Alaska statewide monitoring program for marine toxins, Bruce Wright, with the Aleutian Pribilof Island Association, holds up a small butter clam on a Sand Point beach in the Aleutian Islands.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Wright, Aleutian Pribilof Island Association

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Aerial view of the village of Selawik located on a delta east of Kotzebue in Northwest Alaska.

Michael Brubaker, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

KNBA Presents: Climate Change and Alaska Natives

KNBA recently aired a news series on climate change and its impact on Alaska Natives. Joaqlin Estus and Johanna Eurich examined climate change in the Cook Inlet Region and other parts of Alaska. Those special newscasts along with transcripts and photos are available here.

Please let us know how you liked the KNBA Climate Change and Alaska Natives series by taking a short survey. We appreciate your feedback!

Funding for the Climate Change Series is provided by The CIRI Foundation,Anglo American, and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium