News
Shishmaref's Struggle With Climate Change - 2
nima taradji photography
Jun 4, 2017
Shishmaref is a remote village of about 600 people located 30 miles south of the Arctic Circle and it sits atop rapidly melting permafrost because of climate change. As the water temperatures have increased the time span the Chukchi Sea stays frozen is getting shorter each year which then exposes the shoreline to the winter storms accelerating the erosion of the coastline. It is estimated that the island loses about 10 feet to erosion each year. While residents rely heavily on a subsistence lifestyle hunting and gathering their food they will disappear should the traditionally Inupiaq Eskimo village not be relocated as a unit and the residents end up getting scattered around in the mainland of Alaska making these residents one of the first climate refugees from the United States. See the full series here: http://ift.tt/2rqonfl
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