The murals panels for Shishmaref School! The top 4 by me, the lower 4 by @david_pettibone_art. Shipping to the Alaskan village soon for installation.
David and I took this project out of great respect for the people of Shishmaref, who have witnessed their coastal island erode, thaw, and begin to disintegrate into the sea. They have been described as some of the first climate change refugees, having to move their village to neighboring mainland. Our reverence for life near the Arctic Circle, and the beautiful furred/finned/feathered inhabitants that the people depend upon, has led us to these painted panels that will mount to the schools hallways for many generations to come.
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Annauk Olin, a graduate student in MIT Linguistics, is working to help her Alaska Native community of Shishmaref preserve their Iñupiaq language and navigate the severe impact of climate change on their coastal village.
Look out!
AILDI Summer 2020 and MIT Linguistics graduate student Annauk Olin didn’t grow up speaking Iñupiaq. Now, she's raising her son in her language and helping her Alaska Native community of Shishmaref keep Iñupiaq language alive to navigate the severe impact of climate change.
Climate change is threatening to make this Arctic village unlivable. But can it be reborn in a new location?
Shishmaref, Alaska
As the world warms -- thanks largely to the 1,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide we humans are pumping into the atmosphere each second -- the ice is disappearing. The planet has warmed about 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, when people started burning fossil fuels for heat and electricity, creating a blanket of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. But scientists say the Arctic, the far-north, is warming twice as fast as the rest of Earth."I miss that cold, cold weather," says Hazel Fernandez. I meet her in a community hall; she'd rather be fishing on the ice but says it's still too thin. "It's too weird. It's too warm."
Outside, thermometers show temperatures in the mid-20s Fahrenheit, or about minus 4 Celsius. That's freakishly warm for December, everyone tells me. I'm wearing two coats and ski pants, and residents of Shishmaref seem to find that hilarious. This isn't cold, they say. Their sealskin hats and mittens, the fur-lined hooded parkas -- those mostly stay at home.Fernandez, in her early 60s, fondly remembers temperatures of 30- and 40-below Fahrenheit.But mean air surface temperatures increased more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Arctic region between 1960 and 2011, according to the US National Snow & Ice Data Center. Arctic sea ice, measured since 1979, was at a monthly record low in January. And the September sea ice minimum is decreasing at a rate of 13.3% per decade.
Relocation
August 2016: Globally, it tied for the hottest month of the hottest year on record. In Shishmaref, residents went to the polls to decide whether they would relocate because of warming.The answer: Yes, by a margin of 89 to 78, according to local officials.But the August 16 vote did not solve Shishmaref's trouble. Far from it.Annie Weyiouanna, local coordinator for the Native Village of Shishmaref, tells me the tribe has no money to fund the move. And this isn't the first time the village has held a relocation vote. They did so in 2002, as well. Nothing changed. No one in the village today is packing. And Weyiouanna has tried to stop using the word "relocation" -- or uses it minimally, sometimes correcting herself -- because she worries it will signal to funding agencies in the state and federal governments that the village will be gone soon and doesn't need help with grants or infrastructure. The reality is that no one knows how long the village will be stuck. Perhaps forever, some worry, or until the island is gone."
They are not safe right now, and their lives are in danger because of the storms that are coming in," said Robin Bronen, executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice and a senior research scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was referring to Shishmaref as well as Newtok and Kivalina, Alaska, which face similar circumstances. "(T)hey just need a large sum of money to get them to the places that they've chosen so they can be safe."Shishmaref has identified two potential sites for a new version of the community. Both are inland, meaning hunters and fishers would not be able to access the sea as easily. Some people in the community -- particularly elders -- believe the move threatens the tribe's Inupiat identity. Away from the coast, are they still the same people? Why should they move when others are driving climate change?
Esau has wrestled with these questions, too. His grandparents, Shelton and Clara, the couple in the blue house at the edge of the Earth, who lost their son to the ice, do not want to leave. They want to stay in their home -- in the community they know so well -- no matter the risks.Esau worries about them. "If you ask the older generations like my grandfather, their views are totally different," he tells me. "They want to stay on this island forever and ever. And I respect that decision. They're my elders." But, to me, I think we have to relocate so that our future generations can still be alive."
The murals panels for Shishmaref School! The top 4 by me, the lower 4 by @david_pettibone_art. Shipping to the Alaskan village soon for installation.
David and I took this project out of great respect for the people of Shishmaref, who have witnessed their coastal island erode, thaw, and begin to disintegrate into the sea. They have been described as some of the first climate change refugees, having to move their village to neighboring mainland. Our reverence for life near the Arctic Circle, and the beautiful furred/finned/feathered inhabitants that the people depend upon, has led us to these painted panels that will mount to the schools hallways for many generations to come.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
