Across the Arctic, Indigenous people are experiencing major changes in climate which is impacting their traditional way of life.  Caleb Pungowiyi, a Yupik Eskimo from Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island, has witnessed these changes first-hand and also become a spokesman for communities with quieter voices. He addressed the Yale community on October 14th.

While areas across Alaska are experiencing climate change-related impacts, coastal communities are seeing changes of especially large magnitude. Some of the most widely observed are decreasing sea ice, increasing erosion, and changing wildlife patterns.

In recent years, Alaska Native people have watched sea ice arrive later in the fall and disperse earlier in the spring, leaving coastal areas unprotected to storms.  Without the buffer of floating ice, larger waves are accelerating the erosion process which is putting communities such as Kivalina and Shishmaref in immediate danger.  Sea ice has also been thinning and behaving in unpredictable ways, making transportation unreliable and dangerous.  Just two weeks ago, an experienced elder went through the icepack in Barrow during a hunting trip. Because over-ice travel is the main form of transportation much of the year, Native people are left with few safe options.

Impacts on subsistence species are also of particular concern to residents of coastal Alaska.  Many Inupiat and Yupik Eskimo villages are centered more on subsistence lifestyles than cash economies, and hunting and fishing is crucial for their economic, cultural, and nutritional needs. Food obtained by hunters and gatherers provide the year-round mainstay of the villagers, and the region brings in millions of pounds of seal, walrus, bowhead whale, fish, and waterfowl. Many communities also depend on caribou as the foundation of their subsistence diet. The Northwest Arctic herd, a large caribou herd that migrates up to 1,000 km, is a subsistence mainstay for 40 communities. 

With such high importance placed on subsistence species, the effect of climate change on wildlife populations and patterns creates additional concern.  The size of the Northwest Arctic herd has been decreasing in the past two decades, and several potential causes are climate change related.  These include a decrease in lichen which the caribou eat, and increased rain-icing events that impede their ability to graze.  Losing the caribou is a major fear of Native people across the state.

While many of the environmental events currently being observed have occurred throughout time, the major difference presently is their increased frequency and magnitude.  Mudslides used to happen in the summer but now also happen in the spring as permafrost thaws earlier.  Similarly, wildfires were never uncommon, but are now devastating large areas of tundra on an annual basis.

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