It is important to remember that climate change is not bringing new threats to people that live in the Arctic. It is making existing threat worst. What I mean is that coastal and river bank erosion has always occurred, but climate change is making it happen at a much faster rate. Permafrost has always melted in the summer months, but with longer and hotter summers, there is more melting taking place than before. We always faced stormy winters, but now that there is more open water in the ocean during the winter, more water evaporates into the air, causing more freezing rain in the atmosphere, which hurts transportation because it stops airplanes from flying and it makes land and ice travel very dangerous.
The thing that I would like young people across the United States to know about Indigenous people in the Arctic is that there are more similarities than differences between you and people in the Arctic. Young people in the Arctic love playing sports, they love smart phones and music, they love watching the same shows that people do in the “south”, and they love pizza and many of the same foods. However, there are major differences in the way we live. Most people in the Arctic strive to live comfortably, with running water and internet access, however as I said earlier, many people do not have this luxury. The most important thing is that we recognize that we are all very similar, and that we will need each other’s support, even if we are thousands of miles apart. We are all a part of one nation, and we must lean on each other for support. The changes that we face in Arctic Alaska are extreme, but if you look closely, the entire world is beginning to face similar changes. So, we must work together to face these changes.
