In 1958, the U.S. Army released an educational film on the Distant Early Warning System. The system, known as the DEW line, was built as a series of radar sites along the North American Arctic to alert Washington of an impending Soviet attack. In its opening lines, the documentary describes the North as "desolate, savage, remote. A wilderness of unending barren distance … Not too bad for caribou, but no place for human beings."
Fifty-seven years later, America's perception of the Arctic hasn't changed much. Through maps of melting ice and stranded polar bears, we have sustained a narrative that paints the circumpolar region as a pristine and unpopulated tundra. Instead of using military outposts to detect incoming nuclear missiles, America today has retooled its northern communities to function as a distant early warning system for climate change. Like America of the Cold War, Washington today looks to the North as an indicator of things to come south -- with the intent of taking action before any effect is felt in the streets of New York or Los Angeles.
Although reactionary policy may help Americans in the Lower 48 adapt to a warmer world, such views neglect the 700,000 American citizens who live in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Far from the photographs of endless snow, people live, work, and thrive at the top of the world. Young couples raise families, entrepreneurs start ventures, and future leaders receive education in the same picture frame as melting glaciers and starving seals. Just as polar bears on icebergs are troubled by a hotter Arctic, so too are communities whose very homes face inundation and destruction.
Today, northern residents require American policymakers to move beyond the dominant image of the Arctic as a remote wilderness functioning as a climate litmus test. Alaskans need federal policy and funding that not only reduces carbon emissions by 2050, but also protects families and local businesses in 2015.
Secretary of State John Kerry has the opportunity to realize those needs on Thursday, as he becomes chair of the Arctic Council. For the next two years, Kerry will guide northern governance and development decisions through his leadership of the council, a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues faced by Arctic governments and indigenous peoples.
Although climate change adaptation has been listed as a priority of the U.S. State Department's Arctic Office, it has been grossly overshadowed by the call to build icebreakers and strengthen international cooperation. Addressing transportation concerns for shipping and buttressing global dialogue are both profound and urgent issues. But as northern communities face deteriorating public safety and economic instability from climate change, Kerry must not forget those 700,000 Americans that call the North home.
Much can and should be done over the next two years to safeguard Alaskans against a changing environment. As a first step toward a more comprehensive Arctic adaptation strategy, Kerry should set up a federal relief program to help those most in need today.
Thirty-one villages in Alaska face imminent threat of destruction from shoreline erosion and flooding. Many of these villages have 10 to 20 years of livability before their streets, schools, and homes become uninhabitable. At least 12 have decided to relocate – in part or entirely – to safer ground. Moving an entire community not only takes sustainable town planning and land negotiation; it also takes hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite these high costs, current federal programs for disaster assistance are limited, and oftentimes unavailable to village relocation projects.
Kerry can prioritize America's Arctic residents in need early in his chairmanship by bolstering federal funding and technical support for Alaska villages facing relocation. He can work with President Barack Obama to express the need for federal funds for Arctic climate relocation through the presidential budget request, and with Alaska's U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski to allocate part of the national budget to assist emergency Arctic relocation plans through the newly established Arctic Caucus. Acting in line with his priority for international cooperation, Kerry could even create a regional Arctic Council fund for climate disaster assistance for endangered communities throughout the circumpolar region. By establishing such financial assistance programs nationally and internationally, Kerry can ensure the safety of not only America's Arctic residents, but also show American leadership in both Arctic security and climate change policy.
The Arctic is inevitably the world's distant early warning system for climate change. The North Pole will be the first and potentially hardest hit by ecological shifts and weather pattern variations. But unlike the original DEW line, America as chair of the Arctic Council today must think beyond providing security to the Lower 48 to include those Arctic villages that face serious and immediate danger from climate change. It must invest in local adaptation infrastructure – like relocation plans – that foster economically, environmentally, and culturally thriving communities for its citizens at the top of the world.
Victoria Herrmann is a research associate for the Arctic Institute Center for Circumpolar Security Studies, an interdisciplinary, independent think tank focused on Arctic policy issues.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.