On Sept. 2, far above the Arctic Circle, President Obama announced a series of new investments to help Alaskans adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
The president has proposed to speed up construction of heavy icebreakers by two years and work with Congress to expand the nation's fleet. In his 2016 budget, Obama requested $14 million to support the Denali Commission in coordinating federal, state, and tribal resources to implement climate change solutions across Alaska. $2 million of this will be reserved to support relocation efforts and other resilience strategies for exceptionally vulnerable communities. The Departments of Energy, of Agriculture, of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the State of Alaska have all pledged grant programs, initiatives, and projects to buttress the president ambitious plan. Beyond government, foundations, private industry, non-governmental organization, and tribal leaders have been announced as key partners in the president's critical efforts in safeguarding America's northernmost citizens who live on the front lines of climate change.
The importance of these commitments cannot be understated.
The Arctic is warming at a rate almost twice as fast as the global average, making climate change's effects in the circumpolar north far more intense than any other ecosystem in the world. Coastal erosion, forest fires and storm surges are threatening the physical and economic safety of settlements across the Arctic Ocean shoreline. Further inland, thawing permafrost is compromising the stability of transportation, sanitation, and public service infrastructure built upon once sturdy foundations. Thirty-one Alaska villages have only 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 to avoid total collapse.
Moving an entire community to a safer location mere miles away can cost anywhere from $80 million to upward of $250 million. While the White House's proposed investments are small in comparison, they are huge in potential. President Obama's pledge in Kotzebue on Sept. 2 is the first financially backed recognition of the dire climate situation of tens of thousands of American citizens. The commitments by the president and his many public, private, and nongovernmental partners will answer a call for help from rural Arctic communities that has gone unanswered for over two decades.
The federal funding will support equitable and safe climate-related relocation and retreat efforts by communities in high-risk areas. For those staying in their ancestral homes, the funding will help improve critical clean drinking water infrastructure that has been compromised by melting permafrost and support renewable energy developments for rural communities that currently spend up to half of their income on diesel fuel. These federally financed projects will be based on sound baseline data from supportive NOAA and EPA programs and implemented by local capacity building initiatives like the newly endowed Resilience AmeriCorps and internship program for tribal youth working on resilience projects.
The creativity and inclusiveness of these investments to enhance safety and security in a changing Arctic will tangibly improve Alaskans' abilities to adapt to a melting landscape. But their significance goes far beyond the concrete contributes to at-risk communities – it establishes the United States as a regional power ready to lead.
When Secretary of State John Kerry assumed the chairmanship of the Arctic Council last April, the United States was barely an Arctic nation. Domestically, Americans in the Lower 48 saw its northern territory as remote, and the North in general as an uninhabited wilderness of glaciers, snow and polar bears on icebergs. Internationally, other Arctic states viewed America as ill-prepared to take on the council chairmanship, with little political, financial or emotional investment in the region it would lead for the next two years.
Obama's three-day sojourn north and his announcement in Kotzebue have awoken audiences at home and abroad to the Arctic's national importance and America's ability to be a strong, global leader of Arctic climate change policy. Citizens from New Jersey to California have seen, many for the first time, the devastating effects of climate change in Kotzebue and Kenai Fjords National Park. The Arctic, once a distant last frontier, is now the topic of dinner table conversations and social media debates.
Foreign delegations from Canada, Russia, the Scandinavian countries and many observing states came together earlier this week to see first-hand America's newfound leadership of the North. Collectively with 19 EU countries, they have stood by Obama and pledged their commitment through a joint statement to curb greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate the effects of climate change in the Arctic. America is beginning to establish itself as not only an Arctic nation, but an Arctic leader in helping northerners adapt to climate change today.
But this is just a start. Much more needs to be done not just by the United States, but by all Arctic states.
On Aug. 31 in Anchorage, President Obama, told delegations from both Arctic and non-Arctic nations that, "none of the countries in this room are moving fast enough." And he's right. Through the president's new investments to help Arctic citizens in need, America is creating a foundation for international cooperation on Arctic climate adaptation. Over the next two years, the United States, partnered with nations across the region, must do more to build on these initial investments to help humanity's most vulnerable climate victims
Victoria Herrmann is the U.S. director of The Arctic Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that focuses 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.