Alaska’s fossil-fuel policies are shortchanging our future

As born-and-raised Alaskans, the word “home” holds unique meaning for us. Our lives revolve around and depend upon Alaska’s bountiful resources: salmon runs and flooding tides, caribou and cranberries. Our earliest memories were shaped by heavy winter snows. Our most influential teachers were not found in classrooms but darting beneath the forest canopy and bobbing through ocean swells. Home is not merely the ground we live on but core to who we are. Yet our deep connection to place comes with an ever-growing fear as the climate crisis threatens our home, identities, safety, and well-being.

From an early age we understood the precious fragility of Alaska’s wild ecosystems and dedicated ourselves to its protection. Our government, however, has actively made the climate crisis worse. In the face of ample scientific evidence supporting the severity of Alaska’s climate crisis, our state government continues to pursue an official energy policy of zealously promoting fossil fuels, thus perpetuating rather than solving the problem.

That is why we, along with 14 other young Alaskans, turned to pursuing action in the judiciary, supported by Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit, public interest law firm. Since filing in 2017, we have fought to hold the state of Alaska accountable to its youth and constitution, which states its very purpose is to “transmit to succeeding generations a future of ... civil ... liberty.” As we have moved through the courts, the state has not only been complicit in the face of the climate crisis, it has continued to go out of its way to support the extraction of fossil fuels, most recently with the sale of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, spending millions of the state’s limited budget on oil leases in an attempt to ensure development occurs despite public opposition, scant industry interest, poor economic prospects and the threat to our very future. The state’s purchase of these leases serves only to confirm its dedication to promoting fossil fuels in the face of the climate crisis.

As young people who will live through the most extreme effects of the climate crisis, we are disproportionately affected by decisions made today. Alaska is one of the fastest-warming places on the globe, and we have already suffered concrete damages due to climate change. Erosion from an ice-free ocean claims villages in Southwest and Northwest Alaska, wildfires rage through Southcentral and the Interior, and fisheries dwindle in our warming and acidifying waters.

We are litigating to hold our government accountable for the harm caused by these crises. Currently, our case awaits a decision from the Alaska Supreme Court which will dictate whether or not we can move forward in the courts. As we wait for the decision, we continue to watch our air fill with smoke, our snow melt, and our state ignore scientific fact and public interest.

With the state continuing to promote fossil fuels and worsen the climate crisis, it is urgent that Alaska’s courts hear our claims and protect our constitutional rights.

Linnea Lentfer and Brian Conwell are two of 16 plaintiffs in Sagoonick v. State of Alaska, which is pending in the Alaska Supreme Court. Linnea lives in Gustavus and Brian in Dutch Harbor; both are born and raised Alaskans.

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