Arctic Alaska villages caught in slow-motion disaster onslaught

[Blue_In_AK]

GLOBAL WARMING: Spiraling costs to move imperiled coastal communities pit needs against limited resources.

By BETH BRAGG
[e-mail]

The cost of relocating villages that face extinction in the next decade or so -- sooner if the wrong storm hits the wrong place at the wrong time -- is staggering. Even by Alaska standards.

• Moving Newtok, a Bering Sea coast town of 315 being squished and swamped by two rivers, could cost as much as $130 million. Or $412,000 per person.

• Moving Shishmaref, a strip of sand in the Chukchi Sea that's home to about 600 people, could cost as much as $200 million. Or $330,000 per person.

• Moving Kivalina, a shrinking barrier island in the Chukchi that last month saw most of its 380 residents run for safety from the season's first storm, could cost as much as $125 million. Or $330,000 per person.

Meanwhile, millions more are needed to protect people and facilities threatened by catastrophic erosion until they move.

Where will all the money come from?

"That's the million-dollar question," said Sally Russell Cox, a state planner who is involved in the Newtok relocation.

It's closer to a billion-dollar question, and it's getting a lot of attention at the federal, state and local levels.

<snip>

"These communities are at the front line of global warming and we have to be cognizant of two factors. One is, they were here before the bulk of the rest of us were. And also, what we decide to do there is going to set precedents and trends for how we're going to react to the same issues on thousands of miles of coastline in the rest of the country."

More here: http://www.adn.com/news/environment/story/9398624p-9311989c.html

[msongs]

1. $$ comes from alaska oil money or have alaskans squandered it all? nt

[Blue_In_AK]

2. No, not squandered at all.

It's all in the Alaska Permanent Fund, $40 billion of it, which is probably where the funds will end up coming from to move these villages. What I think is significant, though, is that if this is happening to Alaska villages now, it's going to be happening to Miami and other coastal cities in the near future. People need to pay attention.