By Tom Ide –  

As the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly prevalent, it’s now clear that these effects are not evenly distributed, and that climate change is very much a social issue as well as an environmental issue – with indigenous people among the first to face the direct consequences [1].

Figure 1: An aerial view of Kivalina. Shorezone, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Nowhere sums up this issue better than Kivalina, a native village in Alaska where Shearer (2012) conducted research into how the residents are being forced to relocate. It’s located precariously at the tip of a six-mile-long barrier reef island and is home to around 400 Inupiat people [2] who have been protected from serious erosion by the formation of sea ice, which hardened and surrounded the coastline [3] and prevented damage from flood events.

However, because of global warming, the sea ice now forms much later in the year and may have thinned by 40% since the 1960s [4], leaving Kivalina extremely vulnerable to erosion and autumn storms that now occur in this extended ice-free period [5]. The village filed for relocation as far back as 1992 but found that there is no US agency with complete responsibility for relocation and so the process has been extremely slow [4], effectively leaving them stranded and at imminent risk of becoming climate change refugees.

Not only did they file for relocation, but they also brought 24 fossil-fuel companies to trial in 2008 as they deemed them responsible for causing this situation and sought the relocation cost of $400 million [6]. However, the case was dismissed and didn’t attract the attention of the government as they were hoping [3] so the population remains on the island [4].

Shearer’s research into the issues that Kivalina faces is hugely important as it’s indicative of the hurdles that marginalised communities face globally due to a lack of legal power, media attention and wealth. These barriers make it more difficult to overcome challenges like climate change and show that even in a developed country like the US communities can be left unable to adapt to rapid changes.

In the context of climate change, indigenous people are at especially high risk due to their resource-based livelihoods and the location of their homes in vulnerable environments [7], as well as culturally having a much closer relationship with the environment through the stewardship role that they play [1]. The loss of habitats would mean the loss of culturally significant species, so the impacts will not only be social but also cultural for these communities [8].

This shows just how important it is for indigenous communities like Kivalina to have a louder voice in the issues that will have a direct impact on them, and on a wider scale shows how a greater emphasis should be placed on traditional knowledge to help cope with the effects of climate change.

References and further reading

1. United Nations (n.d). The effects of climate change on indigenous peoples.https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/climate-change.html [Accessed 29 November 2021]
2. Maldonado, J. K., Shearer, C., Bronen, R., Peterson, K., & Lazrus, H. (2013). The impact of climate change on tribal communities in the US: Displacement, relocation, and human rights.Climatic Change, 120(3), 601-614
3. Shearer, C., (2011). Kivalina: a climate change story. Haymarket Books.
4. Shearer, C. (2012). The political ecology of climate adaptation assistance: Alaska Natives, displacement, and relocation. Journal of Political Ecology, 19(1), pp.174-183.
5. Cochran, P., Huntington, O.H., Pungowiyi, C., Tom, S., Chapin, F.S., Huntington, H.P., Maynard, N.G. and Trainor, S.F. (2013). Indigenous frameworks for observing and responding to climate change in Alaska. In Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples in the United States(pp. 49-59). Springer, Cham.
6. Golze Desmond, L. (2010). Kivalina and Climate Nuisance: Hope at a Water’s Edge. Available at SSRN 2315577.
7. Wildcat, D. R. (2013). Introduction: Climate change and indigenous peoples of the USA.Climatic Change, 120(3), 509-515.
8. KCET (2019) The Disproportionate Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Communities. https://www.kcet.org/shows/tending-nature/the-disproportionate-impact-of-climate-change-on-indigenous-communities [Accessed 4 December 2021]