Climate change forces Eskimos to abandon village

By Azadeh Ansari

(CNN) — The indigenous people of Alaska have stood firm against some of the most extreme weather conditions on Earth for thousands of years. But now, flooding blamed on climate change is forcing at least one Eskimo village to move to safer ground. Authorities have ordered about 340 residents of the tiny coastal village of Newtok to move to new homes 9 miles away, up the Ninglick River. The village, home to indigenous Yup’ik Eskimos, is the first of possibly scores of threatened Alaskan communities that could be abandoned. Warming temperatures are melting coastal ice shelves and frozen sub-soils, which act as natural barriers to protect the village against summer deluges from ocean storm surges. "We are seeing the erosion, flooding and sinking of our village right now," said Stanley Tom, a Yup’ik Eskimo and tribal administrator for the Newtok Traditional Council. The crisis is unique because its devastating effects creep up on communities, eating away at their infrastructure, unlike with sudden natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes or hurricanes. … Tom’s ancestors have been living in the region for centuries, he said. "Our land is our resource, our source of food; it’s our country. We live off of it. If we go to another village or city, we will not be able to survive," Tom said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has estimated that moving Newtok could cost $130 million. Twenty-six other Alaskan villages are in immediate danger, with an additional 60 considered under threat in the next decade, according to the corps. …