Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
shishmaref's shores, alaska
The subsistence village of Shishmaref, with a population of 550, is threatened with destruction, principally because of
longer ice-free periods of the adjacent ocean (allowing more storm waves to strike the shoreline) and the melting of
permafrost in the beach sand. In the Arctic, moving an entire village, even a small one, is a very costly proposition. In
this case relocation to the mainland is expected to cost $300,000 to $400,000 per villager.
Chuckchi Sea on Sarichef Island, an island
six and a half kilometers (four miles) long,
it has 550 inhabitants who live in small
government- issue buildings.
In bygone days Shishmaref and the other
villages became safely enclosed by a frozen
ocean starting in September or October, so
winter storms passed by harmlessly. Now
the Arctic “summer” (the period of ice-free
ocean waters) extends into November, so
winter storms strike an island no longer
encased in ice. In addition, the warmer cli-
mate and extended ice-free period have re-
sulted in melting of the permafrost in the
beach sand. Frozen beach sand acts like a
natural sea wall, but when the grains are
no longer held in permafrost ice, erosion
accelerates. Adding to Shishmaref 's woes
is the rising level of the Arctic Ocean.
It has become clear that Shishmaref
must be abandoned. But Inupiat Eskimo so-
ciety is no longer as flexible or sustainable
as it once was. There are several options
for the village's response to sea level rise
and warming climate. The villagers could
move to the Alaska mainland, to another
village, or to the “big cities” of Nome, Kot-
zebue, and Anchorage. These villagers may
be skilled in hunting and fishing, but they
have few of the skills useful in the mod-
ern city. The current plan is to move the
village to the nearby mainland at a cost
of $300,000 to $400,000 per inhabitant.
It is a huge cost amplified by the price of
