Global temperature rise, Inupiat and melting Alaska

 

United States is one of the Arctic nations, as Alaska is one of its largest State. Alaska comprises a variety of ecosystems such as glaciers, rain-forest, peat lands, meadows and the tundra. Such a variety has led Alaska to have 16 national wild life sanctuaries and it also includes the largest U.S. National Park, The Wrangell-St. Elias with 13.2 million acres(EPA, 2017).Alaska is not only diverse in terms of its ecosystems but it has 229 recognised tribes.These Alaskan’s are culturally, economically, nutritionally still dependent on natural sources and have continued with fishing, hunting of polar bears, seals, caribou and various other traditional food sources (EPA, 2017). But in the recent years they have been facing problems in finding food due to the global warming.

It has been observed that over the past 60 years Alaska’s average temperature has increased approximately by 3 degrees Fahrenheit and the winters have become warmer by an average of 6 degrees Fahrenheit which has led to tremendous changes in the ecosystems (EPA, 2017). In a recent article by Milman (2018),has reported that the Arctic ocean on the north coast of Alaska froze up regularly by October,but in 2017 it froze only in the last few days of December. Further, he also mentioned an observation made by the Arctic Sea News and Analysis (2018), that the 39- year satellite record in March show that the sea’s ice extent was maximum up to a measure of 14.48 million square kilometers (5.59 million square miles), the second lowest seasonal peak. Such rising temperatures brought the attention of organisations like The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA),and are assessing further to understand the extent of the problem.

However, there are other views on rising temperatures. There are notions being presented that rising temperatures in Alaska would provide longer growing season for agricultural crops, increased access to natural resources which are inaccessible due to ice cover and increase in tourism could be a possibility (EPA, 2017). But for the long run such rising temperatures will bring unprecedented environmental changes along with it. Rick Thoman,a climate scientist from NOAA based at Fairbanks, was cited by Milman, who stated that “There’s no reason why this sort of warmth won’t continue. Within the lifetime of middle-aged adults, the Arctic has completely changed.” He added that “The magnitude of change is utterly unprecedented. For a lot of the people who live there, it’s completely shocking.”

In Alaska as mentioned above, higher temperatures and drier conditions would also increase the risk of drought and wildfire. Large wildfires have already started taking place in Alaska and it has been observed that more boreal forest in the last ten years has been consumed due to wildfires (EPA, 2017). Such changes would definitely affect the natives of Alaska’s food resources as fire have the tendency of changing forest habitat, where the conditions for moose and certain plant species would improve but simultaneously reduce lichen on which Caribou rely during winters, hence disrupting the food web cycle (EPA, 2017).

A recent paper by Masih 2018, has stated that the Permafrost in Siberia and Alaska has started to thaw, due to the recent rise in the temperature in the last six decades, and thus the melting ice rates are higher than ever before. His research has found that rising temperature is not only rising the sea levels but its also becoming a reason of increased seismic activity. He further concluded that when glaciers melt, massive weight on the Earth’s crust gets reduced and a process termed as “isostatic rebound” happens due to the crust bouncing back. This, process reactivates the faults and pressurises the magma chambers which increase the seismic activity. His paper discusses the correlation between rise in temperature due to global warming and its effect on earthquake frequency pertaining to the region of Alaska.

Hence, this research by various scientists showcase the vulnerability of the residents of Alaskan’s not only in terms of infrastructural stability which is in question but also the unprecedented situations that are bound to come in future.