The Trump administration has moved to dismantle climate adaptation programs including the Denali Commission, an Anchorage-based agency that is crafting a plan to safeguard or relocate dozens of towns at risk from rising sea levels, storms and the winnowing away of sea ice.
Federal assistance for these towns has been ponderous but could now grind to a halt, with even those working on the issue seemingly targeted by the administration. In July, Joel Clement, an interior department official who worked with Alaskan communities on climate adaptation, claimed he had been moved to a completely unrelated position because of the administration’s ideological hostility to the issue.
“We were getting down to the brass tacks of relocation [of towns at risk] and now work has just stopped,” Clement told the Guardian. He has lodged an official complaint over his reassignment.
“Without federal coordination from Washington DC, there isn’t much hope. This will take millions of dollars and will take years, and these people don’t have years. I think it’s clear I was moved because of my climate work. It feels like a complete abdication of responsibility on climate change.”
According to the Army Corps of Engineers, 31 Alaskan communities face “imminent” existential threats from coastline erosion, flooding and other consequences of temperatures that are rising twice as quickly in the state as the global average. A handful – Kivalina, Newtok, Shishmaref and Shaktoolik – are considered in particularly perilous positions and will need to be moved.
“It was clear from the start of the Trump administration that there was no interest in helping Alaskan communities, particularly coastal communities, adapt to climate change,” said Victoria Hermann, president of the Arctic Institute.
“There’s now no liaison from Washington on the issue. The biggest loss has been momentum. It feels like the Obama administration was kickstarting something useful but now it has dropped dead.”
It should be noted that Alaska natives overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton, and in an unusual move even endorsed her during the 2016 campaign.
They knew what the danger was in electing Donald Trump, and they feared what he would do to the country and how it could negatively impact their lives.
And they were right to fear.
These villages are in a very dire situation, and without government help they may lose the home they and their ancestors have inhabited for literally thousands of years.
The Denali Commission in Anchorage is working right now to raise funds and help them, but as it turns out they are also targeted for elimination by the Trump Administration.
When President Obama came here in 2015 he saw the problems facing our native communities and he implemented plans to help them.
If Hillary Clinton had won this election you can bet she would have kept those promises made by her predecessor.
Donald Trump on the other hand wants to literally undo EVERYTHING President Obama set in motion to help this planet and her people.
Like I said, the Alaska natives knew. Too bad so many failed to listen.
I think Putin's real plan behind putting Trump in office was to destabilize our country long-term. Eliminating these types of programs will negatively impact our society for decades to come. Too many people in our country don't understand or care to understand the workings of the physical world around us. People our existence is directly tied to the environment and no one is going to save us when we destroy it.... the level of stupidity of our citizenry is mind boggling
ReplyDeleteSorry Gryphen,the people of Alaska voted for trump. Your votes have consequences.
ReplyDeleteAnd how much cooperation is this administration going to get from certain AK senators with their agenda when this is what they do?
ReplyDeleteIt would be righteous if the trump voters suffered the consequences of their actions but unfortunately it will affect us all.
Quote from The Hunt for Red October:
"You ignorant ass.. you killed us all!"
I think that quote is "You arrogant ass...you killed us all."
DeleteStill applies. Maybe more so.
This makes me too sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Gryph.
ReplyDeleteThe first image is powerful.
The second image is beautiful. I miss our president.
Trump ‘submissive’ to Putin, say former envoys
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/trump-submissive-to-putin-say-former-envoys/
Trump is a catastrophe that the Republican Party has brought down on itself
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/trump-is-a-catastrophe-that-the-republican-party-has-brought-down-on-itself/
Lies over decades
ReplyDeletehttps://theintercept.com/2017/08/11/steve-bannons-tall-tale-about-how-he-visited-pakistan-in-the-navy-and-saw-the-muslim-threat/
https://thinkprogress.org/nytimes-climate-error-overblown-d0101f8bcfa4/
ReplyDelete" more predictably, climate science deniers like Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Science Committee, used the Times’ minor mistake as an opportunity to discount the report’s findings and spread his disinformation, making “some confusing/wrong claims about the report’s science in a statement,” "scientists were worried the Trump administration might censor or water down the report once Trump’s political appointees were given the final draft to edit.
Scientists had every reason to think that might happen with this National Climate Assessment (NCA) report from 13 federal agencies because that’s exactly what the George W. Bush Administration did when they were given the final draft of the NCA,"the Trump administration is already establishing a record of censorship that is worse than that of the Bush administration."
I guess when villages are submerged or otherwise destroyed we should simply blame "extreme weather" and not mention climate change.
ReplyDeletePS. "Extreme weather" is the word choice of the USDA now that "climate change" no longer exists.
Beaglemom
It's Big Tobacco all over again.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-utilities-knew-exxon-knew-shell-knew-they-all_us_598aee87e4b030f0e267c8a8?section=us_green
"Climate deniers are fast running out of deception and lies.
Just a few days ago, an exhaustive report by the Energy and Policy Institute revealed that public utilities have been aware of the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions and the use of coal as an energy fuel since the 1960s.
According to the study, in the 1970s, members of the Electric Power Research Institute, a group financed by the utility industry, testified before Congress that their own investigations have led them to believe that “the fossil fuels combustion will be essentially unacceptable, an important justification for expanding (...) solar energy options.” And by 1988, the same institute stated that, “There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.”
Frustratingly, regardless of its strong awareness of what today is humanity’s most pressing challenge, this same industry years later launched a national campaign to deny the climate crisis, and undermine any national and international efforts to fight it. Several of these companies joined forces with the fossil fuel industry in a successful push for the U.S. to renounce the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.
And today, Southern Company, the country’s third largest utility, persists on denying CO2 emissions are the main culprit in the climate crisis. Moreover, an important sector of this industry funds front groups that oppose any CO2 limits on coal-burning plants."
"The fuel that powers this planetary sabotage is called greed. The fossil fuel industry worldwide has accumulated stratospheric levels of wealth over the decades. Moreover, according to a report just published by World Development, in 2015, fossil fuels received a staggering $5.3 trillion in subsidies around the world. This includes not only taxpayer money but also the costs of deaths caused by pollution and these fuels’ contribution to the climate crisis."