"In the western part of Alaska, entire communities are being forced to make impossible choices to leave the lands their ancestors have called home for thousands of years. We are no longer talking about abstract projections or distant warnings. We are witnessing the first wave of climate change refugees in the United States. Over a thousand people are sheltering across a dozen sites, many rescued by helicopter."
"These are not faceless statistics. These are families who have buried their loved ones in the same ground where they hunted, fished and gathered for generations. Their displacement is not just a loss of land; it is a loss of language, tradition, and the rhythm of life itself. When an Indigenous language describes the timing of the salmon run, the gathering of berries, or the change in river ice, it reflects a living relationship with the Earth."
Western Alaska communities face immediate displacement as climate-driven storms and flooding force residents to abandon ancestral lands. Over a thousand people are sheltering at multiple sites after runways flooded and access by air and boat was cut off; helicopters rescued many and several people were killed or remain missing. The crisis results from accelerated climate impacts linked to extraction-driven capitalism, producing both physical loss of land and a cultural emergency. Displacement erodes Indigenous languages and the ecological knowledge embedded in seasonal practices like salmon runs and berry gathering. Federal response has remained reactive rather than proactive.
Read at High Country News
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