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Home , Arctic ecology, Chukchi Sea

CLIMATE’S CLIFF

In the Warming

SUBHANKAR BANERJEE

18 SUBHANKAR BANERJEE ARCTIC SEAS

RCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE noticed a perfect reflection and clicked the REFUGE—I was standing in the shutter. In 2001, almost no one, includ- Aback of the sled when it broke ing the biologists, anticipated what was to through the ice, plunging into the frigid happen to the bears of the Beaufort . water of the Hulahula River. Just in time, Dialing the clock back a bit further to Robert yanked the machine. The heavy April, Robert and I were traveling through sled, instead of falling on me, gradually the Canning River Valley in the western moved out of the shallow water. It must edge of the Arctic NWR, when we came have been about 40 degrees below zero. I across a band of 13 muskoxen with a new- began to settle into hypothermia. Robert born calf, likely a day or two old. The woolly Thompson and his cousin Perry Anashugak bovines were migrating from the foothills of quickly set up the tent and lit both burners the Brooks Range Mountains to the coastal of the Coleman stove. Inside a sleeping bag, plain. Muskoxen, one of the most adapted I began to warm up. That day, I escaped animals to the extreme cold of the Arctic, death, barely. “The river is supposed to have give birth on exposed land when the ground solid ice on the surface in November, not is covered with snow and temperatures dip fragile like this,” Robert lamented. That way below freezing. A few hours after the was 2001, in the Arctic National Wildlife sighting, a strong blizzard started to blow, Refuge (NWR) in northeast . the temperature around 35 below zero with Five months before the Hulahula River windchills approaching minus 100 degrees incident, in mid-June, Robert and I were Fahrenheit. Robert thought it was “unusu- standing on the northern edge of Barter al” that the band of muskoxen with a new- . In front of us was Barnard Har- born calf would migrate like that. bor that extends to a barrier island, which meets the . On the south was HARBINGERS the coastal plain of the Arctic NWR. A These incidents constitute a starting point, short distance away a mid-sized showing how varieties of environmental was approaching a whale bone left behind changes have arrived in a rather short time, from the previous year’s hunt by the Iñu- since the turn of the 21st century, in a par- piat people of Kaktovik. The on the ticular place—each representative of the harbor was still frozen, but the snow on top many significant impacts was beginning to melt, creating puddles. that affect the human communities and the There was no wind, and the evening sun nonhuman biotic life in the entire circum- was casting a warm glow on the - polar Arctic. When land and sea are going scape and on the ivory fur of the bear. As through rapid changes, inhabitants of the the bear walked past one of the puddles, I area are usually the first to witness it. In

Subhankar Banerjee, an artist, writer, and environmental humanities scholar, was a Di- rector’s Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and received a Cultural Freedom Award from Lannan Foundation. He is editor of the anthology, Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point (Seven Stories Press, 2013), and author of Seasons of Life and Land: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Mountaineers Books, 2003). His pho- tographs have been exhibited in more than 50 museums around the world.

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2002, the Arctic Research Consortium of out of sheet lead; snow had eroded the the , in cooperation with the wood to where the lead was in relief. Arctic Studies Center of the Smithsonian We also found a wooden marker with a Institution, pointed out that the indigenous non-native name over by Sungiksaluk, peoples “are already witnessing disturbing perhaps a whaler. There was also a body and severe climatic and ecological changes,” that came out of the ground to the east. even though “the majority of the ’s cit- It was reburied in our cemetery. izens have not seen any significant climate changes thus far.” Thirteen years later, a ma- The Arctic is warming at a rate of at jority of the world’s people are experiencing least twice the global average. With this significant impacts of climate change. In the rapid warming, , or perma- Arctic, the changes have only accelerated. nently frozen ground, is thawing. When Iñupiaq conservationist Robert Thomp- permafrost thaws, the organic matter inside son and his wife Jane live in Kaktovik, a begins to break down and releases carbon small town of about 300 residents on Bar- dioxide and methane, the latter about 86 ter Island. A decade ago, the conversations times more potent than carbon dioxide, as a I had with residents of Kaktovik and Arc- greenhouse gas over a 20-year period. One tic Village focused on both climate change of the most visible signs of thawing perma- and oil development. The lakes were drying frost is “drunken forest”—trees leaning at up, affecting subsistence fishing. The wil- odd angles as they lose their footing in the low plants were getting much larger and unstable soil. In November 2007, large ar- bushier affecting migration of caribou. And eas of drunken forest were spreading near wildfires were becoming widespread and Nelemonoye, a Yukaghir community along more destructive. All this came from the the upper River in the Re- Gwich’in people, while the Iñupiat people public. Thawing of terrestrial permafrost said the sea ice was retreating rapidly and also has major impact on , hydrol- the permafrost was beginning to thaw. ogy, and human infrastructures, as homes, In early August 2006, at the north- buildings, roads, and runways can collapse western edge of Barter Island, a coffin was as the ground underneath begins to buckle. lying exposed with bones scattered near- In addition to carbon stored in the organ- by. The permafrost around the coffin had ic matter inside permafrost, there is also an thawed. Robert told me in an email: enormous amount of methane trapped inside icy crystals known as clathrates. Scientists do The grave we saw on the other side not yet know how much clathrate is in the of the island was of a child. Lon Son- Arctic but think that much of the carbon salla, Fenton Rexford, and I went over stored in the Arctic is inside clathrates, which there when we heard that a brown bear can be found either deep in terrestrial perma- had broken into the coffin and scattered frost or beneath Arctic shelves offshore, ac- the body. I picked up a foot. It startled cording to a U.S. National Research Council me—it was so light, freeze-dried. We Report. The release of methane from terres- put all the parts back in the box, nailed trial permafrost is a slower process, but from it shut, and reburied the person. There subsea permafrost it can happen steadily, or in are two other exposed graves with dates sudden, potentially catastrophic, pulses. More of 1932. These had names and dates cut than a decade of research by Russian scientists

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Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov shows winter months, followed by freezing tem- that methane is being actively released from peratures that create a hard layer of ice on subsea permafrost in the East Siberian Arc- that animals like caribou or tic Shelf. Based on their field observations, a and muskoxen cannot break through to team of physical and social scientists in Eu- find food. Earlier this year, Kim Holmén, rope have shown that a decade-long 50-gi- the international director of the Norwegian gaton methane pulse from the East Siberian Polar Institute told a Guardian reporter Arctic Shelf could cost the global economy that, “Much of Svalbard is covered with an average of $60 trillion. To put this in per- ice on land, which is a fatal state for the spective, the financial damage from just one reindeer,” while the extreme storm, Hurricane Sandy that hit the fjords around Svalbard East Coast of the United States in 2012, was remained unfrozen. muskoxen barely $60 billion. So the aggregate impact Holmén further said and caribou on property, infrastructure, and food produc- that they are experi- tion of a 50-gigaton methane pulse would be encing “more icing or reindeer equivalent to 1,000 Hurricane Sandys. events,” and when that are the only “I was rained on in February,” Robert happens the reindeer said speaking of an experience he had in win- “can’t move around, arctic hoofed ter 2006. “To me, an Iñupiaq, residing on the and they can’t eat.” animals that edge of the Arctic , to be rained on in University of made it from February is strange.” In the winter of 2005 to Gothenberg Profes- 2006, a thousand caribou from the Teshek- sor Tyrone Martins- the puk Lake herd came over to the Arctic NWR, son first went to era to modern a 240-mile journey. “It rained and then the Svalbard in 2001. times, but tundra froze over there, and the animals came He circumnavigated over to our area to find food,” Robert recalled. Svalbard that sum- remain “But it also rained on Barter Island, and the mer at 80 degrees vulnerable to tundra froze. I saw some caribou curled up. I North latitude and thought they were sleeping.” was surprised to find arctic warming Robert approached them, thinking “it’s “no sea ice in the today. strange that they wouldn’t be more alert. around They weren’t because they were dead. The Svalbard.” He focused his research on the animals could not find food and instead melting of glaciers in Svalbard. In Sweden, ingested ice and died of hypothermia, a an Arctic country with no coastline along biological study later revealed. Several hun- the Arctic Ocean, two prominent areas of dred caribou died on the island that win- climate change research are the rapid melt- ter. People had to remove the dead animals ing of glaciers that is redefining the highest from the watershed of our freshwater lake so peaks of Sweden, as well as climate change it would not get contaminated.” impacts on the Saami reindeer herders in northern Sweden. DEADLY ICE ON THE TUNDRA The increased precipitation and icing on One of the most significant impacts of Arc- tundra also contributed to the disappearance tic warming on tundra animals in recent of muskoxen from the Arctic NWR coastal years has been rain during autumn and plain. The muskoxen, which once had a cir-

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cumpolar distribution during the Pleistocene DISAPPEARING BEAR AND MAN era from 11,700 to 2.5 million years ago, Between 2001 and 2010, the polar bear pop- were exterminated from the North Slope of ulation in the southern Beaufort Sea Alaska, including the Arctic NWR, after declined by 40 percent. Polar bears critically commercial whalers arrived there with guns depend on sea ice for finding food and mates, in the 19th century. In 1969 and 1970, 51 as well for transport and building offshore muskoxen from Nunivak Island were rein- dens. But the Arctic sea ice is vanishing at troduced to Barter Island. The population in- an astonishing rate. Since recording began creased steadily, reaching almost 350 animals in 1978, the extent of summer sea ice in the in the Refuge by mid-1990. Then it began Arctic Ocean has been declining steadily. to decline. They once lived year-round in the Though it accelerated after the turn of the coastal plain of the Refuge, and were con- 21st century, by August 2007, more than a sidered an iconic species of the coastal plain. month before the end of the melt season, a In recent years, deeper snow and icing made new record low for the minimum sea ice ex- foraging for food difficult, which resulted in tent was reached—1.7 million square miles, starvation and low calf production. The ani- followed by lower yet, in 2012, some 1.16 mals would then move to the foothills to find million square miles, which is nearly half of food on windblown ridges. But when musk- the 1979-2000 average of 2.7 million square oxen give birth in April, grizzly bears would miles. The thickness of Arctic sea ice also de- wake up from hibernation in the same area. clined 65 percent between 1975 and 2012. The muskoxen became an easy prey. So adult On February 25, 2015, the winter maxi- animals with newborn calfs moved from the mum Arctic sea ice extent hit a record low, foothills to the coastal plain—to avoid their and it too arrived nearly two weeks before a predators. The last official estimate of musk- usual early March date. As the white surface oxen in the Refuge was 29 animals in 2003. It of the ice is replaced by the dark surface of is generally believed that the number is zero water, more solar radiation gets absorbed today, although some of the animals moved rather than reflected back into space, which east and west of the Refuge. This could be contributes significantly to Arctic warming, considered a case of local extermination and consequently to further melting of the caused by a warming Arctic. There are other sea ice, melting of the ice sheets and glaciers, areas in the Arctic, however, where muskoxen and thawing of permafrost, all of which col- are surviving: more than 100,000 animals in lectively is having profound impacts on life the Canadian Arctic and about 10,000 each in the circumpolar north—the area compris- in and . Muskoxen and car- ing the Arctic and sub-Arctic . ibou or reindeer are the only Arctic hoofed “Waves are bigger, now that the pack ice animals that made it from the Pleistocene era is so far out,” Robert says. Thomas Gordon to modern times, but remain vulnerable to and his son, Simon, from Kaktovik were Arctic warming today. washed away by waves while they were on- Even though thawing of terrestrial per- shore camping during a hunting trip about mafrost and icing on tundra are taking place 30 miles west of the town. Robert attributes on land affecting humans and nonhuman these two deaths to climate change. Storms biotic life, the primary contributor to these are also becoming more violent with rapid changes is to be found in the warming Arctic Arctic warming. The aggregate impact of a seas—the rapid retreat of sea ice. reduced expanse and duration of sea ice, com-

22 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL ARCTIC SEAS bined with stronger waves, intense storms, In recent years, slow has turned into rap- thawing of permafrost, and a rise in sea level id. “Everything changed in October 2004,” is rapid coastal erosion. During March and Colleen says. After autumn storms in 2004 April 2002, Robert and I camped along the and 2005 caused serious damage to the vil- Beaufort Sea coast at Brownlow Point on the lage, the Federal Emergency Management Canning River delta in the Arctic NWR, 60 Agency (FEMA) declared Kivalina a disas- miles west of Kaktovik. Of the 29 days we ter area. A sea barrier using sand bags was were there, we had only four calm days. The constructed, which “failed the day before its rest of the time, blizzards blew steadily with inauguration,” Shearer says. After another peak wind speeds of 65 miles an hour and storm in 2007, which required evacuation, temperatures of 45 degrees below zero Fahr- a barrier was built with rocks the follow- enheit, bringing the windchill down to mi- ing year. The rock revetment “was the only nus 110 degrees. The spot where we camped thing that saved the village during a severe has now been washed away by the sea. storm in November 2011,” Colleen says “Our family has a native allotment ac- with a sense of relief. “It was like a tropi- quired by my wife’s mother who was born cal cyclone, and those and grew up in the Brownlow Point area,” don’t happen here.” Robert told me. “A few years ago, we went Relocation re- during the first there to see it. We found that the beach mains a necessity. The decade of the had eroded 400 feet, the houses and build- revetment would last ings that had been there were gone, an old about 10 to 15 years, 21st century, boat built by my wife’s grandfather was and it’s already into the greenland destroyed by waves. Family members had seven years of its use- ice sheets lived there for 100 years. Now it’s gone. ful life. “We have no On Barter Island, where we now live, we option but to relocate melted six times have lost at least 100 feet of land on the the village to a safer faster than ocean side of the island.” place,” Colleen insist- Kivalina is an Iñupiat community of ed. Nearly 200 indig- during the last about 400 residents, situated 80 miles north enous villages in Alas- decade of the of the along the Chukchi Sea. ka are being affected 20th century. “We have been noticing climate change for by coastal erosion and several decades now, and we were adapting flooding, with 31 of these facing immi- to the gradual changes,” Colleen Swan, tribal nent threats, and 12 requiring relocation, administrator of the Native Village of Kiva- including Kivalina, according to two U.S. lina, said in April. Kivalina residents started Government Accountability Office reports. to notice coastal erosion in the 1950s and vot- In February 2015, the U.S. Secretary of the ed to relocate the village in 1992. But soon Interior Sally Jewell visited Kivalina. Her they found “there was no designated govern- agency committed $8 million to assist the ment body to assist communities with the community. Yet the money is not for relo- process” of relocation, sociologist Christine cation but “climate planning” Shearer writes. Federal funds are available and “ocean/coastal management planning.” only after a disaster, not while a community In other words, the funds will go toward like Kivalina is going through what writer more meetings to build awareness. Besides, Rob Nixon calls, “slow violence.” the $8 million is a small sum compared to

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estimates of the full cost of Kivalina’s relo- The impact of Arctic warming isn’t con- cation—about $100 million. fined to the Arctic, however. As the Green- ’s Institute of Coastal Re- land ice sheets and Arctic glaciers continue search concludes “there are no comprehen- to melt rapidly, an enormous amount of sive global assessments of the vulnerability fresh water is added to the Arctic seas, which of Arctic communities and infrastructure to steadily increases global sea levels. Dur- accelerated coastal erosion.” Still, a decades- ing the first decade of the 21st century, the long mean rate of coastal retreat is about Greenland ice sheets melted six times faster 3.28-6.56 feet per year but can vary up as than during the last decade of the 20th cen- much as 32.8 to 98.4 feet per year in some tury, according to the Intergovernmental locations, with the highest rates found along Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assess- the Beaufort Sea coast of Alaska, the ment report. Both the atmospheric Arctic and in , and jet stream and the oceanic Gulf Stream are the East Siberian and Laptev seas in Russia. slowing, due to rapid Arctic warming, with The 400 feet of erosion over a decade in the potentially serious consequences. One study Brownlow Point area along the Beaufort Sea published earlier this year links the recent coast no longer seems implausible given that prolonged cold snaps on the East Coast of the maximum rate could be as high as 98.4 and severe drought in Cali- feet per year. Single events, however, may fornia to the slowing of the jet stream, while cause much larger erosion than the decade- another study predicts a larger rise in sea lev- long mean rates, as in the case of storm-in- els due to the slowing Gulf Stream. As vari- duced erosion in Kivalina. While villages ous physical components of the Arctic con- like Kivalina are considering immediate re- tinue to transform—retreating sea ice and location, other communities like Tuktoyak- thawing permafrost—they create feedback tuk along the Beaufort Sea coast of Arctic effects, which lead to further warming. Canada are pondering “phased retreat.” The coastal areas of the East Siberian and Laptev ARCTIC LOOTING seas are very sparsely populated, and there is Just as the Arctic is going through rapid no specific knowledge about how impacted and devastating changes due largely to the those human populations are by coastal ero- burning of fossil fuels, it would seem illogi- sion, and what plan, if any, they might have cal, even unconscionable, to industrialize about relocation. the Arctic Ocean for fossil fuels extraction, Coastal erosion has profound impact as it would contribute to further warming not only on human communities but also of the Arctic and rest of the Earth. Yet that on Arctic ecology. The Arctic river deltas is precisely what the Arctic nation states are are considered biological hotspots of the pursuing—largely for economic reasons— Arctic coasts. “They have high ignoring ecological and human rights con- and are extremely productive in relation to cerns. In 2008, the United States Geologi- adjacent landscapes,” the German Institute cal Survey released the first-ever area-wide reports. These ecologically rich Arctic del- assessment of oil and gas resources in the tas provide habitats for numerous species Arctic, identifying 90 billion barrels of oil, of birds and fish, but remain vulnerable to 1,669 trillion cubic feet of gas, and 44 bil- rapid coastal erosion and sea level rise, as lion barrels of natural gas liquids—some well as increasing oil and gas activities. 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil

24 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL ARCTIC SEAS and about 30 percent of undiscovered natu- up the leases in the 1990s. Offshore explo- ral gas. Some 84 percent of it is found off- ration drilling began in Greenland in the shore—in the warming Arctic seas. Using late 1970s. Six wells were drilled, the last the USGS and U.S. Department of Energy in 1990, but again none led to production. data, Ernest & Young has calculated that 52 began exploring the in percent of these undiscovered hydrocarbon 1981, the same year Statoil discovered the resources are located in Russia, 20 percent in huge Snøhvit gas fields, still the only liquid the United States, 12 percent in Norway, 11 natural gas source north of the Arctic Circle. percent in Greenland, and 5 percent in Can- Over the past three decades Statoil and other ada. A majority of the world’s natural gas companies have drilled more than 80 ex- is located in the Russian Arctic, while the ploration wells in the Barents Sea. In recent U.S. Arctic holds the largest undiscovered years, the Russian company Gazprom in oil resources, some 30 billion barrels of oil. partnership with Statoil and the French oil Non-Arctic states like China and India giant Total have been evaluating the giant are trying to establish their own stake of Arc- Shtokman gas fields tic loot as well. In 2013, at the Arctic Coun- in the Russian Bar- cil biennial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden, six ents Sea. Since 1962, many oil non-Arctic states were added to the Arctic of 61 Arctic fields dis- companies Council as observers: China, India, Italy, Ja- covered so far, 43 are pan, Singapore, and South Korea. “All have in Russia, 11 in Cana- are moving sought economic opportunities in the region da, six in Alaska, and away from and viewed participation in the Arctic Coun- one in Norway. The expensive arctic cil as a means of influencing the decisions of biggest offshore prize its permanent members,” The New York Times is believed to lie in exploration noted at the time. The , found- the Russian Arctic— because of the ed in 1996, is comprised of eight members in the Barents, Kara, (Canada, Denmark, Finland, , Nor- Laptev, East Siberian, low price of way, Russia, Sweden, and the United States), and Chukchi seas. oil coupled and a number of observers. Since the turn of with fear of Many Arctic nations have a history of the century, with the offshore exploration going back decades. rapid retreat of sea environmental In the United States, exploration drilling ice, Arctic nations are disasters. began in the late 1970s and ended in the once again pushing to early 1990s. These efforts largely failed, develop Arctic seas for oil and gas, but the re- as exploration did not lead to production sults from this second wave so far look more except in one instance—a near-shore, an- like a bust than a boom. Though Canada chored-to-the-ground facility, called North made a push to develop the Beaufort Sea Star, run by BP on the Beaufort Sea. In the from 2005 through 2008, as of 2011 there Canadian Arctic, starting in 1972 through was no active drilling there according to the the 1980s, about 90 exploration wells were National Energy Board of Canada. Last year, drilled in the Beaufort Sea, 34 in ’s Chevron put its plan to drill in the Canadian High Arctic , and three in the Eastern Beaufort on indefinite hold. Earlier this year, Arctic offshore. Again, exploration did not Statoil shelved its 2015 drilling plan in the lead to production, and oil companies gave Barents Sea and handed back the three leases

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it had purchased in off the west brief season of exploration drilling in the coast of Greenland, although retaining one Beaufort and Chukchi seas in 2012, which lease in the off the east coast included grounding of one of its drill rigs of Greenland. Cairn Energy’s exploration and criminal charges and penalties leveled drilling in Greenland’s Arctic waters did not against the company and its subcontractor lead to commercial discoveries. Following for violating environmental regulations. the Ukraine crisis and American sanctions March 31, 2015 was the deadline for on Russia, ExxonMobil was prohibited from nations to pledge greenhouse gas emission working with Rosneft to drill in the Kara cuts to the United Nations Framework Con- Sea in the Russia Arctic this year. The French vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in oil giant Total simply walked away from the preparation for the UN climate summit in American Arctic in 2012, stating that drill- Paris in December. By the deadline, pledges ing there could lead to a “disaster.” arrived of a 40 percent cut from the Euro- In some Arctic countries the attitude pean Union, at least 40 percent from Nor- toward developing their seas for oil and gas way, and 50 percent from —all is beginning to change, slowly. “In Iceland, cutbacks from 1990-level emissions. On the the talk about oil and gas drilling was all last day, the United States entered its pledge: based on the dream of becoming Norway, 26 to 28 percent by 2025. But that number of getting out of the economic crisis,” says is based on cuts from the 2005 level, which renowned Icelandic novelist Andri Snær Ma- when translated to the 1990 level that other gnason, who has also spent time in Green- developed nations are using, would come to land. “When research permits were granted about 13.4 to 15.8 percent. by the left Green Party, almost nobody raised The same day the United States submit- a voice against it. The single parliamentarian ted its greenhouse gas cut pledge, however, who was critical on the issue was bashed in the Department of Interior published a de- social media for being against ‘progress.’ But cision bringing ’s plans times have been changing. The Social Dem- to drill in the Chukchi Sea of ocrats, industrialists by tradition, decided in during summer 2015 one step closer. But oil their last convention to oppose oil drilling, drilling in the Arctic Ocean is inconsistent claiming oil is best left in the ground—a bit with climate change mitigation efforts. A late, as research permits have been granted study published in Nature states unequivo- to Icelandic/Chinese companies and little cally that “development of [fossil fuel] re- can be done to stop them from harnessing sources in the Arctic and any increase in un- what they find. In Greenland, they have been conventional oil production [like Canadian looking for oil for years, but no research is on tar sands] are incommensurate with efforts the horizon this year. For Greenland and Ice- to limit average global warming to 2 degrees land, the oil dream seems far away, and views Centigrade” above the pre-industrial level. have shifted in both countries.” Many oil companies are moving away AVERTING CATASTROPHE from expensive because of From 1986 to 2000, Rosemary Ahtuanga- the low price of oil coupled with fear of envi- ruak worked as a community health aide in ronmental disasters. Only Royal Dutch Shell Nuiqsut, the Iñupiat village closest to the is determined to develop the Arctic seas of Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Rosemary recalls Alaska despite great setbacks following a that between 1986 and 1997 there was a

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“600 percent increase in respiratory patients bears, tens of thousands of and seals, in a village of 400 people.” She concluded and millions of birds, not to mention all the that this increase could be attributed to the tiny subsea creatures that make up the food Alpine oilfield that had expanded closer web but elude our eyes. From Shell’s seismic to her village. “The worst nights on call studies in the Chukchi Sea, Iñupiat cultural were nights when many natural gas flares observers came back with sightings of mas- occurred,” she said. “Those flares release sive schools of salmon fingerlings, “eight particles that traveled to us. Increased con- miles long by four miles wide,” George said. centrations of particulate matter from flares “The Chukchi Sea is a nursery for one-third of occur during inversions, a bowl-like trap, the world’s remaining fish population.” with cold air trapped by warm air.” For many Iñupiat people, Arctic warm- Natural gas flaring also emits significant ing and oil and gas drilling in the Arctic methane and carbon dioxide into the atmo- seas are inseparable. Robert emailed that, sphere, which contributes to further warm- “People must become aware of what is hap- ing. “We are beginning to understand that pening to us and to the animals in our area, oil and gas development brings more than and do whatever to remedy the situation so just the risk of spills,” Rosemary says. “It our future generations will have a good place also contributes to climate change...I will to live.” The “remedy” that Robert cites re- have to change how I teach my children and quires leaving a significant portion of the fos- grandchildren, as less ice means they will sil fuels resources in the ground. The Arctic need to learn how to harvest food under dif- Ocean seems to be the most logical place to ferent conditions than I was taught.” begin such a process of restraint. But that is George Säggan Edwardson is proud of not happening. On May 11, the Obama ad- being “the first Iñupiaq geologist.” George ministration conditionally approved Shell’s and his wife live in Barrow, the largest Iñu- plans to drill in the Chukchi Sea this sum- piat settlement on the Arctic Slope of Alaska, mer, which angered environmentalists. It is a with about 4,300 residents. Barrow is situ- “victory for the oil-and-gas industry” and will ated where the Chukchi and the Beaufort seas likely “pave the way for additional companies meet. Eventually, he recalls, “we brought the exploring in the region,” The Wall Street Jour- Elders together from Unanakleet to Green- nal noted. In other words, the United States, land. Their main worry was where our food which assumed the chairmanship of the Arc- chain begins, and that had to be protected tic Council in late April, is currently leading at all costs. The Elders said, ‘Don’t go in the the process of large-scale industrialization of ocean.’” The Iñupiat people consider the Arc- the Arctic Ocean, not “environmental stew- tic Ocean as their garden and depend on it for ardship” that Secretary John Kerry insisted nutritional, cultural, and spiritual sustenance. at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting It is well known that the Chukchi Sea in Iqaluit, Canada. In light of this signifi- where President Obama is poised to send cant public policy decision, it is not difficult Shell to drill for oil during summer 2015 to imagine that the Paris climate summit, is one of the richest and most complex ma- which will commence soon after Shell com- rine habitats on Earth—a migration corri- pletes the drilling season in the Chukchi Sea, dor of endangered bowhead whales, feeding will be more about lofty rhetoric to save faces, ground of Pacific grey whales, nursery for be- not the sincere actions desperately needed to luga whales, and home for thousands of polar mitigate climate change. l

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