Alaska a land of adventure where people and nature pose a test to each other but its also a part of the us thats been particularly hard hit by Climate Change. Go as fifteen years ive seen a lot of change up here i mean it is really a dramatic. Projection now is that by the end of this century about two thirds of the ice be up here the gerards field will disappear. I am sure the current trend of Climate Change continued. Most likely written two to three decades as islanders going to be under water. The Juneau Ice Field for alan gordon the most beautiful place on earth he comes here every spare moment he has the region comprises almost four thousand square kilometers of glacial terrain the effort invested in each climb is rewarded with spectacular panoramic views but he knows he has to savor this beauty while it lasts the ice is melting and when i first came out here a long time ago. The ices a couple hundred feet higher and it was just flat across a ski tour crossed out here. To get here but now i have to ice climb to get out here and its completely changed. The rapid pace of change to the glassy he tells us makes every one of his trips unique its a bittersweet feeling. Here and hood views the developments through the objective eyes of a scientist and. He and Alan Gordon Cross paths from time to time they talk about the weather climbing routes and natures vulnerability out there. Where we get up over here we can try to get together theyre looking into a phenomenon today that they call the suicide basin in alaska. And then as it floods along this will settle back down into the basin so essentially its kind of like a giant bathtub thats billowing out with melt water from the suicide glacier there and then draining out into the mendenhall so theres flooding on some streets they have to close some of the areas that the Visitor Center had to turn off the power in some areas. Measurements carried out by the Scientists Show that the ice is losing almost ten metres in height here every year u. S. President trump however does not seem concerned his government has slashed billions of dollars from federal funding for climate research. Here in hood feels his work is under threat. When they start to cut funding for Earth Science thats going to have a big impact on our ability to study you know things like this thats going on here and to study the changes that we see in mendenhall in the juno ice field and so thats really where the big impact is going to come and its not just his own research hes worried about trump he says has also managed to sow the seeds of doubt about Climate Change in the minds of Many Americans. Theyre convinced said donald trump can come in and cut back on regulations cut back on Climate Change research and thats going to somehow stimulate the economy and you know thats very convincing to people that are you know need jobs and need to support their families. But the facts speak for themselves the mendenhall glass year alone retreated by five hundred fifty metres between two thousand and seven and two thousand and fifteen what is sorely lacking is the political will to stop this trend. President trump has said his country the objective of becoming energy selfsufficient and that goal turns environmental regulations into annoying obstacles that at least is how trump explains it to his followers believe thats going to happen and i know you have a little bit of a drought weve lifted those restrictions on energy of all types were putting our miners back to work weve canceled restrictions on oil and natural gas weve ended the e. P. A. Intrusion into your jobs and into your lives. Once literally called Climate Change a chinese hoax aimed at damaging u. S. Competitiveness and easy after becoming president he announced the United States would pull out of the paris climate treaty. In order to protect american industry and workers we withdrew the United States from the job killing Paris Climate Accord job killing people have no idea how. Many people have no idea how bad that was thank the hard core of his supporters celebrate trump for his decision however only around one third of americans support the decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. The lake looks placid enough but under the surface the effects of the melting glasses a making themselves felt. Im bold drole from the university of alaska is investigating the impact of. What looks like a fishing trip is hard scientific work the size of the fish enables the team to assess the waters nutrient content glaciers around alaska are melting and receding and all of that glacial runoff and the downstream in the us you are here basically where the river meets the salt water and that changes habitat for fish its not just for fish that the habitat is changing so two of the scientists working conditions there are already experiencing the impact of the president s opposition to climate studies and the resulting funding cuts. Everybody is is concerned about. Less and less funding for science and in my Research Group most of our funding is federal and some of it state and the state of alaska is having a tough time in terms of the budget too and so were kind of getting squeezed in from a couple different directions. The Research Funds are guaranteed for this year but soon the scientists could be facing very difficult times. But i think what it means is that we wouldnt be able to have as many students who are getting their training as scientists and thats i think a real loss for science overall because we need more young people coming in to kind of you know generate. New knowledge excitement for the environment. Were now on our way to an island thats gradually drowning in the ocean six hundred ninety of alaska in new p. R. People live in the small village of shishmaref this light aircraft landsea twice a day. A cell signal greets us at the time yeah. Hes only twenty years old but already the villages most famous son. Is an environmental activist he wants to show us how his homes being affected by Climate Change there are virtually no cars in shishmaref theres no cinema and no restaurants for a long time the people here lived only off what they could hunt or fish. But the ocean is both friend and foe shishmaref is increasingly defenseless against storms and erosion every year the island loses several meters of land. Because of that. Two houses fell down actually my grandparents house is right there and there are other horrors that they had right beside it fell into the ocean and another house that. If you search of system are most likely youll see the house but as you can see its not here anymore. Nineteen other houses have been moved to another part of the island but theres almost no hope for shishmaref in the long term according to forecasts the entire island would have drowned in twenty to thirty years time you know its very. Disheartening and very sad to realize that we have to move our entire island one day because its going to erode away into the ocean because the Climate Change. They saw invites us to his home the menacing ocean is right outside his kitchen window. I says mother doesnt want to give up the house yet even though the danger is coming closer all the time. There was another storm later. That affected this home we had to evacuate within hours pack everything up and move my inlaws to another location. And now it was a. Community effort. Because the waves were actually crashing beyond the house. With the help of his mother and son wants to teach us how to make a new piano icecream. Its made using reindeer fat and seal oil mixed with berries. Here to Climate Change is an issue the berries have to be bought frozen in the past the family always picked their own but the environment has changed. Not enough snow fall. The snow helps wreaking. As far as watering the plants. Too much when its going to blow we need to flowering assess you much rain is going to ground them out so we worry. I saw has several photos of his uncle norman in his room it was his death that triggered a sows decision to fight for the environment name was norman he passed away because of Climate Change you know of the ice where he fell through. Would usually be thick and. Broke when he drove on it. So he fell through the ice and passed away like so far earth warrior norman was more than just an uncle. Who had to grow up without a father activists you know he was my father figure he or is. Always there for me and he. And lightened a lot of peoples hearts he was really respected in in the community he was a great hunter and a fisherman and provider. And he sounds uncle is present in the living room too. The weather conditions becoming a life threatening the island is voted in favor of relocating to the mainland by a small majority. I say i was in favor but his grandfather definitely doesnt want to leave half. No matter what you have no matter what tavern. I said i was going really im. Ill probably be here. Yes. Oh wait no im not going to go nowhere. To my place here you were on board. So theres a rift in the family that they dont like to talk about the grandparents that maya is so because hes raising awareness across the u. S. For the fate of. Hes even spoken in the white house barack obama subsequently sent him a Christmas Card what is a south think about obamas successor trump i hope he doesnt give me a Christmas Card this year. Seeing that our president right now. Doesnt believe in Climate Change and you know i live here in just mirage friend smirnoff is the front lines of Climate Change a la sky is the front lines of Climate Change and two hundred twenty communities all over last. Should trump ever visit shish but i have a sourwood to take him here first to his uncle moments graze. On my. I do all this work because of him because no one should ever feel. That feeling that i had for the past ten years so i dont want anyone else to lose a loved one because of Climate Change. Were back with scientists here in hood hes showing us a few old where the water has two colors the left largest side is the meltwater of the juno ice field by the end of the century two thirds of the glacial area will have disappeared he says which is one of the big outlet glaciers from the ice field and so its really important for us to understand how this water thats coming from the glacier is influencing the productivity in marine ecosystems because we know in the future that theres going to be a lot less of this water. The ecosystem is also home to these humpback whales. Working as a group that creates a net of ad bubbles on the water which they used to drive small fish and crustaceans to the surface where theyre easy to catch its a trick called bubble net feeding. Bob jones runs boat trips for scientists a nature enthusiastic hes worried that the whales will be negatively affected by Climate Change. Were seeing changes with the in the food chain if the food chain is change due to warming the water there were going to see changes in the well were not were not were Perfect Place for research for this right now i mean this is a great place for whale watching but whats really important Climate Change on the horizon and what we know you are learning about it. Were going to were going to see more and more research being necessary. Hes outraged that President Trump appointed a climate skeptic as head of the Environmental Protection agency. Like the elixir its a shame that our administration and our president has seen i claim it or at least put it in the background if it is personally i think ridiculous sad and something that if we as american u. S. Citizens should be ashamed. Believe scientists like iran hood should have presented their research more effectively to the public then President Trump wouldnt have had such an easy time challenging them the ball has a solution in mind hes asking for donations to Fund Research in the future the results would be visible here one day at the Alaska Ocean Center which he plans to build on this post industrial waste land in juneau it will be part Research Facility part marine science visitor attraction from the distributing plant bump has to raise twenty four Million Dollars for the project and the part that extends up on top of the building as our administration came in and policies came into effect and we saw what was happening we even even took on a broader i idea thought that was to connect with the private sector as much as we can and there is already found the first scientist who wants to keep his Research Site from trump here Climate Change studies have already disappeared from some government websites do you think the precise science or some. Of the federal government as far as you know what im what im seeing and reading and what ive heard from my colleagues and scientists. Were very very concerned about data sets and information thats not being collected i mean not. Not even to talk about perhaps whats being done with the existing data set he wants to take better care of all the dates are in the future he also wants to encourage his fellow scientists to continue fighting for the cause theres a lot of concern anger depression but i dont think that i mean you get over that right and you need to move forward and this is one way of moving forward is getting the science out there more with the alaska science center. The Research Results are to be made public around the world also by the tourists juno gets from the cruise line is the stop here. But the residents of juneau is still wrestling with their attitude to Climate Change should they proclaim their support for the Paris Agreement even though the president has announced the u. S. Would pull out the town has been debating the issue for months the goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit warming to two degrees celsius the United States had promised three billion dollars a year to help climate protection measures. A pure waste of money believes the mayor of juneau can coach like trump is a republican. What is america given getting out of giving away three billion dollars that doesnt make sense to me i think its very important that we leave our next generation without this humongous debt that were incurring. If were going to put in three billion dollars into something i think we need to make a huge impact and i think the amount of degrees lower in the temperature is fairly maneuvered. What does the met think about the mendenhall glassy melting and with it one of his towns main attractions. Well just thirty miles south of us we have pleasures that are advancing so you should go down and see the taku glacier which is one that is advancing so we feel badly that were losing our glacier but we also realize that things are cyclical or you know if we live long enough to go come back but i dont think im ready. For some mattis playing down such a serious issue is no laughing matter hes battling the consequences of Climate Change every day tom is junos emergency coordinator. Well one of the unique things about Climate Change is that not only is it getting warmer but we have extreme weather conditions where we sometimes have warmer winters and sometimes have colder and longer winter so were seeing extreme storm cycles this particular place is one of the biggest avalanche potential catastrophes in the world there are sixty two houses a hotel and a boat harbor all located in avalanche training. For many people whove built their homes here that means their lives are at risk. So on any given day we could have an avalanche that would be a roughly six feet deep in the starting zone which would come through the houses down here down low roughly thirteen feet deep doing close to sixty miles an hour carrying houses with it. Tom has to take a. Cable car to get to his place of work its high up above the town. Using this weather station tom has to predict avalanches in the region his full costs can save lives but the consequences of Climate Change are a major challenge. So were finding bigger storms and longer duration storms and storms and more precipitation and perhaps even more warming through a storm than weve seen in the past all those affected avalanche conditions in a way that are very dynamic toms work is also affected by Climate Change not being a focus of the governments thinking and by cuts in funding. Our local National Weather service is significantly understaffed and once again with the new administration and budget changes theyre going to stay understaffed they dont have the ability to do a perfect job because they dont have enough people to do a perfect job. As a result its getting harder and harder to ensure the town safety for all the outstanding beauty nature cannot conceal its deadly side. The island of shishmaref has long been a deceptive it ill but despite the ubiquitous threat as our sin aki is determined to nurture the traditions of the new piano. Muted seals and salmon drying in the arctic air supplies for the winter since the storm is approaching they saw his friend sam a covering that catch with plastic sheets. Was the secret behind the traditional preparation of seal meat. Which is what is your it and then we hang it yeah thats the symbol of. The hunted self is becoming increasingly difficult the moment temperatures are rapidly changing the habitat of many animals. Projects of the summer ice. Are centuries years old up on the north pole its going to melt by the year turning forty so. That its very critical for our sea old or walrus even the polar bears we dont really get that marsh around just rock but also. Their. Populations are shrinking. At the moment everyone here is trying to make the best out of the adverse Living Conditions but the ocean is gradually claiming the island for itself when will the time have come to leave. We go to the town hall to find out more about the planned relocation madinah shows us on a map where the new shipment is to be built around ten kilometers from here on the mainland we just recently voted. Heres where were at right now its unclear however whether all the residents would participate in the move the mare is concerned that the Community Cohesion for which she loves her hometown so much could be lost for the old pond when theres a search and rescue and you know if somebody is lost in a snow storm we Work Together to find the hunter or the individual we are carrying on our culture and traditions through teaching our young ones how to hunt and live off our land and understand our history so that the photographs don a bomb has in our office remind her day in day out of how much a community is threatened by storm surges and erosion she uses them to try and explain to older residents in particular the need to relocate this plan for the relocation that would save them already exists. Through congress. The approved version has been on the table for a year now the move would cost around three hundred Million Dollars but the government in washington on the other side of the country hasnt agreed to any Financial Aid on a power feels abandoned by donald trump i am not happy with our president trying to pull out of the Paris Agreement for Climate Change. Where real people here who will live our lives like everybody else in the whole world. And Climate Change is real for us it affects our animals our way of life and our whole swear we live in. We say farewell to an island that washington does not want to know about and one will probably not see again. Soon our companies us to the mainland some of his relatives who have already fled to the port of numb. His girlfriend geralyn also lives here the people of no more open minded and hospitable even though the gold rush is long gone here the town carnival is always a very lively affair. Old and young living the legend of america as the melting pot of cultures. Knows about anything about nature or the outdoors any more is welcome Fishing Hunting even picking berries off the tundra. Yeah anyones welcome here to do all that even in the winter time is still. Generally a. Pretty Diverse Community as far as ethnic says these. Nice place known as a place where many natives have come in the past and the integration i think works fairly well we have lots of activities that promote a cultural awareness and culture integration and i think gnome is a very open place for native culture always has been. A new piano performance is one of the highlights of the carnival. The man is a colorful character as a young man who sang on broadway in new york. When he felt life spinning out of control he sought and found peace in alaska how prepared does he think his town is for a growing number of climate refugees. The integration culturally thats very close you know that is not particularly an issue housing thats an issue we need you know we need more housing and not just something that we were going to have to work on a. Lot since the mood is good overall the man even gives us a sample of his previous life as a musical cabaret style. Our readers zuma ill be on tour good bye. I think he is all meet up with his uncle ticking youre welcome. Thank you. All no drug over here he moved from fishman after a moment with his family dickie preferred to go voluntarily rather than be forced to go in the future in szish mcgrath he was responsible for preserving the new p. R. Culture which had a big influence on his nephew since statistics jurors are saying that goes it takes a village to raise a child and that was true with me our grew up with Richard Stephanie the whole entire system of community and thats how i was shaped. Dickys decision to move to know was the hardest of his life but he simply couldnt see a future for his children and i asked. To give my wife and kids a chance to adapt to western cultural. Lifestyles because in the future i dont think we have in years and the choice was. Did he still hasnt quite got used to the barbecue on the balcony with to babs from the supermarket. On the island he was able to take care of his family all on his own but he finds the town challenging. So this is this is a totally new. Hunting lifestyle that i have to adjust to and shes run four grew up. I could tell the werther just by looking at the landscape i could tell the. Water when its going to church was going to be rough and i could tell different go. Species communion. Dickys nets now remain dry on an increasingly frequent basis. At least his relatives from shishmaref sometimes send the parcel with a roll well me called back tak. This thought to all but that doesnt help with his in a conflict either dicky expresses his feelings with the barbed wire and the orca. This doctor who really should never follow his own well cultural heritage. And dropped in the washroom early. As al and his girlfriend are still going back and forth between two worlds. They dont know yet where they want to live in future he can continue his fight against Climate Change anyway its a fight for which generally very much admired him. He puts a lot of heart in it then he you know is out to do he like i dont know he just says touches peoples hearts and makes them realize that. He had the courage to move out of sr math like not a lot of people might move out of the village and it takes a lotta heart to get out of the village especially moving from my family who. Has only gets cold feet when the tide takes him by surprise and then its time for these two to say goodbye. And courage is the largest cold in alaska and the States Economic santa. A sows interning here with an Environmental Organization he wants to learn to organize his work more efficiently but his boss only harvey is also learning from i admire its size humor because i think especially in our day and age we need humor to be able to guide us through some of the horrible things that are going down but also i think his depth of character and his integrity are they shine through everything he does including all the people that he me. Is also an environmental warrior who never gives up even though his home of shishmaref is destined to disappear. And that the way that you saw shares the story is really compelling because it doesnt say weve got to throw our hands up how horrible is this its you know constantly antirealist like saying you know weve got to not be drilling offshore weve got to keep fossil fuel in the ground down at the docks the viewpoint is quite different people here are hoping for a new oil and gas boom under president obama offshore drilling was banned in large parts of the arctic thats changing under President Trump. Treadwell was once alaskas left and a governor today he works as a consultant to launch businesses the republican supporter sees golden times ahead for alaska. President trump has kept his promises to alaska to reverse obamas policy on energy to push exports to push infrastructure to push National Security to reduce regulation were seeing all those things happen. His hope is for oil and gas to bring jobs and prosperity. The political debate about Climate Change is a nuisance for most people here. They prefer taxpayers money to be invested in expanding the harbor not into climate protection projects. Im not us. Just i believe that there are some human impacts on the climate but at the same time you know if you think by raising your taxes youre going to change the weather i will sell you a bridge. Tried well once to convince us of the advantages of Climate Change and invites us to his home he wants to show us why the ice melting in the arctic ocean is a good thing for shipping now. The major advantage is that the arctic ocean is suddenly excessive for a big tourist ships were to see the crystal serenity come around through the Northwest Passage again china has already begin to ship container ships across here russia which only had a European Market for its siberian natural gas now can ship it to asia. Treadwell believes the whole environmental debate should kwanten down at last then he says well positive aspects of Climate Change would come to light but its an opportunity for the whole world. One thing that is said about this is that if a ship is saving forty percent of its distance to bring chinese goods to germany then youre helping the climate there because youre burning less fuel. So what are the locals think about such arguments sitting here having a beer its ironic that the favorite bar in the heart of this Economic Center is called darwins theory. Alaska particularly honestly the probably in the further ahead there will be hi there is theres enough benefits in the future to increase shipping in the Northwest Passage across a candidate for the last year of the very seat and every of other reasons that would increase economic wellbeing i americans with very different backgrounds come together here from dock workers to lawyers do they believe in the human impact on global warming. I dont know that i mean i know i learned one when i learned in college is that Climate Change is simple and the words crime and there have been periods of time where the global changes. You know whether its going to celebrate it or not my finds out friends i dont i dont know i think its arrogant to think theyre human i dont have an impact on our environment of course we do a lot more people a lot more. Work from a lot more knowledge is worse creating things building things so on and so forth using resources that kind of thing. Theres a war being waged on the streets of america about whos right when it comes to Climate Change is also an arc isnt scared of confronting his opponents directly. Right. Hes visiting the local youth wing of the republicans here in the lions den he wants to advocate for state funds for the relocation of the People Living on his threatened island environment its really hard to find the funding and the allocation and the resources to mine you know three hundred Million Dollars to relocate so. Thats why im stepping up and addressing this that were story here that i knew back in a few more people are still here that we are americans and we need this help i guess thats one thing that we you know where our nation when we talk about money and allocating funds i mean were i think twenty two trillion in debt so the reliance on the fact that theyre saying that you know we just need a bunch of money but were broke although it sounds arguments are given an attentive the republicans here believe the state to have only partial responsibility the government has a role to play absolutely but it shouldnt be the sole role of the government to do this especially since this land was built on permafrost theres been a long long history of erosion and so if they choose to continue to build on this in this area youve got to go forward knowing that thats a dangerous and risky move. Wont accept that his community is merely dealing with the problems they created for themselves the other. Hadnt moved to the island voluntarily after all they moved there off to being pressured by the u. S. Government which built a school that it was part of an Education Program under which is always grandparents suffered you know they were abused and they were hit and they were. You know they were sent home and put in the corner and hit with rulers because they spoke in the back language and the score word that it was an encourage and they tried to some late us and try to let us not speak our language that much only the goodbyes conciliatory talking about the bush yeah thinking you know on his way home he mulls over the mystery of why the republican stance on Climate Change is so on compromising after a few exhausting appointments like this one. Has the edge to get out of the city. Hes heading for a glacier he visited a few years ago. Hes also wanted to forget about politics for a few hours but when he sees how much the class here is retreated in such a short time he cant help getting vocal. Having our president. Who has no experience in politics no experience in meeting even a community who has multiple bankruptcies. And does not. Know how to lead my past president s have been such a president like that is just very sad to have. While tourists have a good time here and hes all becomes melancholy as he walks around the glass and. You know every time im by you know water by i say i always think of my uncle. My uncle norman. Talk they are. He was a father figure for me me and him would do everything together we would go hunting and fishing and camping together. And as i would like to have children sooner rather than later hes already thinking about what kind of loans they would be blown into. Wondering if my kids and their kids are going to live to see a glacier actually and they live right here in alaska. In the future of the theyre going to live here in alaska and ask me you know. Whats a glacier and hop to see it in book seven and movie them not in person like we are privileged to see right now. Alan gordon also feels every one of his climbing trips is a big privilege when hes out here he asked himself why so Many Americans are burying their heads in the sand most notably the current occupant of the white house. The president s denial of Climate Change is kind of mind blowing i dont understand it like how you can not see whats happening right in front of us. Just as he hammers his ice ax into the melting glass yet alan would sometimes like to hammer home the facts about Climate Change to his fellow americans and ideally witness its impact here for themselves. Whats Pretty Amazing out here and i challenge everybody to try and get out in the mountains and explore the glaciers while we can still enjoy them i know theyll be here for a while but theyre receding and changing so much. Its not too late yet to experience alaskas ice fields and at the moment at least everyone has a little bit of influence over how long this land of adventure continue to exist. Arts twenty one special. My dear the song. Talks with iran. Shot. Liberation. Exile home. These are some of the most heart in the in her life. W. A muse alice. The third is kind. Cited by. Lucky. People who put big dreams on the big screen. The magazine on the w. Every journey begins with the first step and every month each of the first word emerge because the cohesive germany to germany. Was a source why not a little. Its simple online on the road miles for a. Soft. Music to learning course. Made easy. Play players play eleven. This scene c. W. News lawyer for israel defends its move to open final not just any and protesters being gaza israeli troops killed at least fifteen protesters during mass demonstrations on friday Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hailed the soldiers responsible for the killings while all this accuse israel of an excessive use of force
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