Governor Sarah Palin's shame: Alaskan village falling into ocean
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
"governor" even though she quit before her term was up.
Now we know why she left -- she thought she could avoid responsibility
for destroying coastal villages.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/12/03/shishmaref.alaska.climate.change/index.html
-- QUOTE (are you watching, Heil??)
Shishmaref, Alaska (CNN) -- When the arctic winds howl and angry waves
pummel the shore of this Inupiat Eskimo village, Shelton and Clara
Kokeok fear that their house, already at the edge of the Earth,
finally may plunge into the gray sea below.
"The land is going away," said Shelton Kokeok, 65, whose home is on
the tip of a bluff that's been melting in part because of climate
change. "I think it's going to vanish one of these days."
Coastal erosion has been an issue for decades here, but rising global
temperatures have started to thaw the permafrost that once helped
anchor this village in place. Sea ice that protects Shishmaref's coast
from erosion melts earlier in the spring and forms later in the fall.
As a result, the increasingly mushy and exposed soil along
Shishmaref's shore is falling into the water in snowmobile-sized
chunks.
The crumbling land already toppled one house into the sea. Thirteen
other homes -- nearly all of the Kokeoks' neighbors -- had to be moved
inland. The land they stood on washed away.
Now the Kokeoks' wooden residence, which Shelton built by hand 20
years ago, stands alone -- only feet from the edge of this barrier
island.
But safety is only one of Shishmaref's many concerns.
The warming climate and erosion threaten to steal the Kokeoks'
centuries-old culture, their unique language and the viability of
their entire village.
They're not alone. A dozen Alaskan villages, including Shishmaref, are
at some stage of moving because of climate-change-related impacts like
coastal erosion and flooding.
Around the world, as many as 150 million people may become "climate
refugees" because of global warming, according to an Environmental
Justice Foundation report, which attributes some of the moves to
rising sea levels.
People in Shishmaref are aware that world leaders will meet next week
in Copenhagen, Denmark, to try to hammer out an international treaty
on climate change.
Read the CNN special report on an Alaska town "on the brink."
Most of the talk at the United Nations Climate Change Conference will
focus on cutting the industrial world's emissions of heat-trapping
gases, or trying to prevent climate disasters like those already seen
here and in other coastal communities. Three students from Shishmaref
will travel to Copenhagen as witnesses to the impact of climate
change.
That doesn't give Shelton and Clara much comfort. Many of their
neighbors have resigned themselves to having to leave Shishmaref
because of the changes.
Not Shelton.
"This is my hometown," he said. "I don't want to go anywhere."
Shelton is afraid to budge from his perilous location on the front
lines of the climate catastrophe. To move would be to give in, to lose
everything.
Already, he's lost more than he can bear.
Harsh environment
As far as outsiders are concerned, Shishmaref might as well be at the
edge of the Earth.
Only 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle and less than 150 miles from
Russian Siberia, the village's geography alone makes it seem
uninhabitable.
Its 600 residents endure temperatures that drop to minus 40 degrees
Fahrenheit in the winter. Polar bear sightings are common. Water is
scarce. There's no plumbing in most homes; ice is harvested from lakes
in microwave-size blocks and melted in buckets. No roads connect
Shishmaref to the outside world.
It's a harsh, isolated and dangerous place but one Shelton has learned
to love. Shishmaref's tundra environment provides everything he needs.
The village island, about a quarter-mile wide in the center, sits
between the Chukchi Sea and the wide estuary of the Serpentine River.
That's prime real estate for hunting and fishing, the main forms of
survival and employment in the village.
In the winter, Shishmaref residents hack tiny cylinders of ice out of
the estuary to fish for tomcod and smelt. In the summer, when the sun
hangs in the sky almost 24 hours a day, locals harvest cloudberries,
which are orange, and blueberries; caribou and reindeer herds gallop
across the vast expanse of inland tundra.
When Shelton was growing up, he looked forward to the springtime hunt
for bearded seals, spotted seals and walrus, which took place out on
the still-frozen sea. Dried meats and oils cured from those marine
mammals sustained the community year-round, even when other hunts or
fishing seasons went poorly.
Shelton's father taught him to hunt seals. They rode a dogsled toward
an eerily flat horizon, where the thick slate of white sea-ice met an
eternal blue sky. At the edge of the ice, they hunted sea mammals out
of the frigid water below.
Shelton has raised his four children in Shishmaref's unique
traditions. Clara, his wife, still sews seal slippers. They speak
Inupiaq at home. Dried seal meat, black and crusty, hangs on a wooden
rack beside their house. They keep seal oil in the kitchen. Their kids
grew up eating both.
Norman Charlie, Shelton's youngest son, learned to chase down seals
and fish as soon as he was old enough to handle the arctic elements.
The boy became a fine hunter. And that pleased Shelton.
On Norman, Shelton hung his hopes for the future.
Forced adaptation
Because of its remote location and live-off-the-land lifestyle, it
could appear that Shishmaref has remained the same for centuries, as
time passed it by.
That's not the case. The village itself is an adaptation to outside
influence.
Shishmaref's people were nomadic, following seals and caribou, until
the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs built a school on the island in the
early 1900s and forced Inupiat children to attend. Some residents
still resent that school; they say it punished those who spoke Inupiaq
and stifled other aspects of the Native culture.
Over the decades, though, the community adjusted to its new stationary
existence. And today, people are attached to this place.
Change also has come from within.
When Shelton was young, Shishmaref was nothing but an outpost of one-
room sod houses with no electricity; some villagers made windows out
of "Eskimo plastic," the translucent intestines of the bearded seal.
It was difficult to import materials from the outside, so people got
most of what they needed from the land and the sea.
Today, two stores in Shishmaref sell Cheez-Its, Coke, Tang, ramen
noodles and Ruffles, all brought in by plane. In front of the local
school complex, which has new computers and wi-fi Internet,
snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles drop kids off in the morning. In
the past, dogsleds were the main mode of transit.
A sign in a high school class where students learn to make carvings
from walrus tusks reminds them to put their iPods away.
The modernization of Shishmaref angers some people, including Shelton.
He worries that Shishmaref's youth don't speak Inupiaq as well as they
should, and he says people in town are getting fat and lazy in part
because soda is available.
He had to wrestle with the fact that younger generations are carrying
on village traditions in new ways when Norman decided to move away
from the village, to Fairbanks, Alaska, for work.
His son returned to Shishmaref to visit. He still worked on speaking
the local language and tried to carry on his village's musical
traditions by participating in a traditional dancing and drumming
group. And, always, when he was home, he hunted.
But things were changing.
Shishmaref exists in a delicate balance with nature and with its own
identity.
And, one morning in June 2007, that balance tipped for Clara and
Shelton.
The storm
Morris Kiyutelluk, a short man in an orange ski jacket, walked to the
edge of the sea on a recent day, pointed to the slushy water behind
Shelton's and Clara's home and said, "That's where I grew up."
The land where his house stood has vanished into the ocean.
It was the middle of a stormy night during the winter of 2002 when
Shelton and Clara heard the waves slapping the side of their house
with a force that vibrated the floors and shook the walls.
Next door, behind their house and even closer to the roiling sea,
Morris was rushing to evacuate his family.
By the time his wife and children were out, waves were clawing at the
ground underneath his house, to the point that it hung off the edge of
the island by four feet, he said. Neighbors wrapped a rope around the
body of the red wooden home and pulled in unison. They were able to
scoot it back just enough to keep it from tipping.
After that storm and a series of others, Morris' home was among those
moved to the other side of the island. At first he and his wife,
Mildred, had a hard time adjusting to their new life on the sheltered
side of the island. They joke that they're "eastsiders" now, not "west
side people," like they used to be.
Mildred had trouble sleeping in the new location because the soothing
sounds of the sea were gone.
But, over time, she's learned to sleep through the silence.
"Apparently, I got used to it," she said.
In part because they've had to relocate once, Morris and Mildred are
among many locals pushing for Shishmaref to move off of this tenuous
island and onto an uninhabited location away from the sea.
Morris says the changes in Shishmaref -- the melting sea ice, the
disappearing seals and polar bears, the crumbling coastline -- are
beyond the village's control.
"We've got to move. There's no question about it," he said. "That
seawall will stop erosion on this end, but the water will go around
it. My ancestors said it will happen. It will happen."
But planning the move has been anything but easy.
The village voted in 2002 to relocate from the island. Seven years
later, it has had little luck finding a suitable location or funding.
A place called Tin Creek, several miles inland, is the most talked-
about relocation spot at the moment. But many of the same problems
that plague Shishmaref could be issues there, too.
Tin Creek sits on permafrost, and permafrost melt across Alaska has
been accelerating. The site is further from the sea mammals locals
depend on. And, to make matters worse, Tin Creek may also be situated
atop "ice lenses," thin sheets of underground frozen water that could
melt and cause the ground to crater.
Earlier this decade, the people of Shishmaref applied for grants and
started a Web site where the public could donate money for the
village's relocation.
Those efforts haven't gotten the village far. That's partly because
there's no federal or state government agency ready to pay for the
coming wave of "climate refugees," like those in Shishmaref.
A 2009 Government Accountability Office report found that 31 Alaskan
villages face "imminent threats" because of coastal erosion, flooding
and climate change. At least 12 are at some stage in the relocation
process.
Moving an entire town is not cheap. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
estimates that Shishmaref's relocation, if it happens, will cost up to
$200 million. Relocations of other Alaskan villages carry similar
estimates.
Who's to blame is another contentious topic.
Residents of the industrialized world could be considered liable for
the climate refugee problem, since they produce the bulk of the
greenhouse gas emissions that alter the climate. Some say the
government is responsible. Others say it's difficult to prove with
absolute certainty that a problem in any single community was caused
by climate change because other factors, like land use and natural
erosion, could be at play.
The climate refugee problem gets all the more complicated when
considered on a global scale. The Environmental Justice Foundation
estimates that unchecked climate change will force 150 million people
from their homes by mid-century.
In Shishmaref, when talk of relocation first surfaced, it seemed like
the village would be able to adapt, to control its fate.
Lately, it appears the village's worst fear may come true.
Shelton and others are terrified that Shishmaref may have to merge
with an existing town, like Nome or Kotzebue. Both are less than 100
miles away but worlds apart. Shishmaref residents say their entire way
of life may disappear.
Without access to the sea, they might have to stop hunting. Their
threatened dialect, spoken only in Shishmaref, could fizzle and die.
The village's celebratory dances, its music, its walrus-ivory carvings
and native food recipes, all of it could be flushed off the Earth and
into history books.
Over the edge
It was about 5 o'clock on a spring morning two years ago when Shelton
got the phone call that changed his life.
His youngest son, Norman Charlie, had gone out duck hunting with a
friend. They'd traveled by snowmobile across the estuary that
separates Shishmaref from the mainland.
In the past, that stretch of water would have been frozen solid on the
first week in June, Shelton said. But that year was warmer than usual.
Shelton waited and waited for his son to come home. Finally, the phone
call came.
The ice cracked. Norman fell in. His friend couldn't save him.
Shelton blames climate change for taking his son.
"Something went wrong with me the last couple of years, after we lost
that boy," Shelton said. "I think he's taken most of my life. ... I
lost my baby."
Dozens of photos of the young man, who was 24, line Shelton and
Clara's living room.
His grave is on this island.
Tradition
Like the young man who clung to village traditions but whose life was
taken by the melting ice, Shishmaref may become a memory.
For Shelton and Clara, solace is hard to come by these days. She had a
heart attack last year. His knees are giving out. He's no longer able
to hunt.
The death of their son pushed them over the edge.
Their only relief comes from a native tradition: Scattered around
their village and beyond are perhaps a half-dozen children, born since
their son died, who are named after Norman.
In Shishmaref, when a child is named after someone who's gone, that
child takes on characteristics of his or her namesake.
Ken Stenek is Shelton's nephew and the local science teacher. He and
his wife named their youngest boy after Norman.
Norman Charlie was one of Stenek's favorite students. He was a
respected hunter. He was trying to learn the Inupiaq language. He was
part of a native dance troupe. He was carrying Shishmaref's traditions
onward.
Stenek says he's raising his son to do the same.
At supper time, he grinds up seal meat, a Shishmaref staple, and feeds
it to his 7-month-old.
Baby Norman loves it.
-- END QUOTE
1-20-2013
> By now we all know of Sarah Palin's demand that she be addressed as
> "governor" even though she quit before her term was up.
>
> Now we know why she left -- she thought she could avoid responsibility
> for destroying coastal villages.
>
>
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/12/03/shishmaref.alaska.climate.change/index.html
>
Meanwhile, Obama (President of the United States - supposedly) is more
concerned about which late night TV show to appear on....or which suit
he should wear when collecting his Nobel Peace prize and lets an Alaskan
village fall into the sea.
Why doesn't the President of the United States care about this Alaskan
village?
Why does Obama think it's more important to fly to Oslo to pickup his
Nobel Peace prize...and - of course - the accompanying check....while
totally ignoring the American citizens of the Alaskan village that's
falling into the sea?
Heck-ova-job Obama! ;^D
1-20-2013
> On Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:53:32 -0500, 1-20-2013 <0120...@obamas-lastday.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names wrote:
>>
>>>By now we all know of Sarah Palin's demand that she be addressed as
>>>"governor" even though she quit before her term was up.
>>>
>>>Now we know why she left -- she thought she could avoid responsibility
>>>for destroying coastal villages.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/12/03/shishmaref.alaska.climate.change/index.html
>>>
>>
>
>
> ...has absolutely NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the climate change caused
> crisis in Alaska.
Probably true. But he has EVERYTHING to do with not even acknowledging
the crisis of an Alaskan town falling into the sea. Sad that the POTUS
couldn't care less about an American town disappearing :^\
He's got "more important" things to do....like appearing on the Leno
show and making fun of Special Olympians.
>
> Next stupid asshole ignorant denier maroon red herring, please...
>
> ---
> Welcome to reality. Enjoy your visit. Slow thinkers keep right.
> ------
> Why are so many not smart enough to know they're not smart enough?
>
> http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf
> � 1999 by the American Psychological Association
> December 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134
>
> Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own
> Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments
>
> Justin Kruger and David Dunning
> Department of Psychology
> Cornell University
>
> ABSTRACT:
> ...the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile
> on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test
> performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the
> 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.
GreyCloud
Yet off the Alaskan coast there is a 1500 mile long volcanically active
ridge spewing out 700+ degree water.
And people wonder why some of the ice is melting. Visit the University
of Washingtons website and look for under
water volcanism.
--
Common sense is the collection of prejudices
aquired by age eighteen. - Albert Einstein
GreyCloud
> On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:37:55 -0700, GreyCloud <cum...@mist.com> wrote:
>
>> Yet off the Alaskan coast there is a 1500 mile long volcanically active
>> ridge spewing out 700+ degree water.
>> And people wonder why some of the ice is melting. Visit the University
>> of Washingtons website and look for under
>> water volcanism.
>
> cu km (322,280,000 cu mi), it MUST be the 300 or so hydrothermal vents, none
> more than 12 feet across, most at extreme depths where the ambient temp is
> below 0C and THOUSANDS of miles away from any ice, that are heating the
> atmosphere! Why, that's fucking BRILL-YENT! You're a goddam JEEN-YES!
>
> BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, whew! Man, ya jess cain't BUY
> stupid that fresh! Talk about a drop in the ocean...
>
> Here's a little experiment for you, moron. Drive over to Bridgeport and
> measure the water temp. Now, boil a cup of water. Add ONE DROP. Measure temp
> again. Lather, rinse, repeat until the stupidity fades...
>
> So, your, um, expert source on climate, aka some new age quackhole nutball
> hiding out in the jungle, tell you 'bout hydrothermal vents, did he?
>
> Too fucking FUNNY! Just wait until you see what this unbelievable imbecile
> thinks constitutes a valid source. Read on...
>
>> Now read this, o clueless one.
>>
>> http://imva.info/index.php/2009/11/the-day-global-warming-stood-still/
>>
>> But I doubt you'd have the fortitude to read it.
>
> Oh...
>
> My...
>
> GOD!
>
> Are you fucking KIDDING me? THAT'S your source? The International Medical
> Veritas Association, aka nutball kook Mark Sircus, one lone quack hiding out
> from reality in the jungles of Brazil along the Mosquito Coast?
>
> <boggle>
>
> BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, whew! Cut it out, boy, or there
> ain't gonna be a dry seat left in the house!
>
> So, over there in Maroonistan, some quackhole new age non doctor doctor of
> nothing is considered an authoritative source, is he? Or is it only in your
> desiccated rat turd of a brain?
>
> Jaybus, maroon, did you even LOOK at any of this nutball's idiot's blather?
> Seriously, dude, how fucking STUPID must one be to cite a whackjob
> touchy-feely bat shit crazy new age quack with ZERO background in science
> living in the middle of nowhere as a source to rebut EVERY SERIOUS SCIENTIST
> ON THE FUCKING PLANET?
>
> What, moron, you saw this quack put a few letters after his name that you're
> too fucking stupid to know are MEANINGLESS, so your stupid ass figured he'd
> made a good source? That about sum up your, er, "thought" process?
>
> <snort>
>
> Folks, this is just too fukcing FUNNY! Check out some of the absurd nonsense
> this incredible imbecile's source farts out. First up, the "About" page...
>
> ------
> http://director.imva.info/index.php/about/
>
> About
>
> This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put
> information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming
> from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like
> and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.
> ------
>
> This fucking loon can't even figure out what the "About" page is for. Nice
> source ya got there, maroon. But for real yucks, check out the "author"
> page. Here's a few choice bits...
>
> ------
> http://director.imva.info/
>
> Mark Sircus, Ac., OMD
>
> I am a prolific writer, poet, medical researcher, doctor, psychologist,
> musician, devoted husband and family man with a dragon heart that reaches
> out routinely each week to the world with my publications. Born in New York
> in 1952 I have been living happily in Brazil since 91. Some people feel I am
> inspired by God, even in my medical work, and I do have a good relationship
> with the source of life. I am devoted to the Divine Mother but my true
> religion is centered on vulnerability, love and the capacity to listen with
> all ones heart and soul.
>
> I hold the honorary title of doctor of Oriental medicine and was one of the
> first nationally certified acupuncturists in the United States. 20 years
> ago. I have distilled divergent medical systems to an essence that provides
> a roadmap toward a unified medicine that can be practiced by allopath and
> non allopath alike. One person wrote me saying that in the area of medicine
> that I was �a flame of wonderful insight� and that my �methods of attacking
> chronic disease beautiful and to the point.� I started the International
> Medical Veritas Association in 2002 and publish the Medical News
> Commentaries as frequently as I can.
>
> I built my work in psychology on the most fundamental spiritual principle
> that all is one, and therefore all life is a mirror of our self. My work
> thus embraces the whole of life, the oneness of all beings, and all aspects
> of human life and activity from love and sexuality to government, politics,
> ecology, medicine, relationships and economics.
> ...
> I am a color/perceptual psychologist as well as a communication and
> listening therapist. Communication is the key to all aspects of change. It
> holds the key to our future, both on intimate personal levels and on social
> global ones as well for most human problems arise from poor communication.
> Communication Psychology is really a mixture of psychology and spirituality
> because it directly engages us in the process of inner growth and social
> development at the same time.
> ...
> I am for sure a family man enjoying immensely that four of my six children
> live with me on the northeast coast of Brazil with the youngest just
> learning to walk. I have a project called Sanctuary 2000 kilometers into the
> interior, which is intended to be a retreat and survival center and the home
> of the IMVA. It is on a small piece of land surrounded on three sides by two
> rivers that meet one hundred yards below the large structure we have built.
> The dream there is to build a small group consciousness, a difficult dream
> in a world that prizes too highly separative relationships. Serious
> enquiries only please.
> ...
> I am a very late bloomer and my creative and intuitive centers did not pop
> open until my late thirties. My mother was tone deaf and so was I until
> after about twenty years of playing and studying the guitar. One of the
> hallmarks of my life is to realize everything I put into my imagination and
> have even manifested things I dared not dream of. Music is one of the areas
> where I have achieved way beyond my expectations and sooner or later I will
> put up a video of me playing with my Brazilian teacher.
> ------
>
> Yeah, boy, that shore izza gud sors ya gots dere, luser...
>
> BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
> HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
> HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
> HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
> HA HA HA HA HA...
>
> ---
> Welcome to reality. Enjoy your visit. Slow thinkers keep right.
> ------
> Why are so many not smart enough to know they're not smart enough?
>
> http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf
> December 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134
>
> Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own
> Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments
>
> Justin Kruger and David Dunning
> Department of Psychology
> Cornell University
>
> ABSTRACT:
> ...the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile
> on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test
> performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the
> 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.
Guffaw!!! So speaks another one that got loose from the local nuthouse.
GreyCloud
> FACTS your stupid denier ass can't face simply DISAPPEAR as if by magic!
> You're BRILL-YENT! You must be a JEEN-YES!
Yes, isn't it tho.
:D