Kivalina village faces extinction
The entire Alaskan village of Kivalina is off-grid, or “unserved” as the official jargon puts it, by water or power utilities. It clings to a narrow spit of sand on the edge of the Bering Sea, far too small to feature on maps of Alaska, never mind the United States.
Which is perhaps just as well, because within a decade Kivalina is likely to be under water. Gone, forever. Remembered – if at all – as the birthplace of America’s first climate change refugees.
Four hundred indigenous Inuit people currently live in Kivalina’s collection of single-storey cabins. Their livelihoods depend on hunting and fishing.
In June, the United States Supreme Court denied the Native Village of Kivalina the right to sue Exxon Mobil for the climate damage which has caused them to be endangered by the sea level.…
