Climate Politics
Alaska’s Kivalina, Endangered by Climate Change, Explores Retreat– Again
The small island community has long contemplated relocation, but how to pay for the move remains in question.
Over a century ago, Austin Swan’s father attended a relocation planning meeting for the village of Kivalina, a small community in the Alaskan Arctic Circle. Established on a sandy barrier island, Kivalina had an eroding coast line and needed to move further inland to protect the homes of a mostly Native community of Iñupiat residents.
“That was when the landmass was twice what it used to be. They were talking about relocation already,” says Swan, 77, the village’s mayor. The village is only about a mile long and a few hundred feet wide.