Casey Kuhn:
NOAA found the Arctic, which typically traps carbon in its frozen soil, now emits more carbon than it stores. That’s due to increased wildfires and melting permafrost, which both release climate-warming carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.
That shift, scientists say, will make climate change worse. For Native Alaskans, a changing climate means a changing way of life, says Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer, director of climate initiatives at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, or ANTHC.
Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer, Director of Climate Initiatives, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: We have communities that rely on subsistence foods, which is foods that come from nature. That economy is not equated into dollars, but if it goes away, it’s a huge part of how people survive in the Arctic.
We have communities in smaller communities that rely up to 80 percent on those food resources, and they’re organic natural food resources, which are being impacted by climate change.
