Melting permafrost and major storms are eating away at the coastal Alaskan village of Newtok. Residents are desperate to move, but the U.S. has no climate change policy that could help them.
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
"Our roads are slippery when there would be snow to where the children were out with their sled. Planes never cancelled as much as this year to where the flights were backed up to 3 or 4 days. Lately, we've been seeing grasses regrowing after it warms up out there."
The past couple years have been warmer than normal contributing to where the river is still flowing ice and with some of the plants still green.
The loss of frozen ground in Arctic regions is a striking result of climate change. And it is also a cause of more warming to come.
4-13-14 River ice treacherous - Bethel, Alaska, USA
2-20-14 Very little snow - Bethel, Alaska, USA
All Topics
All Countries
Any Date
Apply