14-Year-Old Climate Rider Isabel Jamerson Reports Back from Arctic Village, AK

This spring, I had the chance to go up to Alaska with nine other classmates from my school.  We were up there for 17 days living in remote villages.  The focus of the trip was to study how climate change was affecting the environment and the lives of the people up there. Also, there are many proposals with drilling for oil in the area, so we heard their opinion on that was well.

So we first went to a village called Arctic Village, which is inland in Alaska, and visited the Gwich’in Indians.  They have been around thousands of years and have settled in different areas around Arctic Village.  The village consists of 160 people and has for most of its time there.  The Gwich’in people live off of the Porcupine Caribou Herd that travels by their home in the winter.  They catch as many as they can, to last them throughout the year.  But Shell oil is proposing to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the caribou have their calves.  If they did so, the herd would change its course, and not stop by Arctic Village. Then the Gwich’in people would not have their food supply, and suffer greatly. 

As we were talking to many elders in the village, they all noticed changed in the land, because of climate change.  Since the weather was warmer, the river that they live by is depleting.  Also, the warmer climate is bringing in different plant, tree, and bird species that normally would not be there.  There are taller trees growing around where the caribou come by, which makes it harder for them to hunt and see the caribou.  There are many crucial aspects of their lives that are changing the lifestyles of the Gwich’in. When we went visit the temperature was in the 70’s, which was odd for that time of year.  As you cans see, the weather is still currently getting warmer.

The second village we went to was called Kaktovik. Kaktovik is an island in the Arctic Ocean, which is in the Arctic Circle.  The people who live there are Eskimos called the Inupiat.  The main source of food for them is whales, they also eat seal and duck, but whale is the majority of their diet.  Shell Oil proposed to drill off shore this summer, but thankfully Obama put it back a year because of what happened in the Gulf. When we were up there talking to the people, they said that Shell Oil was going to come up and answer any questions the Inupiat people had about the drilling.  We were fortunate enough to attend that meeting and even ask questions!  At first Shell did not want us to talk at all, but some of the elders told them to let us talk.  So other classmate and I challenged the ideas of Shell and even debated with them.  Looking at the spill in the gulf and how much damage its doing, it pains me to think that something like that, might happen in the Arctic.  If it did happen, the whales would be hurt, and then move their migration so the Inupiat people would not be able to hunt them, the polar bears and seals would struggle, and all of the ducks would not fly to that area any more. It would be quite a production. That is why it is so important to stop that from happening.

When we were up there, we saw and heard how much the elders cared about their land and their culture.  They brought us into their homes and just wanted us to listen to their ideas, problems, or life.  It was incredible being able to spend such a long time with them and live their ways for a week! I was a vegetarian before I went up to Alaska, but I knew that I would not get very far living like that up there, and I support the way that they hunt, by catching their own meals, gutting it, cooking it ect.  I had the opportunity of plucking and roasting ducks that I saw being shot down, and I got to skin a caribou leg that we would eat that evening.  I learned a lot about their culture and hopefully I will be able to go back again!