View from the Hill, Troth Yeddha’ An Open Letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

A Letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski by Dr. Kathy Kitts

The Honorable Lisa Murkowski

United States Senator for Alaska

522 Hart Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Murkowski,

As you are a member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, you are privileged with the access to, and an understanding of, the science behind climate change. Despite this, you chose politics over the needs of your constituents and voted against the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, an act to provide $369 billion for climate and clean energy provisions that could have benefitted Alaskan residents directly.

As you know, Alaska is the largest state in the US with over twice the land area of Texas. In our great state, we are home to ecosystems like arctic coastlines, glaciers, boreal forests, tundra, peatlands, and meadows; all of which are being adversely affected by climate change. According to Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, Alaska’s average temperature has increased by approximately 3°F with warming in the winter months up an average of 6°F in the last 60 years. This increase is twice as fast as those occurring in the lower 48.  

The widespread impacts of this warming include rapid sea ice retreat, shrinking glaciers, and thawing permafrost. The loss of permafrost alone is damaging critical infrastructure and wildlife habitat. It is leading to more wildfires (the staff in your Fairbanks office will attest to the smoke that choked our city this summer), and resulting in frost heaves and subsidence that is directly affecting our highways, railways, and airstrips. 

Rising ocean temperatures are reducing the presence and seasonal duration of sea ice, which in turn is destabilizing the populations of ice-dependent species such as walrus and polar bear. Changes in sea ice also affect the productivity and location of the plankton blooms used as a food source for many of our commercial fisheries.

I am sure you are aware of the recent collapse of our snow crab population. The Alaska Board of Fisheries and North Pacific Fishery Management Council announced the closure of the fishery because the population dropped from eight billion in 2018 to one billion in 2021. In an interview with CNN Michael Litzow, the Kodiak lab director for NOAA Fisheries, warned that the collapse is not due to overfishing, but rather the rising mean ocean temperature. He explained, “Snow crabs are cold-water species and found overwhelmingly in areas where water temperatures are below 2 degrees Celsius. As oceans warm and sea ice disappears, the ocean around Alaska is becoming inhospitable.” The crabbers have applied for emergency assistance from the U. S. Department of Commerce for this season, but unless we do something to reduce the rise in global ocean temperatures, the fishery will close permanently due to extinction.

In addition to the loss of fisheries, the reduction of sea ice along the shoreline and permafrost in coastal areas has exposed more cities and villages to flooding and erosion. As the recent typhoon Merbok –fueled by global warming– has demonstrated, more intense weather events have only exacerbated the catastrophic flooding along our northwestern coast. 

More than thirty native villages are in the process of relocating to higher ground. Who is going to pay for that? The U.S. government? Even if federal funds are allocated for relocation, how are the residents going to sustain themselves given that they depend economically, nutritionally, and culturally on fishing and hunting for bears, walruses, seals, and caribou, all of which are populations being sharply reduced by climate change?

Given the reality of the disastrous effects of global warming here in our state, I implore you to defend the citizens of Alaska and to support climate change legislation in the future. You and I might not live long enough to see what climate change will ultimately do to the forests, fisheries, and peoples of Alaska, but our grandchildren will and so will their children. Please, do not let your legacy be, “She threw away our future for the party line.”

Sincerely,

Dr. K. Kitts

Columnist for the UAF Sun Star