Frederick Douglas was a freed slave who became a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He spent his life trying to convince conservative-thinking people the two modes were compatible. He concluded that “it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”. We could build a strong case for applying that to Earth’s resilience too.
The Need to Build Strong Children Beyond the Arctic Circle
Kevin Neyhard is an 8th Grade science teacher in Utqiagvik, previously Barrow on the north west Alaska coast. It’s within the Arctic Circle and has a dry, polar climate that becomes extremely dangerous when wind and cold combine. They have to build strong children out there if they are to survive.
The Utqiagvik climate has already changed owing the temperature having risen 7º F / 3.8º C over the past 50 years. The Smithsonian reports “tundra lakes are disappearing, and with them drinking water and nesting grounds for millions of migrating birds. When hunters go out after moose, their boats increasingly run aground in flats.”
Climate Change is Personal to 8th Grade Utqiagvik Students
The 4,335 residents of Utqiagvik live close to their environment north of the Arctic Circle. Hence for them, climate change is very real. There are no roads in and out their settlement. Climate scientists must arrive at a small landing strip if they want to know what is going on.
When they do, they discover a peaceful settlement that uses the land and ocean to access the resources they subsist on. Climate change is threatening these stocks. Kids in their early teens “have seen a change in the coastline due to erosion” according to radio station KNBA.
When Kevin Neyhard sends his students home at the end of school day, he asks them to look for signs of climate change on their way home. If we are to build strong children to resist this, he says, they need a better sense of how the world is changing.
Related
Arctic Region Under Threat from Shipping
Climate Change Evidence: Warming Oceans
Preview Image: Utqiagvik on the North West Coast of Alaska BY Google Earth
