ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
ALASKA
Alaska accounts for about 20% of the total U.S. landmass, twice that of Texas. It is
the only U.S. Arctic region, with lands on both sides of the Arctic Circle. Projected
higher temperatures and more precipitation pose challenges to communities as
they try to protect air quality, prepare for impacts to Native communities, and
protect coastal areas. Many communities are building resilience to the risks they
face under current climatic conditions. This fact sheet provides examples of
communities that are going beyond resilience to anticipate and prepare for future
impacts.
&EPA
stales
Environmental Protection
Agency
Moving Beyond Resilience to Adaptation
Climate change adaptation goes
beyond resilience by taking actions to
address future risks. Adaptation refers
to how communities anticipate, plan,
and prepare for a changing climate.
Observed and Projected Changes in Alaska
Intense storms have increased
Observed Change in Very Heavy Precipitation
Average Annual
Temperature
Permafrost is melting
Observed Temperature
The area inside the solid line marks where
permafrost exists today in the Arctic. The
dotted line shows where the permafrost
boundary might be by the year 2090.
Alaska experienced an 11% increase in the
amount of precipitation falling in very
heavy events (the heaviest 1%) from 1958
to 2012.
This map shows the average annual
temperature (°C) from 2000-2009 in Alaska.
Maintaining Air Quality
Climate factors that promote more frequent and intense wildfires include warmer weather, little or no precipitation, low
relative humidity and high winds. Longer summers and higher temperatures create an environment that is conducive to larger
fires. Between 1970 and 2000, the length of the snow-free season increased by about ten days across Alaska, primarily because
of earlier snowmelt, leading to an earlier spring. These conditions give vegetation and soils more time to dry out, increasing the
likelihood of wildfires.
• Climate change can increase the impacts of wildfires on humans, such as respiratory illness and smoke inhalation.
• Climate change can significantly increase summertime ground-level ozone concentrations in many areas.
Adaptation in Action
The Alaska Interagency Wildland Fire Management Plan (AIWFMP) is working to protect human health, cultural, and natural
resources as the climate changes. In order to anticipate, prepare, and plan for more frequent and intense wildfires, AIWFMP
developed several wildfire management options to ensure best use of limited resources. These options prioritize firefighting
actions and how to best protect public health, ecosystems, and critical infrastructure. The management plan allows aggressive
suppression where human health, property, and other critical resources are at risk, and also allows fires to be monitored where
there is no immediate threat to public health.
-------
ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
ALASKA
Impacts on Native Communities
Alaska is home to 229 federally recognized tribes, 40% of the total U.S. tribal population. Many are already experiencing the
effects of climate change. Higher temperatures, decreasing sea ice, and melting permafrost are threatening the health, economy,
and culture of Alaska Native peoples, despite their history of living close to the land and adapting to natural changes. Key
vulnerabilities include:
• Climate change will increase coastal erosion, thus threatening coastal communities.
• Climate change will push Alaska Native communities to retreat and relocate away from climate-battered areas, due to high
costs and constraints on relocation funds.
• Climate change will reduce the availability of food due to changes in species migration, and by making hunting and fishing
more difficult.
• Climate change is already affecting the lives and culture of people who depend on traditional way of acquiring and storing
their food.
Adaptation in Action
After two cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning in Sitka, AK, 11 of 17 tribal communities joined the Southeast Alaska Tribal Toxins
(SEATT) partnership to combat the risks of harmful algal blooms (HABs) to subsistence shellfish harvesters. As ocean
temperatures rise due to climate change, HAB outbreaks are expected to become more frequent and severe. Since the state does
not test recreational and subsistence shellfisheries, the Sitka tribe is developing a shellfish testing laboratory, with support from
the EPA. Weekly plankton monitoring will show when HABs are more likely to occur, thus protecting the health and economy of
southeast Alaska tribal communities, as the climate changes.
In several Alaskan Native communities, urgent planning discussion are underway about how to adapt, and potentially relocate,
due to climate change. Newtek, a Yup'ik Eskimo coastal community, has worked for a generation to relocate to a safer location as
the climate has changed. Between 2004 and 2006, three storms accelerated coastal erosion and repeatedly flooded the village
water supply, caused raw sewage to be spread throughout the community, displaced residents from homes, destroyed
subsistence food storage, and shut down essential utilities. The loss of the town's barge landing, where most supplies and heating
fuel were delivered, created a fuel crisis. Saltwater is contaminating the community water supply, and by 2017, erosion is
projected to reach the school, the largest building in the community. Federal legislation does not authorize relocation funding,
nor does it authorize the community to repair or upgrade storm-damaged infrastructure in flood-prone locations.
Permafrost
Permafrost is frozen ground that restricts water drainage and strongly influences water flows and affects the design and
maintenance of infrastructure. In Alaska, permafrost is under 80% of the land. Some climate models project the complete loss of
near-surface permafrost from large parts of Alaska by the end of this century. Key vulnerabilities include:
• Climate change increases temperatures, which leads to increased thawing of permafrost. This causes surface instability,
sinking of infrastructure and buildings, and impairs human and animal movement on the land.
• With higher temperatures due to climate change, water drains away or evaporates into the air, soils dry out, further
destabilizing critical infrastructure, as the permafrost melts.
Adaptation in Action
The Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks, AK, has advised businesses and residents to avoid building on permafrost as a
way to anticipate, prepare and plan for a changing climate. The Center also designs homes with adjustable foundation piers,
which can be moved if permafrost conditions deteriorate. To protect the permafrost from melting, damaged roadways are rebuilt
with the same type of insulation used in foundation walls. Federal and state officials are laying an extra four inches of insulation
under a roads that was damaged by thawing permafrost before repaving it. In some areas, structures have been built with
refrigerated supports to ensure structural integrity in the face of a changing climate.
For a comprehensive view of projected climate changes in your region, consult:
.sessment
r1 r«innfn «M J litffStntSTm. fJi 1 w
JUNE 2016
OFFICE OF POLICY
EPA-230-F-16-019
------- |