Image by coreyfishes

At the tip of a barrier island 80 miles above the Arctic Circle is a town on the island of Kivalina. The 400 native Alaskan Inupiat residents of this town tell a story which will sound alarmingly familiar to some. They, along with their school, post office, health clinic, grocery store, laundry, two churches and a bingo hall, are sinking into the Chukchi Sea. The Arctic ice that formerly protected Kivalina against winter storms is disappearing and the town is being forced to consider relocation – at a cost estimated to be between $95 and $400 million.

 

The US Army Corps of Engineers has already shown that the town is being exposed to these new risks is due to climate change. In response, a year ago, Kivalina’s 400 residents started a legal action against 24 oil, electricity and coal companies. Backed by the lawyers that broke the Tobacco industry, in this test case they are accusing the companies of contributing to global warming and creating a false scientific debate in order to deceive the public.

 

The only visual encounter most people have with the traditional life of ‘the Eskimo’ is Hollywood. The Studio image is one of fur-clad people living in constant blinding blizzards in a ceaseless and almost random quest for  caribou. A culture would not survive long in the Arctic, much less develop over several thousand years, if it were dependent on such random luck. Rather the Inupiat cycle of life developed through a careful consideration of the environment.

This week provides a unique opportunity to see and hear a different story. A thirty minute Documentary, Kivalina: The Canary in the Mine, is being shown at the Oxdox Film festival and Enoch Adams, a resident of Kivalina, and Heather Kendall-Miller, one of the lawyers leading the case, are in the UK for the event. They’ll be available for interview in London on Friday 24th April and Saturday morning 25th April at The Frontline Club, and in Oxford on Saturday afternoon 25th April and all day Sunday 26th April. Catch a glimpse of the movie below.

Contact name and number for interview times: Marie Wright on 07787 512528 and marie.wright@ntlworld.com

 

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