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Today I'd like to share about my experience with the erosion that is happening along the Arctic coastline. During my 5 years of living in Utqiagvik, AK (Barrow), I lived in an oceanfront apartment and was able to watch, on a daily basis, the changes of the coastline on a daily basis. I used to say, I am literally living on ground zero for climate change. I figured, I was the next to go. In fact everyone
in my apartment had a "ditch bag", or at least we joked about having one, for the day our apartment would fall into the ocean.
You see between my home and the Arctic ocean there was a dirt road, then a small cliff area leading to the beach. During the fall storms, the waves would get so high that it would each away part of the road with each hit and the salty spray would cake our windows. Prior to Fall, throughout the summer, the city would work hard to combat the coastal erosion, by using tractors to place giant bags of sand along the coastline. It was quite something to watch the trucks, cranes, and workers from my front deck doing all the could to keep us from falling into the ocean. Talk about being thankful for small favors, or in this case big ones.
Thankfully, the sand bags did a good job slowing the erosion, saving our road and home, while I lived there, however, it really only took one or two good storms to demolish a sandbag, and soon they were back working to replace them. It became clear that although the city was putting up a good fight, it was losing the battle.
Photos by Kirsten Alburg
How is coastal erosion linked to climate change?
Arctic coastal erosion is caused by a combination of thermal and mechanical drivers. Permafrost thaw and ground-ice melt lead to soil decohesion and slumping, while surface ocean waves mechanically abrade the Arctic coast. Sea-ice loss prolongs the open-water season, increasing the vulnerability of the Arctic coast to erosion from storms.
Why do we care?
Unfortunately, irreversible coastal land loss in this region poses a threat to native, industrial, scientific, and military communities. The Arctic coastline is vast, spanning more than 100,000 km across eight nations, ten percent of which is overseen by the United States. Much of area is inaccessible by all-season roads. People and infrastructure, therefore, are commonly located near the coast. The impact of the Arctic coastal erosion problem is widespread. Homes are being lost. Residents are being dispersed and their villages relocated. Shoreline fuel storage and delivery systems are at greater risk. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) operate research facilities along some of the most rapidly eroding sections of coast in the world. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is struggling to fortify coastal radar sites, operated to ensure national sovereignty in the air, against the erosion problem
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