Richard Tafoya
Feb 26th, 2008, 10:10 PM
AP:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Global-Warming-Erosion.php
A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence.
The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC, seven other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco.
Kivalina is a traditional Inupiat Eskimo village of about 390 people about 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage. It is built on an 8-mile (13-kilometer) barrier reef between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River.
Sea ice traditionally protected the community, whose economy is based in part on salmon fishing plus subsistence hunting of whale, seal, walrus, and caribou. But sea ice that forms later and melts sooner because of higher temperatures has left the community unprotected from fall and winter storm waves and surges that lash coastal communities.
"We are seeing accelerated erosion because of the loss of sea ice," City Administrator Janet Mitchell said in a statement. "We normally have ice starting in October, but now we have open water even into December so our island is not protected from the storms."
Relocation costs have been estimated at $400 million (€269 million) or more.
A spokesman for Exxon Mobil, Gantt Walton, said the company was reviewing the lawsuit and had no immediate comment on it.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Global-Warming-Erosion.php
A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence.
The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC, seven other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco.
Kivalina is a traditional Inupiat Eskimo village of about 390 people about 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage. It is built on an 8-mile (13-kilometer) barrier reef between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River.
Sea ice traditionally protected the community, whose economy is based in part on salmon fishing plus subsistence hunting of whale, seal, walrus, and caribou. But sea ice that forms later and melts sooner because of higher temperatures has left the community unprotected from fall and winter storm waves and surges that lash coastal communities.
"We are seeing accelerated erosion because of the loss of sea ice," City Administrator Janet Mitchell said in a statement. "We normally have ice starting in October, but now we have open water even into December so our island is not protected from the storms."
Relocation costs have been estimated at $400 million (€269 million) or more.
A spokesman for Exxon Mobil, Gantt Walton, said the company was reviewing the lawsuit and had no immediate comment on it.