Why Is Alaska's Governor Looking to Oil to Cover Climate Change Costs?
- 2015-10-22
- Popular Science
Climate change and it's accompanying horsemen of wildfires, droughts, and sea level rise--just to name a few of the cavalry--are a dramatic problem. Both political and religious leaders have said that the care of the environment is imperative for the future of humanity. World leaders are meeting later this year in Paris for a climate summit that will search for a solution to the climate change conundrum.
One of the biggest issues is cost. Communities built in areas that are burning, drying, or flooding can't just be rolled up like a carpet and carted off to a more suitable location. Both relocation and retrofitting (in which a community stays in its historic home) are both extremely expensive propositions, so it's not a huge surprise that people are landing on some desperate solutions. This Includes the latest idea from Alaskan Governor Bill Walker: Use oil and gas revenue to help relocate Alaskan villages affected by climate change.
Remote villages like Kivalina and Newtok would cost millions of dollars to move or protect, which is money that Alaska doesn't have right now.
In an interview with the BBC Walker said, "We are in a significant fiscal challenge. We have villages that are washing away because of changes in the climate. I don't see anyone putting together contribution funds to help move Kivalina; that is our obligation, we stand by that - we need to figure out how to do that. But those are very expensive - we have about 12 villages in that situation."
Walker then told reporter Matt McGrarth that he thought more exploration and drilling for oil was absolutely part of the solution, "in a responsible way as we have in the past."