Alaska Youth On The ‘Front Lines Of The Climate Crisis’ Sue To Stop LNG Pipeline
Eight young people from Alaska are suing their state government, claiming a major new North Slope natural gas project is in violation of their constitutional rights.
Alaska
Wells Fargo Workers At Two Branches Move To Unionize
Wells Fargo employees at two of the bank’s branches filed for union elections on Monday, laying the groundwork for potential unionization in an industry that has largely been immune to such labor campaigns.
In a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bankers and tellers at Wells Fargo branches in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Bethel, Alaska declared their intent to join the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU).
Labor action in the United States has picked up pace this year, with unions confronting companies across industries like automotive, entertainment and aerospace.
‘Defend The Sacred’ Rally At Alaska Federation Of Natives In Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska – A large crowd gathered and rallied outside the Annual Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention Thursday afternoon around a large hand-painted banner that read “Defend the Sacred: Extraction is NOT our way of life”. The rally was organized by a coalition of Alaska Native groups to connect the growing crisis of environmental and community health impacts of the extraction industry on Indigenous communities around the State. Host organizations included, United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Mother Kuskokwim, Native Movement and Grandmothers Growing Goodness.
What You Don’t Know About The Willow Project
On March 13, 2023, President Biden approved the Willow project, an oil drilling venture by the large crude oil producer, ConocoPhillips, occurring on Alaska’s North Slope. The proposed drilling area is believed to hold 600 million barrels of oil, which will be extracted from three different drill pads. While there is no exact date for the project to begin, construction is set to commence at any time and will continue for decades.
The detrimental climate impact is by far the project’s most severe effect. However, the media is ignoring a crucial factor: the drill site sits next to the Nuiqsut tribe, an Inupiaq community that strongly opposes the Willow project.
Environmentalists, Indigenous Groups Blast Approval Of Willow Oil Project
Indigenous people and environmental groups on Monday swiftly slammed the Biden administration's approval of the controversial Willow oil drilling project along Alaska's North Slope. They say the ConocoPhillips plan—which would be the largest oil development on federal land in US history—conflicts with the president's promise that no new oil and gas drilling would happen on public lands under his leadership and that the move keeps the country tethered to toxic fossil fuels at a time when scientists say the nation needs to be moving away from carbon pollution.
Tiktok Campaign Targets Controversial Alaska Willow Oil Project
With 161.5 million views and counting on TikTok alone, the #StopWillow social media campaign has left no question of the groundswell of opposition to the proposed oil development project Willow on Alaska’s remote North Slope.
Social media users have been using the hashtag to voice their resistance to President Joe Biden’s failure to keep his campaign pledges to reduce oil drilling.
“With all of the progress that the U.S. government has made on climate change, it now feels like they’re turning their backs by allowing Willow to go through,” said climate activist Hazel Thayer, who posted TikTok videos using the #StopWillow hashtag, as The Associated Press reported.
How Tribes Of The North Are Taking Climate Matters Into Their Own Hands
It can be difficult to understand the true impacts of climate change when you are not directly facing its harsh effects. We see that communities in different regions and terrains around the world are experiencing different rates of global warming with different consequences. We also know that the Arctic, in particular, is experiencing climate change more rapidly and more severely than other parts of the world. In order to understand the diverse impact climate change has on different communities, it is also important to understand what community-based solutions are in place for adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
Oil Companies Pull Out Of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Drilling in the refuge has long been a controversial issue, as the 19.5-million-acre wilderness area is home to 45 species of mammals including polar bears, bowhead whales and caribou and considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in people, according to the Gwich’in Steering Committee.
“These exits clearly demonstrate that international companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples,” the Gwich’in Steering Committee said in a statement.
The Anchorage Daily News first reported Thursday that the oil company Regenerate Alaska, a subsidiary of 88 Energy, had canceled its lease on the refuge’s coastal plain, as confirmed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Indigenous Organizers In Alaska Lead The Way Toward Livable Climate Future
In the United States, the public and politicians are moving in opposite directions on climate change. Grassroots environmental activism is spreading on the local state, regional and national levels, while Congress generally continues with a “business-as-usual” approach, rejecting the foremost way to avoid the worst consequences of global warming: the Green New Deal.
While the Green New Deal remains aspirational in the U.S., it has been adopted by the European Union, and scores of countries around the world have committed to pursuing its goals.
Among the many organizations in the U.S. fighting for environmental sustainability and a just transition toward clean, renewable energy is Native Movement, an organization dedicated to building people power for transformative change and imagining a world without fossil fuels.
Land Exchange For Alaska Native Veterans
Juneau, AL - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday proposed letting Alaska Native Vietnam War veterans exchange promised federal land allotments that many say are not available in their cultural regions for state lands.
Details would need to be worked out through the legislative process, with lawmakers eyeing adjournment in about two weeks. Several legislators attended Wednesday’s announcement, along with Alaska Native veterans.
Dunleavy said he sees this as an opportunity to “right a wrong” the federal government should have addressed long ago.
“We’re going to help them get land as close as possible to where they grew up or where they hunted or where they berry picked, especially where they want their families to take part,” the Republican governor said.
Community-Focused Gardening Takes Root In Alaska
Alaska is cold. With temperatures below freezing from October to April, it has some of the longest winters in the country.
And the terrain can be challenging: rocky islands with scant soil. Tundra — soggy on top and frozen a foot down.
On the other hand, summer days are long. In the land of the midnight sun, the sun doesn’t set for weeks, making gardening in Alaska a unique experience.
With greenhouses to get an early start and raised beds to warm the soil, Alaskans are able to plant flourishing gardens and raise record-breaking vegetables despite the obstacles.
At the start of the growing season in May, the Alaska Native Media Group launched the Garden and Gather initiative, to encourage Alaska Natives to practice local gardening, and to empower them to share their planting stories.
Alaska Legislation Would Finally Recognize The Existence Of Tribes
‘This bill is simply honoring and recognizing our Alaska people that have been here since time immemorial, an ancient people with an ancient past, a proud people’ A bill before the Alaska House Tribal Affairs Committee is simple: "The state recognizes all tribes in the state that are federally recognized ..." The legislation gets more complicated after that line.
Alaska Becomes First State To Allow Public Use Establishments
Juneau, AK: Officials with the Alaska's Marijuana Control Board have issued their first-ever permits to retailers who wish to allow customers to consume cannabis on the premises. While a handful of cities in other states — such as West Hollywood, California and Springfield, Illinois — have similarly issued municipal licenses to allow for on-site cannabis consumption, Alaska is the first jurisdiction to provide state approval for such facilities.
Young Indigenous Activists Lead Climate Justice Action In Alaska
“We do not want to stop our ways of life. That’s why we’re here.” Seventeen-year-old Quannah Chasing Horse’s voice broke as she stood on stage in front of a sea of delegates at the Alaska Federation of Natives 2019 Convention in Fairbanks, Alaska. “We shouldn’t have to tell people in charge that we want to survive. It should be our number-one right. We should not have to fight for this.” In October, at one of the largest gatherings of Indigenous people in the U.S., the Hans Gwich’in and Lakota Sioux teenager stood with 15-year-old Nanieezh Peter (Neetsaii Gwich’in and Diné)...
Tlingit Carvers Create ‘Shaming Totem’ Of Trump And Alaska Governor Dunleavy
The pole supports the effort to recall Dunleavy, who would rather balance the state budget by cutting benefits to the poor than reduce a tax credit to big oil companies. Did the Tlingit “shaming” totem pole featuring images of President Trump and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy cause the governor to restore most of the nearly half a billion dollars he cut from the state budget? Well, it didn’t hurt. The 11-and-a-half foot red cedar pole arrived in the state capital of Juneau from where it was carved in Sitka just in time for the kickoff of the Recall Dunleavy signature drive on August 1.