A two-day workshop that starts in Nome today will bring together village leaders, university researchers, and government officials to discuss climate change resilience and adaptation in the region.
Day one of the workshop addresses drivers and impacts of climate change.
Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Washington will start off the first session with overviews of how weather patterns and sea ice have shifted.
Aaron Poe is with Aleutian and Bering Sea Islands Landscape Conservation Cooperative and is helping organize the workshop.
“From there,” Poe explained, “we’re going to be talking about what do those trends and climate change mean for things like food security and coastal erosion.”
Poe says input from community leaders will be key to address local impacts of a changing climate in the Bering Strait region.
The second day of the workshop will focus on the tools needed to address those impacts.
Nome Eskimo Community, St. Paul Island, Shaktoolik, and other communities will offer up their own climate change adaptation strategies.
Karen Pletnikoff with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association says that’s essential.
“Some people will be having to decide whether or not they stick together or where they go from here, and having as much information as they can at hand is going to help them make those decisions for themselves and in a better way for their communities.”
The workshop is open to the public. It starts on Tuesday at 9am at Nome’s Mini Convention Center and runs through Wednesday.
