The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium was awarded a nearly $75 million federal grant to help native communities deal with rising global temperatures.
Alaska News Source reported the investment will help with regional capacity building, benefitting nearly 100 communities impacted by a changing climate.
ANTHC was one of 19 grant awardees that collectively received more than $500 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce to build climate resilience.
"Alaska is an underserved state on the front lines of climate change — related impacts that are altering the Arctic landscape and affecting every aspect of life in remote Alaska Native communities," NOAA says on the grant website. "The most effective way to increase preparedness and reduce exposure to negative impacts is to increase the region's capacity to understand risk and develop and implement solutions."
The NOAA website called the expenditure, "a historic investment that is advancing NOAA's efforts to build Climate-Ready Coasts."
During a joint press conference, NOAA deputy administrator Jainey Bavishi said the money would help Alaska's native communities deal with challenges like climate-driven relocation, food sovereignty, and behavior and mental health wellness. She added that Alaska is warming twice as fast as any other state.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Alaska native communities are already experiencing the effects of a warming planet, including melting permafrost that is threatening their health, economy, and cultures.
"Alaska native people face the realities of climate change every day," ANTHC President Natasha Singh said at the press conference. "From the shifting rivers we fish, to the changing terrain of the traditional lands that we hunt, climate change is one of the leading public health challenges in Alaska."
Diminishing sea ice has affected wildlife in the state — for instance, mass strandings of seals have increased and polar bears have limited access to prey, according to the USDA Climate Hubs website.
This is just one of a number of programs set to increase climate resilience across the United States. For instance, the federal government is investing more than $179 million in water reuse projects across the American West to help states like Utah and California better deal with droughts. In Louisiana, another climate resilience project is reconnecting wetlands to the Mississippi River to improve storm protection for local communities and to return the surrounding land to its natural state.
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