Background Articles

A recent Interior Department grant aims to help residents in Newtok move to higher ground, but it’s just a sliver of what’s needed.

Garbage and wood were removed by the municipal services of the village of Rytkuchi of the Pevek urban district from the coastline and tundra near the settlement. This was the final stage of a large-scale clean-up, which began in the summer after a strong storm.

Golovin was hurt worse than other places in the Norton Sound region by the remnants of typhoon Merbok as it swirled up through Bering Sea last weekend. Repairing the damage is going to take time — and the clock is ticking on winter’s arrival.

The powerful remnants of Typhoon Merbok pounded Alaska’s western coast on Sept. 17, 2022, pushing homes off their foundations and tearing apart protective berms as water flooded communities. Storms aren’t unusual here, but Merbok built up over unusually warm water. Its waves reached 50 feet over the Bering Sea, and its storm surge sent water levels into communities at near record highs along with near hurricane-force winds.

Just two days after temperatures dipped below -5 degrees Fahrenheit in Hooper Bay, they shot up above freezing, and it started to rain. That caused the water level in the lagoon to rise, and water started to flow through the crack, eroding the lagoon wall.

Permafrost contains microbes, mammoths, and twice as much carbon as Earth’s atmosphere. What happens when it starts to melt?

If that saying about Jan. 1 setting the tone for the year to come has any truth to it, 2022 is going to be a wild ride.

The Canadian Armed Forces has begun setting up two water purification units at the Sylvia Grinnell River on Monday morning to help Nunavut’s capital with its ongoing water emergency. The military had been waiting for the City of Iqaluit’s approval before setting up the units. The two parties agreed on the location Sunday night, said

For many U.S. communities, the bleak predictions laid out in a new United Nations climate change report are more a reflection of the present and not just what’s to come.

A lack of adequate water and sewer service and overcrowded housing combined to make the COVID-19 pandemic more severe in rural Alaska, a new study confirms.

Climate change is worsening water scarcity in rural Alaska and a host of new strategies is needed to help address the issue says a recent study.

Experts raise concerns about residents who refuse to evacuate as ‘huge explosion’ reported at La Soufriere volcano. The volcano, which last erupted in 1979, began spewing copious amounts of ash on Friday.

The landfill in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, is overfull, but the hamlet can’t open a new landfill until it can pay to decommission the old one, says hamlet Mayor Harry Towtongie. A new environmental report says bad dumps are a problem in all of Canada's Inuit regions.

Residents of the Southwest Alaska village are hauling water from the Kuskokwim River, collecting rainwater and drinking donated bottled water as officials seek a viable option.

Barnehage, sjukeheim, rådhus, legesenter, barneskule, vass- og avløpssystem, eit bustadfelt og ei av hovudfartsårene inn til Gjerdrum er sett ut av spel.

Newspaper of record for Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec

Rising sea levels will threaten three times more people in the next 30 years than previously thought, according to the latest scientific estimates. Among the hundreds of millions of people worldwide facing the threat are the 400 residents of Newtok, Alaska. Rising river and eroding land is pushing the entire community to relocate, despite emotional and logistical hurdles.

Following a season of drought, the Southeast Alaska community of Metlakatla is navigating a different relationship with water, like a number of other places in the region.

An emergency project to pump water from Unnamed Lake started in mid-August, and has been successful. The city's reservoir at Lake Geraldine is projected to be filled ten days ahead of schedule.