Paper short abstract:

Climate change affects rural residents of northern Alaska causing problems for subsistence and even requiring some villages to relocate. Many villages are Catholic and 44 parishes are distributed across the region. Spiritual strength from their faith will be an important to successfully adapt.

Paper long abstract:

Rural residents of northern Alaska depend on resources harvested from the land, sea, and rivers. These people have been exposed to some of the strongest climate change on the planet during the past half-century, and must adapt. Direct challenges to subsistence include changes to sea ice (later formation/earlier dissipation, reduced ice-dependent wildlife, higher risk for travel), and changing tundra (shrub invasion) and forests (increased fire and insect disturbance, mixed growth declines and increased vigor). Permafrost thawing and coastal erosion require that some communities relocate. Northern Alaska Inupiat, Yupik, Athabascan people have a mixed pragmatic and culturally defined relationship with their environments, and sustain a spiritual worldview reflecting traditional/ancestral elements and over a century of contact with global influences. The Catholic Diocese of Northern Alaska is an important institution in the region, and many villages are Catholic. The majority of the 44 Catholic parishes are in the villages along the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, which support migratory runs of salmonids and riparian moose habitat, or along the northern and western Alaska coasts with access to marine mammals and fish. Catholic sacramental ministry is provided by rotating and resident priests, who often share subsistence activities with villagers. Catholic teaching concerning environmental stewardship is summarized by the encyclical Laudato Si, placing these issues within overall Catholic moral and spiritual teaching. Spiritual strength from their faith will be an important basis for rural people to successfully adapt and retain their identity as their world and way of life continue to change.