Arctic sea ice loss and fierce storms leave Kivalina Search and Rescue fighting to protect their island from climate disasters
- Written by P. Joshua Griffin, Assistant Professor of Marine and Environmental Affairs and American Indian Studies, University of Washington

As winds and waves from Typhoon Merbok devastated communities along the coast of Western Alaska in 2022, Reppi Swan Sr.’s phone began to ring at Kivalina, a barrier island 80 miles above the Arctic Circle.
A neighboring family had lost 3 feet of land to the...