Since Traditional Ice Cellars Are Melting, Exxon Donates $120K To Arctic Natives To Build One

[hatrack]

Problem solved!

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In Kaktovik, a coastal Inupiaq village of about 260 residents at the northern edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nearly all the ice cellars are defunct. "Most of them have been not in use perhaps since I was a boy," said Matthew Rexford, tribal administrator for Kaktovik. Only his family's cellar still functions, he added.

Under threat of losing this Inupiaq tradition entirely, the Kaktovik Community Foundation spearheaded a process to design and build a new community ice cellar on the edge of town, which opened in 2017. Unlike traditional cellars that are little more than holes in the ground, this facility is encased in a white metallic shed with reflectors and surrounded by vents. Inside, the cellar is about three metres deep, and has enough room for one whale.

The community plans to expand it to accommodate up to three whales, the village's seasonal harvest quota. In addition to a winch for meat and safety harnesses for people climbing in and out, this cellar has high-tech heat siphons that eject warm air before it can cause melting and humidity, along with real-time temperature monitoring. The $120,000 investment needed to install the cellar was donated as an act of corporate philanthropy by petroleum company ExxonMobil, which operates the Point Thomson oil field 100 kilometres west of Kaktovik.

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But for those who believe global warming caused mainly by burning fossil fuels is a major contributor to the traditional ice cellars' demise, the financial backer of the new state-of-the-art cellar is a slap in the face. "It's a superficial, ingenuine check off the box," Harcharek told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He holds companies like ExxonMobil "hugely responsible" for the rapid warming of the Arctic, which is rising in temperature twice as fast as the rest of the planet, according to the U.S.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/oil-giant-backs-ice-cellar-rescue-1.4997024

[Bayard]

1. Throw a bone to the Natives

While you're destroying the rest of the planet. Commendable.