Read on Twitter
The Alaska Federation of Natives’ annual convention begins today and they just released their agenda a few days ago, so I want to discuss last year’s AFN climate resolution and AFN’s failure to act on climate and its constituencies https://twitter.com/NativeFed/status/1316569992658382848?s=20
At the 2019 AFN convention, youth leaders came together in the Elders & Youth Conference to write and then pass in AFN the Declaration for Climate Change State of Emergency in Alaska which required AFN to create a climate action leadership taskforce
http://www.peoplesafn.org/resolutions/
http://www.peoplesafn.org/resolutions/
As of this year no progress has been made, no action has been taken on the task force despite the escalating stakes of climate crisis for Alaska Natives, listen to the youth who wrote the resolution give an update here https://www.facebook.com/nativemovementalaska/videos/286387905670361/
And even though their theme is “Good Governance, Alaskans Decide” AFN has conducted this year’s conference with the minimum amount of transparency and only released their conference schedule only a couple days before the conference
Tribal government support was key in passing the climate resolution support
On the other hand, last year ASRC announced they would stop paying their dues; in this year’s delegate meeting it was revealed that 5 other ANCs stopped paying their AFN dues https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/12/13/arctic-slope-regional-corporation-to-leave-the-alaska-federation-of-natives/
On the other hand, last year ASRC announced they would stop paying their dues; in this year’s delegate meeting it was revealed that 5 other ANCs stopped paying their AFN dues https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/12/13/arctic-slope-regional-corporation-to-leave-the-alaska-federation-of-natives/
I heard from a delegate that in AFN’s delegate meeting that part of the ANCs protest is against the climate resolution and youth being able to put forth binding resolutions in AFN, and that AFN might not consider youth resolutions going forward
There are no events addressing Alaska’s climate disaster on this years’ agenda, if anything this year’s AFN is going backwards on climate, giving Exxon Mobil and the Alyeska Pipeline Corporation time to effectively propagandize
Exxon’s own scientists warned executives about the catastrophic consequences of continued fossil fuel emissions decades ago, and yet spent millions of dollars on misinformation campaigns and anti-climate politicians to deceive the public https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102015/Exxon-Sowed-Doubt-about-Climate-Science-for-Decades-by-Stressing-Uncertainty
Warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, Exxon’s actions are having devastating effects in Alaska: loss of sea ice, permafrost, coastal erosion, threats to fisheries/wildlife/subsistence, and infrastructure damage forcing relocation https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ak.pdf
AFN is also hosting two sessions featuring the U.S.’s military-industrial complex, leaning into unnecessary Arctic militarization alarmism, despite climate change being a much bigger threat https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-09-29/phantom-peril-arctic
Meanwhile the U.S. military is one of history’s largest polluters, burning more fossil fuels and releasing more GHGs than most countries https://qz.com/1655268/us-military-is-a-bigger-polluter-than-140-countries-combined/#:~:text=But%20recent%20work%2C%20including%20our,than%20most%20medium%2Dsized%20countries
Combined, the U.S. military officials, Republican politicians and officials, and oil representatives participate in about 6hrs of this AFN convention’s 16 total hours, across 17 separate sessions and addresses
https://mcusercontent.com/ae5180eeb8bd15ef35cebf021/files/865cb411-3ccd-477d-a176-66b81d0f483b/Agenda_DRAFT_12OCT20_215PM_.pdf
https://mcusercontent.com/ae5180eeb8bd15ef35cebf021/files/865cb411-3ccd-477d-a176-66b81d0f483b/Agenda_DRAFT_12OCT20_215PM_.pdf
Defend the Sacred AK Always Indigenous Media have put together a Peoples AFN website where you can sign a petition in support of the climate resolution as well as a petition supporting a state of emergency for MMIWG2S http://www.peoplesafn.org/
And follow Always Indigenous Media on Instagram (@/alwaysindigenousmedia) and Facebook where they’ll be releasing content about this year’s sessions as we attempt to hold AFN accountable to their theme, youth, and all Alaska Natives https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=757587071757883
Our youth, our elders, and our tribal leadership are leading on climate change and we need to support them and stand in solidarity with them at AFN and beyond
