As a part of the 350.org Fossil Free Fellowship, divestment leaders Kengo Nagaoka and Tristan Glowa returned home to Fairbanks, Alaska to send the summer working with the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition.
Today Alaska is in a moment of crisis. As the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the world, wildfires, melting permafrost, and coastal erosion are destabilizing communities all over the state.
Meanwhile, declining oil production and low oil prices in an economy almost entirely dependent on oil is cascading budget cuts all over the state. As a result, Alaska has a choice – continue digging for more oil and further entrench a homogenous economy or look forward, diversify its economy, and build resilient communities able to adapt to inclement climate change.
Watch to hear how Kengo and Tristan are organizing to tell an alternative story of what is possible in Alaska and what skills and mindsets they are bringing back to their campus fossil fuel divestment campaigns.