Climate change destroyed an Alaska village. Its residents are starting over in a new town

Associated Press

MERTARVIK, Alaska (AP) — Erosion and melting permafrost have just about destroyed the Alaska village of Newtok. About 70 feet of land has been disappearing each year, and all that remains are some dilapidated and largely abandoned gray homes scraped bare of paint by salty winds of Bering Sea storms. In the next few weeks, the few dozen remaining residents will move a few miles away to a new town, Mertarvik, and reunite with villagers who made the move earlier. They will become one of the first Alaska Native villages to complete a large-scale relocation because of climate change. It’s the same story across much of the Arctic, as melting permafrost damages roads, railroad tracks, pipes and buildings for 4 million people across the top of the world.