I strongly disagree with Paul Fuhs, who in a recent commentary disparaged the courtroom efforts of several young Alaska climate activists to block the Alaska LNG project, while suggesting they’ve been manipulated by an Outside law firm “with no real understanding of life in Alaska.” What Fuhs conveniently forgot — or ignored — is that the eight Alaska plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit — all between the ages of 11-22 — all have an intimate understanding of life in our state. More than that, they appear to be acutely aware of the dramatic shifts that are occurring in Alaska because of what many scientists now agree is not just climate change, but a climate crisis.
Fuhs may not be a climate change denier, but he definitely downplayed the rapid warming and increasingly extreme weather events — and changes to Alaska’s landscape and bordering ocean waters — of recent decades. Like far too many of Alaska’s business and political leaders, he is willing to sacrifice the future well-being of our state — and the larger world — as well as our own species, to promote and protect an industry that is doing immense harm. I won’t get into all the reasons, from economic to environmental, that the natural gas line is a bad idea, but I applaud the activists’ effort to stop it.
Toward the end of his “analysis” of the lawsuit’s merits, Fuhs argued that “Alaska’s education system needs to do a much better job of teaching our students” to keep them from being manipulated by Outside organizations and he added that “the idealism of youth needs to be tempered by a basic understanding of science and critical thinking.” I would counter that the young activists display a much greater understanding of science in their recognition of climate change than Fuhs does in his criticism of their efforts; and in my opinion they show admirable “critical thinking” in their opposition to a project that will only add to the harm being done by a culture addicted to fossil fuels.
This Alaska old-timer applauds the activists, who are understandably fighting for their “right to a livable climate” and working to change a system that my generation — and Fuhs’ — has far too long embraced, at a great and growing cost to life in Alaska and throughout the world.
— Bill Sherwonit
Anchorage
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