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Alaska's Big Thaw
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Alaska's Big Thaw

2013 · EN · STATUS: [ STREAMING ]
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Alaska is warming faster than almost anywhere else on Earth, and this film travels to the coastal and river communities watching the ground itself give way. Permafrost that once held villages steady is thawing, sea ice that used to buffer the shoreline is thinning and arriving later each year, and towns like those on the state's western coast are losing land to erosion fast enough that relocation is already being discussed as the only long-term option. Interviews with residents, scientists, and local officials lay out what daily life looks like when a house's foundation can no longer be trusted and hunting or fishing patterns built over generations no longer match the ice and weather. The film uses aerial and ground footage of crumbling riverbanks, sinking roads, and retreating glaciers to make the abstract idea of climate change into a specific, local problem with a price tag and a moving deadline. It closes on the open question of where these communities go next, and who pays for it.