The Uplifting Story of One Village’s Attempt to Survive Decades of Corporate Greed and a Changing Climate

Kivalina villagers are determined to fight climate injustice
Photo courtesy of Flickr

In February 2008, the Native Alaska community of Kivalina that has been desperately seeking to relocate due to severe flooding and erosion, sued 24 of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. In its legal claim, the tiny, remote village accused fossil fuel heavyweights such as Exxon, BP, Chevron and Shell not only for creating a public nuisance by emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases, but also for deliberately misleading the public in creating a false scientific debate about climate change. While calling attention to the village’s precarious situation, the lawsuit also sought to hold corporate officials responsible for decades of corruption, manipulation and deception in blocking government action on climate change.

In her book, Kivalina: A Climate Change Story, Christine Scherer focuses on the plight of of the village and its uphill battle against the seemingly impenetrable power of the fossil fuel industry. A postdoctoral scholar in science, technology and society studies at the University of Santa Barbara, Scherer’s academic background helps her frame the story of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil et. al as a socio-environmental version of David v. Goliath, the classic tale of the underdog going up against its powerful adversary. In her contemporary adaptation, Scherer plays up Kivalina’s dramatic attempt to fight back against the giant fossil fuel companies, using her personal visit and interviews as evidence of the village’s inspiring resolve. Kivalina’s lawsuit represented an all-out effort to win damages (up to $400 million) to cover the cost of the village’s relocation. As Scherer attests, Kivalina’s persistent environmental vulnerability, political hardship and ultimately, its willingness to fight back inspires the underdog in us all against even the most powerful and well-financed adversaries.

Drawing upon conversations with Kivalina’s residents and lawyers, Scherer also traces the history of Kivalina’s precarious position from its early settlement to its present-day vulnerabilities as a coastal village on the tip of a thin, eight-mile long barrier reef island. In doing so, she weaves in the pained history of nomadic Alaska natives whom the U.S. federal government wanted to become “civilized.” After granting Alaska Natives citizenship in 1924, the U.S. government subsequently ordered them to permanently settle around schools and churches. Such was the case for the Inupiat people who used what is now Kivalina as hunting grounds during specific times of the year. According to Scherer, U.S. officials offered the Inupiat people a choice: become civilized and thus permanently settle on the small island, or face imprisonment. In presenting this tumultuous political history, Scherer thus articulates how the original political injustice of the Inupiat inevitably transitioned into an environmental one.

Contrary to the book’s title, Scherer goes well beyond the story of Kivalina and the depths of the climate change debate. She devotes a significant portion of the book to the complex, and often infuriating history of corporate influence in politics and public life. To this end, Scherer calls this the “product defense industry” (PDI), a coalition of firms, lawyers, think tanks and sophisticated organizations that “go beyond traditional PR duties” to undertake the shaping of scientific research, government regulation, and legal opinion. Citing well-researched evidence that link government and court documents to infiltration by the tobacco, asbestos and lead industries Scherer writes that the coalition’s goal was and has been “to delay and avoid government regulation, regardless of the costs to the public.” Within this context, the corporate model of concentrated power and wealth of the tobacco, asbestos and lead industries shares many parallels to that of the fossil fuel industry in influencing government energy and climate policy.

Although Scherer’s well-researched insights effectively builds up the history of corporate influence in government-funded science and public policy, she waits until the very end of the book to discuss the nature of the lawsuit and Kivalina’s corresponding struggles to win its case. In 2009, a District Court judge dismissed the case, ruling that issue was a matter for the political branches, not the courts and that Kivalina did not have legal standing to bring the case up in the first place. While Scherer touches on the fossil fuel industry’s tight grip on political and judicial matters, she fails to explicitly outline the reasons for this lawsuit’s failure. Furthermore, by publishing the book in 2011, Scherer leaves the reader wondering about the ultimate outcome of the lawsuit (it was appealed and then dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013) as well as the rest of the residents of Kivalina.

Despite these setbacks, Kivalina: A Climate Change Story helps bring mainstream attention to the larger and increasingly prominent climate justice movement. It also explains that for some communities, climate change is hard-hitting reminder of the underlying socioeconomic and political missteps in U.S policy. Finally, in going well-beyond the borders of Alaska, Scherer masterfully articulates the how the issue of global climate change is as much as a social and racial justice issue as it is an environmental one. In sharing this tragic story, the book therefore invites the reader to join the global climate justice movement not only to protect the most vulnerable but also the foundation of American democracy.