Going it alone It's fairly common knowledge that the poor,
though they've released far less than their share of the world's
greenhouse gasses, will feel the nastiest effects of climate
change. Usually, we take "the poor," in this case, to mean
residents of Tuvalu, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea or other
developing states whose governments lack the resources or the
inclination to help them. But the poor residents of the
industrialized world have been, and will be, disproportionately
affected as well. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina proved
that, and this recent report from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office makes the point as well. According to the
report, 31 of Alaska's roughly 231 native villages face
"imminent threats" from erosion and flooding related to climate
change, and most have already been affected to some degree.
Twelve are in the process of relocating. Scattered up Alaska's
coast and strung along its rivers, the villages have been
subject to flooding and erosion when river ice breaks up in