Can $25 Million Preserve an Alaskan Town Sinking Into the Tundra?

Niugtaq—the Yup’ik name for Newtok, Alaska—means “rustling grass” in Yugtun, the local Yup’ik language. That’s the sound you hear when you step off the small commuter plane that lands here daily. In late fall, tall dry tundra grass rustles in the wind as swans, ducks and geese paddle around the pond that fills a low spot between the runway and the village, dipping their heads into its cool muddy water. Nearly 200 people live in Newtok today, but the vast majority of them know they’re unlikely to stay here safely for...