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Photo by Johnny Wagner

Before Polar-Palooza’s “Stories from a Changing Planet,” attendees participated in hands-on activities and got their hands on samples of Hot Licks’ Permafrost Thaw ice cream.

The Polar-Palooza tour stopped in Fairbanks after months of national touring. The event was co-hosted by the University of Alaska Museum of the North and University of Alaska Fairbanks International Polar Year Outreach Office.

Before the program, interactive activities including stations about snow crystal formations, blubber and Arctic animals, had people interacting and learning.

Kelly Newman oversaw a table of Arctic animal furs and as attendees felt the different animal furs that included fox, sea otter and wolf, she told them about special adaptations animals need to live in extreme cold.

“It’s to remind people what is needed to survive here,” she said.

Katie Barber and her family stopped by Newman’s station to touch and learn, exactly the things that brought them to West Valley High School on Thursday evening.

“We’re interested in climate change and the hands-on stuff,” she said.

Four polar researchers used a mixture of multimedia and personal stories to educate the audience about the condition and research of the North and South Pole regions during “Changing Planet,” the tour’s main event.

“Tonight we’re going to look at research from sophisticated satellites to digging a hole in the ground to see how deep it is,” said Mike Castellini, associate dean of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and a veteran Polar-Palooza team member.

Joining Castellini were Jackie Richter-Menge, a sea ice researcher with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory; Orville Huntington, a wildlife biologist, hunter and community leader from Huslia; and Charles Bentley, a glaciologist and veteran Antarctic researcher.

All four speakers spoke on different aspects of the same topic: global warming and the difference it is making Arctic regions.

Richter-Menge shared stories about measuring ice in Antartica, one of the most extreme places in the world — the Russian research station there, Vostok, has recorded a temperature of 129 degrees below zero. But Richter-Menge isn’t discouraged, if anything she is excited about her work environment.

“It is the most rewarding, the most exciting,” she said. “It’s the best part of my job.”

Bentley was part of the International Geophysical Year, the predecessor to the IPY, and first traveled to the South Pole region in 1954. He returned last year and shared his experiences with the audience.

Bringing the problem closer to home, Huntington shared video of life in Huselia. He also shared a video about the changes he has observed in the village’s environment.

In a video tour, Huntington points out a confused flower blooming in fall because of the warmth and trees so stressed they are dying.

“When I practice science in Huslia, it has to mean something,” he said.

Throughout the lectures, high-definition documentary footage and soundscapes enriched the presentations. The Fairbanks audience was also the first to see footage of research from the McMurdo Dry Valley that was recently taped and edited.

Of all of the videoes, the one that had the most enthusiastic reaction from audience members young and old was Castellini’s footage of animals who depend on the ice for survival.

“Animals need ice; if ice has problems, then animals will have problems,” Castellini said.

The evening’s stories and presentations wove together to highlight changes in global climates, especially seen in Arctic regions and its present and future effects.

“We don’t know everything, but we know enough to act,” Castellini said.