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Introduction to Alaska's Changing Climate
Photo by John Wagner
July 26, 2008
Alaska is changing. It's getting warmer, and that warming is affecting plants and animals, landscapes, and the people who live here. This series tries to explain the science behind climate change and what's happening specifically in Alaska. It also zooms in on four areas where climate-related changes are already happening in the state or are expected to happen in the future. It looks at the shrinking of the arctic sea ice and how that affects animals, coastal erosion, and a way of life. It looks at the stresses placed on Alaska’s forests, and at changes in the frozen ground that underlies much of the state. And it looks at threats to fish -- a mainstay of the state’s economy and a big part of its culture.
Scientists look to the past to predict the future of climate change
Published July 31, 2008
FAIRBANKS -- One of the ways scientists make predictions about future changes is by studying what happened in the past when natural cycles caused waters to warm.
Warming waters pose threats to Alaska salmon, could reorder marine ecosystems
Published July 31, 2008
NENANA — A little after dawn on a cold October morning, Victor Lord loaded a flat-bottom boat with big plastic totes and set off slowly down the Tanana River.
Melting permafrost poses threats to infrastructure, Alaska economy
Published July 30, 2008
BARROW –– Eugene Brower got out of his pickup truck, walked past a boat made of wood and seal skins, and opened the door to a small wooden shack. He lifted a rectangular cover in the floor and started to climb down into the ice cellar his father dug more than 50 years before.
“Ooh! It smells,” he said.
Alaska forests hit with more wildfires, infestations as climate changes
Published July 29, 2008
BONANZA CREEK — It was just getting cool when Glenn Juday went out to see his trees. The leaves were still on the birch and aspen, and the summer growing season was lingering. But it was already October, and gathering data would be much harder once it snowed. So Juday had to hurry.
As Arctic sea ice recedes, coastal residents, marine mammals feel the effects
Published July 28, 2008
BARROW--On a warm night in September 2007, a walrus the size of a sofa hauled out on the beach in Barrow. He came ashore a little before dark behind Osaka Restaurant -- pretty much as close to downtown as you can get in the country’s northernmost city.
Scientists who study the Earth's climate say humans are making it warmer
Published July 27, 2008
FAIRBANKS—Twenty thousand years ago, it was so cold in North America -- and had been for so long -- that much of the continent was covered by ice two miles thick.
Climate change in the land of frozen ground, fish and hardy trees
Published July 27, 2008
FAIRBANKS – Alaska is changing, and not just in the booming suburbs or shrinking villages, but in the trees on the hillsides, the fish in the oceans, and the climate itself – the very things that make Alaska what it is.
