Global warming has a reverse effect on Alaska’s state capital

by Catherine Bodry on

You’re likely used to hearing about the possibility of cities flooding as sea levels rise, a result of climate change. But in Alaska, that quirky, individualistic state, the reverse is happening – at least in one area.

In an article today from the New York Times, Cornelia Dean reports that Juneau, the only US capital not accessible by road, is actually gaining land as a result of glacial melt. Though it seems counterintuitive, the logistics work a bit like this: glaciers weigh a lot, and as they recede, their pressure eases. The land sort of bounces back, or rises – faster than the rising seas can keep up with it.

Furthermore, glacier runoff deposits sediments into the water, and the Gastineau Channel in front of downtown Juneau is so silty that at low tide it’s more of a mudflat than a channel. Where boats regularly sailed, runners now cross in the annual Mendenhall Mud Run. It’s a fun spin on the rising land, no doubt, but it belies the seriousness of the changes.

Read more about Juneau’s rising land problems here.

Only in Alaska: Welcome to the 49th state

by Catherine Bodry on

Alaska is one of those places where your expectations are met and often exceeded: the mountains are gargantuan and they’re everywhere, there are moose wandering the cities, and folks still run trap lines and live in log cabins. Yes, people still mush dogs (an Iditarod champion even lives in my small town), and many Alaska Natives still practice subsistence living.

Though the stereotypical Alaska is alive and kicking, there’s a whole lot more to the state. Environmental issues such as climate change and Pebble Mine, the political scene in 2008 (remember Sarah Palin? We’ve still got her), and an 800-mile pipeline that supplies a sizable sip of oil to the rest of the country all make Alaska more than simply a vast and beautiful place where hairy hippies live in off-the-grid harmony.

I hope to highlight some of the quirky qualities of living in or visiting Alaska – and there are plenty. Here are some stats, just to get you started:

  • Alaska is the largest state in the US. It’s more than twice the size of Texas, which means that if you cut Alaska in half, Texas would be the third largest state. In general, it’s about the one-third of the size of the continental contiguous US.
  • Though it’s not the least populated state (that would be Wyoming), it’s the least densely populated. There’s just under one square mile per person.
  • The population is approaching 600,000. Around half that number lives in Anchorage (279,000), and another 35,000 are in Fairbanks. The state capital, Juneau, has 31,000 residents, while Ketchikan, Sitka, Homer, Soldotna, Wasilla, and Seward collectively add roughly another 40,000. That leaves only 215,000 residents scattered across a massive sweep of land. It can be pretty quiet up here.
  • It’s the only state with a capital that’s not accessible by road.
  • Alaska has the US’s largest national park (Wrangell-St. Elias, 13 million acres), national forest (Tongass, 17 million acres), second-largest national forest (Chugach, 5.5 million acres), and the highest mountain (Mt. McKinley [locals call it ‘Denali’], 20,320 ft).
  • Though English is the official language, it is still possible to hear Yupik and Iñupiaq spoken. It’s not common in the cities, but in rural villages many residents still use their native languages.

With the widest spaces, the highest peaks, a somewhat surprising political influence, and a romantic place in Americans’ imaginations, it’s no wonder that Alaska receives $1.6 billion in tourist dollars. But if you can’t afford the trip this summer, I hope to provide a virtual tour of some of unique aspects of the state. Stay tuned!

Five More Places To See Before They Are Changed Forever

by Kraig Becker on

Last week we posted a story from CNN.com that named five places to see before climate changed altered them forever. The destinations that made their list included the Great Barrier Reef, the city of New Orleans, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Alpine Glaciers in Switzerland, and the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil. Here are five more amazing places that you should see before they are altered forever as well.

1. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, and the glacier at its summit has become the stuff of legend, thanks to Earnest Hemingway’s famous book. The mountain sits just three degrees off the equator, making it even more amazing that snows are present there. But with temperatures on the rise across the planet, the glaciers are retreating at a steady rate, and scientists now believe that they could be completely gone in as little as a decade. Those wanting to see the Snows of Kilimanjaro should make the trek to the summit soon.

2. Maldives, Indian Ocean
More than 1200 tiny islands make up the Republic of Maldives, located off the southwest coast of India, but the entire country is being threatened by the rising levels of the ocean thanks to the melting polar icecaps. It is estimated that by the end of this century, more than 80% of the islands that make up the archipelago will be submerged under water, considerably changing nature of the place. Steps are being taken to save the more populated areas, but much of the country will simply cease to exist in the years ahead.3. The Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
The Annapurna Circuit is considered one of the greatest hikes in the world. It is a 15+ day trek through the HImalaya amongst some of the tallest mountains in the world, with amazing scenery at every turn. With quaint villages found every few hours along the trail, trekkers can spend the night in traditional tea houses, and will always have easy access to food and drink. But the area is being changed forever, and not by climate change, but modernization instead. A new road in the area will alter the landscape both physically and culturally, irrevocably chaning this legendary place forever. The road will be completed by the end of 2010, and much of the charm and spirit of the trail will be gone forever.

4. The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
The Galapagos are another amazing group of islands, this time found 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. These islands are home to a dizzying number of different species of plants and animals, some that can be found nowhere else. This has made it a hot tourist destination in recent years with visitors flocking to the Galapagos to take in the unique flora and fauna. But it isn’t the tourists visiting the islands that threatens this fragile place, but instead, the growing population of permanent residents, which has grown at an alarming rate over the past decade. This over population, of a place not designed to support so much human life, is a direct threat to the ecosystem there, and could change the place forever, and very soon.

5. Lake Baikal, Russia
The worlds largest, and deepest, freshwater lake, Baikal, has only just begun to appear on the radar for most travelers. At its deepest point, it reaches 5730 feet below the surface, and those depths have never been completely explored. The lake is home to more than 1700 species of plants and animals, including the fresh water seal, the majority of which can’t be found anywhere else on Earth. Due to its size, Lake Baikal was expected to be resistant to climate change, but studies show that it is already warming, and those temperature changes will also change the landscape in the area, threatening the life of plants and animals that inhabit the remote region of Siberia.

The State of the Planet? Dismal

by Iva Skoch on

As I mentioned on Thursday, I attended the State of the Planet conference, hosted by The Earth Institute and The Economist magazine at Columbia University in New York.

I will try to give you some tidbits of information from the conference without making you run out and commit suicide immediately, just to save the world from over-population. According to some experts, it is too late for that anyway.

On poverty

As I mentioned in this blog last week, Kofi Annan opened the conference. To really get things going, he summarized the state of the planet as “dismal.” Among other things, Annan mentioned that even though the Millennium Villages program has been doing a great job, there are still 200 million people in Africa who go to sleep hungry every night.

On that note, Erik Reinert, author of the book How Rich Countries Get Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, said that the problem with hunger in Africa is there is too much focus on agriculture and food production. I liked the paradox he used: “Famine occurs in those places in the world that specialize in producing food.” The most efficient farmers are actually in places where industry is much more prevalent and where people tend to die of overeating (US, Europe). At the same time, Europe and the US need state subsidies for agriculture. Same paradox applies to countries low in natural resources. They are usually the ones that get rich.

The two main reasons for conflict in the world are scarcity of local resources and scarcity of global resources. Mineral-dependent countries are the ones most prone to conflict (think Sierra Leone, Middle East…). For example, in Peru, one in every two people live on $2/day. However, in the “rich” mining areas, most people live on less than $1/day. The poor allocation of resources is what they call the ‘resource curse.’

Reinert also argued that we are not helping Africa much by “simply giving.” Giving water to the people “who say they need water” is one of the least effective ways to give. He said we need to learn how to teach them how to prevent these problems in the future, not just trying to fix the symptoms of those problems. Which brings me to my next point…

Climate Change

Africa’s landscape and climate has already been affected by global warming. Plants that used to grow in some regions no longer grow there because some areas have simply become too dry or mineral depleted. Different types of fish have already migrated north.

Experts, however, remain optimistic on climate change. At least those who believe that progress and innovation are the cure for everything. “One hundred years ago, the problem in Manhattan was horse crap,” said one of the panelists. Apparently, so many people used horses, there was literally horse droppings everywhere (not just all around Central Park as now). Back then, the alarmists used to say that the planet would end because it would be buried in horse crap. It didn’t. Instead, people invented a car.

The point being, of course, that now we are at the stage where we fear the car is the source of our imminent doom. Instead, we need to encourage innovation and let R&D experts come up with better alternatives to the car. Here, I especially enjoyed the not-so-popular argument of Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems and, hence, a billionaire, who said the US is going to solve the world’s climate change problem. “Who else is going to do it?” he said. “The UN in useless. Europe is even more useless.” Ouch.

Jeffrey Sachs, economist and head of the Earth Institute, closed the conference by saying that the world has changed to the point that America can no longer put its national interests ahead of international interests. That could be a problem. As Sachs said, “Part of America’s founding principles is that you don’t have to love your neighbor.” If we want to get anywhere in the next few years, that attitude will apparently have to change.

You can watch video of the entire event here.

Photos: Courtesy of The Earth Institute.

Earth Hour: be part of a global blackout on March 29

by Abha Malpani on

I recently wrote about how we have damaged 96% of our oceans and raised the question of how on an individual level we could make a difference to help save the environment; the same question applies for the global warming: “I’m just one person, what can I do?”

The question has obviously been looming across continents, hence the birth of the WWF’s Earth Hour movement. Last year in Sydney, 2.2 million residents (over half of Sydney’s population) and 2100 businesses switched off all lights and electrical appliances simultaneously for one hour. This reduced overall electricity consumption by 10.2% — the effect was equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour. For safety reasons, essential city lights were kept on.

Simple, effortless and effective.

This year on March 29, the event is progressing to become a global one with 24 cities already signed-up to do the same, they include: Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Ottawa, Dublin, Tel-Aviv, Copenhagen, Manila and most major cities in Australia.

Counting all the participating cities, 30-million people are expected to be involved in this movement. Over and above that, 42,170 people have signed-up so far on an individual level along with 2,226 businesses across the world.

You can sign-up here, know how to organize an Earth Hour in your town here, and know how to make a difference on a personal and daily basis here.

Has this stirred your emotions about humankind bonding to solve a global issue? Well, what are you waiting for?