From Ecologist Ceal Smith in Alaska, Everything is melting fast. Anchorage never a day below 0ºF in 2014. The balmy, endless days feel so strange even to this newcomer. Alaska is changing so fast, in so many ways. Everything is melting: glaciers, sea ice, permafrost. Lakes and rivers not freezing over (consequently lots more accidents). Coastal native communities getting washed away, animals losing their habitat (polar bears youve all heard about but also walrus, seals, whales, so many more), rapid brush invasion of fragile tundra ecosystems, explosions of spruce bark beetle and blood sucking insect populations (already hard on caribou and musk ox), on and on. Its utterly heart-breaking, everywhere I turn. The alarm is barely sounding in the Capital (Juneau) largely due to the deeply embedded dependence on the oil and gas industry here (the source of 90% of AK state revenue). This needs to change, but where to begin? Ceal asks a good question, one that so many enviro scientists do, being desperate with the knowledge of the problem, but under-equipped on social change. Where to begin, within anyone who will listen, communities that see the need for change, and hit the budget by boycotting companies, banks, shops that are not acting, and letting them know why. By taking the stories of change out to schools and community groups prepared to listen. By changing your ecological footprint wherever possible, and growing your own food, or sourcing it locally. The journey of 1,000miles starts with the first steps. Concentrate on the steps with an eye to the horizon. Not the other way round. washingtonpost/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/30/anchorage-alaska-never-saw-a-day-below-zero-in-2014/
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 05:10:02 +0000
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