Alaska: Disaster in Slow Motion

Exile inevitable for America’s first climate refugees: Report

The impact of climate change is more intense in the far north, where temperatures are warming faster than the global average, causing  rapid thawing of the sea ice, melting the permafrost and forcing  residents of remote Alaskan areas out of their villages, said a report.

• Some 184 Alaskan villages, or 86% of all native communities, are at risk because of climate change.

• It cost $100 to $400 million just to relocate one village [See full report.]

ALASKA NATIVE VILLAGES: Most Are Affected by Flooding and Erosion, but Few Qualify for Federal Assistance—GAO

Approximately 6,600 miles of Alaska’s coastline and many of the low-lying areas along the state’s rivers are subject to severe flooding and erosion. Most of Alaska’s Native villages are located on the coast or on riverbanks.

Aerial View of Flooding in Aniak (c. 2002). Source: Alaska Division of Emergency Services

Locations of 184 Native Villages Affected by Flooding and Erosion. Source: GAO.

Permafrost (permanently frozen subsoil) is found over approximately 80 percent of Alaska. It is deepest and most extensive on the Arctic Coastal Plain and decreases in depth, eventually becoming discontinuous further south. In northern Alaska, where the permafrost is virtually everywhere, most buildings are elevated to minimize the amount of heat transferred to the ground to avoid melting the permafrost. In northern barrier island communities, the permafrost literally helps hold the island together. However, rising temperatures in recent years have led to widespread thawing of the permafrost, causing serious damage. As permafrost melts, buildings and runways sink, bulk fuel tank areas are threatened, and slumping and erosion of land ensue. —GAO.

Related Links

• Drunken Forest Posted on June 11, 2008
• Arctic Tundra 4ºC Hotter Since 1970 Posted on July 30, 2009

Alaska on Fire

First the Beetles Attacked!

Climate change is permanently changing the face of Alaska, Earth

In Alaska, 35 percent forest, climate change is causing irreversible changes including droughts, forest fires, and infestations of tree-killing insects like spruce beetles and spruce budworm moths. In the last 15 years, the spruce beetles, which thrive in warmer climates, have destroyed a total of about 3 million acres (1.21 million hectares) of spruce forest in south-central Alaska.

More Than 1 Million Acres Burning in Interior Alaska

Large wildfires that began in July continued to burn in interior Alaska in the first week of August 2009. These images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on August 2 show some of the state’s largest blazes and the thick pall of smoke they were creating. The top image is a natural-color (photo-like) view of the area, while the lower image combines visible, shortwave-, and near-infrared light to make burned areas (brick red) stand out better from unburned vegetation (bright green). In this kind of false-color image, the bright pink areas along the perimeters of the fires are often a sign of open flame.

According to the August 3 report from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, 483 fires were burning across the state, affecting about 2.4 million acres. The Railbelt Complex was the largest at an estimated 462,298 acres. The Tanana River appears to be creating a natural firebreak at the northern edge of the fire, which is spreading to the south. To the east, the smaller Wood River Fire (107,634 acres) has bright pink spots along both its northern and southern perimeters. Both these fires, as well as the Big Creek Fire (145,652 acres) and Little Black One Fire (292,907 acres) along the Yukon River, were triggered by lightning. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

References: Alaska Interagency Coordination Center Situation Report, Monday–08/03/2009

Alaska Warming Rapidly

Alaska has experienced an average warming of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 °F) and about 4.5 °C (8°F) in the inner regions in winter months since the 1960s, the largest regional warming of anywhere in the U.S., according to records.

The warmer temperature means Alaska’s peat bogs, which are nearly 14,000 years old, are drying up. Ed Berg, an ecologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has discovered that shrubs and other plants have been rooting in areas of peat big normally too soggy for woody plants to grow during the last three decades.

As the areas of beetle-infested forest grow, more land is clear-cut and land speculation frenzy grows.

Wetlands are a natural defense mechanism retarding forest fires. The warmer weather and drier forest therefore could lead to more forest fires.

Drying or burning peat bogs, which comprise 50-60 percent carbon, would release additional carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere.

An unusual pattern is left by forest fire as seen in this photograph of a mountain in Yoho National Park in British Columbia west of the Alberta border in this August 8, 2005 file picture. REUTERS/Andy Clark. Image may be subject to copyright.

Human activity is ultimately responsible for the intensity and frequency of most present-day forest fires like Alaska’s; to call them ‘wildfires,’ therefore, is disingenuous and unintelligent.

Related Links:

• Warmer temperatures destroy forests faster

• 3 million acres of spruce killed in Alaska in 15 years
• British Columbia Forests Plagued by Beetle
• Drunken Forest

• California ‘Mojavefied’ by 2011?

• Ice Melt in Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland Accelerating
• Canada’s Ice Shelves Lose Quarter of their Cover
• Arctic ice cover second-lowest on record

• Arctic Tundra 4ºC Hotter Since 1970
• US Impacts of Global Climate Change
• Earth’s scars of human destruction visible: astronaut

• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Marsification of Earth
• Earth’s Collapsing Life Support Systems

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
• Giga Trends
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• 286W

• The Root Cause Matrix
• The Economy
• Collapsing Ecosystems

• Index page for Alaska: Environmental issues, Big Oil, politics, CORRUPTION, Sarah Palin, even the moose, beluga whale and polar bear …

Arctic Tundra 4ºC Hotter Since 1970

Arctic tundra much warmer, darker and more heat absorbent

Parts of Arctic tundra are heating up very rapidly, releasing more greenhouse gases than forecast, accelerating global warming


The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E), a high-resolution passive microwave Instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows the state of Arctic sea ice on September 10 in this file image released September 16, 2008.  REUTERS/NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio/Handout/Files

Parts of Arctic tundra are heating up very rapidly, releasing more greenhouse gases than forecast and accelerating the rate of global warming, said Professor Greg Henry of the University of British Columbia on July 29, 2009.

Thermokarst ponds and drunken forest, Churchill, Manitoba. The thawing of ice-rich permafrost causes subsidence of the land surface, creating ponds and causing trees to tilt, which is shown in this peatland terrain. [Latitude: 58.665 Longitude: -94.034] Physiographic Region: Shield (Lowlands). Photo: Lynda Dredge. Geological Survey of Canada.

Henry said also said higher temperatures are encouraging the spread of larger plants across the tundra, areas normally covered by small shrubs, grasses and lichen. The denser plant cover indicates that the region is getting darker and therefore absorbing more heat.

Tundra covers about 15 percent of Earth’s surface, making up about 30 percent of Canadian territory, Reuters reported Henry as saying.

Henry said for more than three decades he had measured “a very substantial change” in the tundra,  which has been caused by greater emissions and plant growth.

“Since 1970, he said, temperatures in the tundra region had risen by 1 degree Celsius per decade — equal to the highest rates of warming found anywhere on the planet.” Reuters reported.

Henry said:

We’re finding that the tundra is actually giving off a lot more nitrous oxide and methane than anyone had thought before,” Henry told reporters on a conference call from Resolute in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.

We’re really trying to get a handle on this because if (further tests show) that’s true, this actually changes the entire greenhouse gas budget for the North, and that has global implications.

The effects of climate change in Canada’s North and Arctic regions, enhanced  by an overload of greenhouse gases,  are particularly alarming.

“Henry said his research station in Nunavut had recorded record high temperatures virtually every summer since the early 1990s. The warmer temperatures mean plants are growing bigger and faster, while larger species are spreading northward.” Reuters reported.

Henry, who also chairs an international project studying tundra, said:

The tundra is getting a lot weedier all the way around the globe. This has major implications … You’re changing the color of the surface of the earth by making it darker … so the consequence of that is increased warming again.

Most “independent” researchers say the thawing of  permafrost in the Arctic region would release great amounts carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, leading to a faster rate of [exponential] rise in the climate change. Original report by Reuters.

Related Links:

• CO2e [FEWW Links Page]

• Drunken Forest

• Earth’s scars of human destruction visible: astronaut
• STOP Chocking Nature to YOUR Death!
• US Gov Releases Intelligence Images of Arctic Ice
• Reduce Harmful Emissions by Wealthy Individuals
• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• A third of U.S. birds endangered
• Global warming worse than predicted: Surprised?
• Only Zero Emissions Would Avert Dangerous Warming