Alaska

Alaska’s Threatened Communities

January 27, 2017 By EarthWise

Because of its Arctic location, Alaska is warming about twice as fast as the rest of the United States. The past year has been the warmest on record. The forces of erosion and increasingly powerful storms have resulted in the imminent risk of destruction for at least 31 Alaskan towns and cities. Many are predicted to become uninhabitable over the next few decades. Residents of these places are likely to join the growing flow of climate refugees around the globe.

Global Climate Or Local Weather?

January 25, 2017 By EarthWise

We don’t experience climate; we experience weather. And a new study has found that what Americans believe about the changing climate often depends more on their personal experience than what is going on around the world.

Cruising The Northwest Passage

October 3, 2016 By WAMC WEB

The Northwest Passage is a sea route connecting the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Arctic Ocean, going along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Climate-Induced Relocation

July 21, 2016 By WAMC WEB

One of the thorniest problems arising from the changing climate is the degradation of inhabited areas that forces entire communities to relocate permanently. Basically, we don’t really have the infrastructure in place to deal with such occurrences.

Beware The Blob

February 1, 2016 By WAMC WEB

There has been plenty of discussion of El Niño, the periodic weather phenomenon in which prevailing easterly winds in the Pacific Ocean weaken, allowing warm water to move eastward and wreak havoc with the weather in North and South America. The current El Niño is a particularly strong one; some say it may be one of the strongest ever and are calling it the “Godzilla El Niño.”

[Read more…] about Beware The Blob

Too Warm For Seal Hunting

August 7, 2015 By EarthWise

In the far north of Alaska, generations of hunters have traversed the broken sea ice of Kotzebue Sound every late June and early July hunting for bearded seals. A single seal can supply hundreds of pounds of meat, enough to feed a large family for an entire winter. Its meat and oil products are an important food source.

Alaska

We don’t experience climate; we experience weather. And a new study has found that what Americans believe about the changing climate often depends more on their personal experience than what is going on around the world.

One of the thorniest problems arising from the changing climate is the degradation of inhabited areas that forces entire communities to relocate permanently. Basically, we don’t really have the infrastructure in place to deal with such occurrences.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio