Rapid Climate Changes Rippling Through Alaskan Arctic - News-Miner

[hatrack]

The disappearance of sea ice and the effects it has on the people of the Far North is well documented. The problem is much more complex, though. Add just one more variable, anthropological archaeologist Anne Jensen said, and watch the problems grow. Add two and the results could cost millions of dollars.

All along the Arctic Ocean coast, the combination of disappearing sea ice, increased storm activity and intensity, and melting permafrost is causing real and immediate problems. It is dramatic evidence of climate change, she said. Shishmaref and its $100 million move to a more protected area grabs all the headlines, Jensen said. But in Barrow, where Jensen works as the senior scientist for the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp., the ocean is alarmingly close to the city's utilities corridor.

If a storm surge pushes into the utilidor, Jensen said there aren't enough honey buckets in Barrow to meet the emergency. And the one water-hauling business in town wouldn't be able to handle the immediate need for fresh water. "It would become a big public-health problem," Jensen said. "All of the sudden you have 3,000 to 4,000 people going to the bathroom with no way to haul it to the sewage treatment plant we're building here."

Jensen is among 36 scientists in vastly different fields who have banded together to help paint a global picture of an arctic region in great flux due to climate change. The paper they published today in the scientific journal "Climatic Change" should look familiar to most Alaskans who have spent any time at all thinking about how the land is changing.

From roads buckling on top of melting permafrost to altered game patterns to the eventual destruction of hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure, change is happening quickly and dramatically in dozens of ways across the Arctic and Alaska. "All these variables are interactive," said Matthew Sturm, a research physical scientist at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Fairbanks. "It's a complex spider web. Changes in one component of a system reverberate through the rest of the system." With a roster Sturm said was "bigger than the Chicago Cubs'," the paper's authors tied together research changes in weather, temperature, lakes, rivers, permafrost, animal behavior and physiology, snowfall and precipitation, glaciers, plant life and human interaction with the environment.

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http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~3112207,00.html

[NNadir]

1. Would the Alaskan people who have spent any time thinking include

Senator Ted Stevens and the members of the ruling Murkowski clan?

[hatrack]

2. They are well equipped with Crimestop, as Winston Smith, Esq. termed it

No need to confront unpleasant thoughts or logical consequences of one's actions with Crimestop - ends displeasing thoughts - FAST!!

[UrsusArctos]

3. KEY ANWR CONGRESSIONAL VOTES

I do not have enough posts to start my own thread, but here is some text from the NRDC identifying 3 key congressman. I am NOT soliciting donations for the NRDC but recommending the 3 be contacted to NOT support drilling in ANWR:

It's all come down to this.

The House of Representatives will vote as early as next week on a budget bill
that would sacrifice the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to massive oil
development and destruction.

We can win this showdown in Congress, but we must secure the votes of three
more moderate Republicans: Representatives Jim Gerlach (PA), David Reichert
(WA), and Mark Kennedy (MN).

We urgently need your financial support to run hard-hitting ads targeting these
three key Representatives in next Sunday's newspapers.

View the ad and donate: https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

Our three targeted Congressmen say they oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
But they are under tremendous pressure from President Bush and House leaders to
do the bidding of Big Oil.

We cannot expect these Republican Congressmen to vote against their leadership
unless they hear from thousands of their own constituents, demanding that they
stand strong in defense of the Arctic Refuge.

All we need is your support to make that outcry happen. View the ad and donate:
https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

The Bush Administration is shamelessly exploiting the recent hurricanes and
high gas prices as excuses to industrialize the Arctic Refuge. But, as our ad
reveals, drilling in the Arctic Refuge will only save consumers one penny per
gallon at the pump in 20 years!

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil and Shell just reported third-quarter profits totaling
nearly $19 billion!

Help us get the truth out to tens of thousands of voters in the three decisive
Congressional districts before next week's showdown vote.

I urge you to make an online donation right now that could save America's
greatest sanctuary for Arctic wildlife:
https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

Thank you.

John H. Adams
NRDC Action Fund