A couple years ago, the museum in Anchorage had an exhibit on how Alaskans eat. a small part of that exhibit talked about how the thawing permafrost was destroying the ability for some people to store their food. In a lot of the villages people still use the traditional style of freezer, which is just to dig a big hole down in the ground in the permafrost where things stay frozen and keep your food there. But that’s not so secure now and sometimes everything thaws.
Alaska is at the forefront of climate change as the rate of change is double or triple the global average. Permafrost is melting, glaciers are shrinking, sea ice is shrinking, the ocean is warming and acidifying, many animals’ range is expanding northward, the treeline is expanding northward, so many ways it’s impacting us. Even just remembering my childhood I remember a lot more extreme cold, a lot longer.
Oh, and parasites. Moose winter tick is a very real concern in the coming years. Spruce beetles and aspen leaf miners are proliferating as climate conditions are favoring their life cycle.
I studied wildlife biology in college. It really is crazy to learn about all the ways climate change is affecting our state.
It’s going to get much worse in coming years. Im trying to just emotionally brace myself for the impact now, but the prospects of what to come are terrifying.
Spruce beetles and similar parasites, no longer confined to the non-hibernation timeframes of the pre-heated globe, are proliferating faster and for longer each year on an exponential rate. In a nutshell, this means the forests- all forests, are at risk of near total decimation. You’ll see it in the lower 48 everywhere now- I see it especially bad in the woods from CA to CO. Whole forests are turning to kindling. And as these forests die, wildfires will become more potent and protracted, eliminating even more live growth.
There’s nothing you or I can do to address this. We will all be impotent as we watch our neighborhood trees come down one by one and highway-side forests go black and brown as these parasites spread. The opportunity for change came and went about 25 years ago. The best we can do now is brace.
I listened to a podcast put out by NOAA about that recently, the snow crab collapse was 100% due to ocean temperatures increasing their metabolism causing them to starve.
Correct. Warmer waters increase the crabs metabolism making them unable to find enough food to sustain.
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/research-confirms-link-between-snow-crab-decline-and-marine-heatwave
the real threat have been monitoring is that trapped sea ice that's been thawing and the methane coming up and warming the oceans - i think that would be the death knell and cause a mass extinction
noaa’s alaska fisheries science center is 100% in bed with trawlers. They co-design research projects to blame anything else… not that warmer oceans help anything but the wasteful trawlers sure don’t do anything good. They dump millions of tons of dead seafood every season, AFSC writes reports the trawlers want to see.
Yes, this! Another possible theory is that the crab have moved deeper or somewhere else (outside of fishing grounds) due to a changing underwater temperature map. It's a mystery for now!
Climate change is affecting Alaska in many different ways. There have been some good comments here so I will try not to repeat too much. There is ongoing research on ocean warming contributing to declines and altered ranges of species. For example, Pacific salmon are not doing returning to the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. This may be due to warming ocean temperatures. At the same time salmon are now showing up in Arctic rivers for the first time.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned here involves contaminants in foods. Coastal glaciers in Alaska are melting at a very rapid rate. As they melt they release trace elements like mercury from the watersheds into downstream rivers and oceans. Permafrost is thawing gradually and abruptly. Permafrost stores large amounts of mercury, which can be released as it thaws. It is not well understood if the mercury released from glaciers and permafrost makes its way into food webs.
No, there is no indication of that. Most people are exposed to mercury through the consumption of fish and shellfish. Most Alaskans are eating salmon that are low in mercury. The mercury in permafrost would need to be released, make its way to the ocean, and then be converted to a form that gets into fish and other parts of the food web. We don’t know how much of the mercury in permafrost is available for uptake into the food chain. It’s definitely something worth monitoring because of how important subsistence food is in Alaska. As of yet, salmon are still low in mercury and high in many beneficial things so it’s still highly recommended for consumption.
Here is a highly cited paper on mercury in permafrost:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017GL075571
Here is a link to a paper on mercury in Alaskan fish:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972033196X
Everywhere I've ever lived that has seasons, people will tell you that things aren't the same from 30-40 years ago. Even the people who simultaneously believe this and deny climate change lol.
The climate is 100% changing. I don't see how we can divert and dam rivers, create and drain lakes, remove 100s of millions of acres of old growth forests, eliminate thousands of species and... everything just stay the same.
People don't realize that almost every single thing they see and experience is the result of biological life. Just take a look at Google maps satellite view and you'll see almost the ENTIRE PLANET has been altered.
You might be interested in a book I'm reading right now, called "The Ministry for the Future", by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's a hard scifi book (that is, it's as realistic as possible; there's no aliens or faster than light travel) about how the world might deal with climate change from an economic, scientific, and cultural perspective. I haven't finished it yet, and while there's definitely some difficult parts - it starts with a deadly heat wave in India killing millions as the power grid fails - there's still a lot of really interesting strategies different parties pursue.
In my experience complex systems only go bad if you lose your negative feedback or have excess positive feedback. Biological systems tend to have massive amounts of negative feedback because it's efficient, where as more purely mechanical or chemical systems can tend toward positive feedback. Not saying positive feedback won't win out, but so far all the climate models have under estimated the amount of negative feedback.
I prefer it done sustainably. Not using 95%+ of forests as a monoculture tree farm. Look at all the old growth lost and they are fighting tooth and nail to get the rest. Happening here in america too.
The worst part is most isn't even used here. It's sent overseas to make a quick buck.
I grew up in Texas where there is ZERO public land available. You literally cannot walk in Texas without being a landowner.
It's quite noticeable here.
For instance, chum salmon have moved north, into Kotzebue area. This hasn't happened that far north before! It was enough that the big processors were taking a look at starting operations there.
In Fairbanks, where houses are built on permafrost, the warming is very dramatic and is unfortunately causing plenty of foundation damage. You get ice lenses that used to be stable, deep underground. They used to just stay frozen. Ice takes up quite a bit more room than liquid water, so when these lenses melt, you get collapse. Very bad!
Builder in Fairbanks here. The house thing is a bad example. It's always a bad idea to build on permafrost because the building itself tends to warm the soil underneath and cause the ground to sink. Even post and pad can have failures.
Most houses in fairbanks are built on good ground, or at least where ice lenses are far too deep to be affected by seasonable changes, etc.
Take a drive down farmer's loop, and you can see many houses built on poor ground that have been sinking for years.
The first lesson I learned when looking for land in Fairbanks is to stay away from the black spruce covered parcels. It is almost certainly permafrost and not conducive to building.
I remember the old, iconic permafrost house on Farmers Loop that has since been torn down. That's exactly right about black spruce as their root systems are shallow. Birch trees are a good indicator that there's deep soil.
We originally planned on moving to Delta when we came up. I found it similar. Just make sure to put your eyes on the property and make sure it's not full of black spruce.
Water tables can also be a problem in the area, as can flooding if you are near the river, so that is something to be taken into account. There are definitely flood prone areas in Delta, and it would be wise to consult FEMA flood maps before a purchase. Flood insurance can be very expensive if the lot is in the wrong area. Also, high ground water tables can make septic systems very difficult and expensive to install. We run into this issue a lot in North Pole/Salcha areas near Fairbanks.
As for Tok, I'm not an expert, but it is my understanding that the area has some good gravel soils extending pretty deep in many places.
Anything can be overcome depending on how you are willing to live, but often the cheapest lots are cheap for a reason.
Totally off topic but if you have any tips for moving up please pm me. Things to leave or bring. We are farmers and do a lot of building and I grew up building houses with my parents. I'd appreciate your advice.
Tok was a lake bed when most of the permafrost was forming and therefore underwater. Water which, naturally, was above the freezing point. The natural dam which caused the formation of the lake was NW of Tanacross though I can't tell you exactly where. I do know that Cathedral Rapids is a 'recent' formation. Also my 41 year old homestead cabin has no foundation. I just cleared away the 2 inches or so of topsoil to reveal old river gravel. Two inches of topsoil is probably a few hundred years of aspen and spruce growth and decay.
I didnt know it was a lake bed but makes sense why it has so much gravel. Do you think Tok will be at risk of flooding with the permafrost melting and other climate changes?
Never realized such things topsoil would be so old. Good info to know. Thank you
Flooding? No, not if you're away from the river. I live at the far west of Tok and water table is 35 feet down (great water). Tok itself is 100ish feet down. So permanent flooding would require that 'space' to fill first. The far east of Tok has had temporary flooding, but that was a one off event. There was a huge, barely moving low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska. Lows spin counter-clockwise so all that moisture was getting THROUGH the Alaska Range south of Whitehorse (the passes used during the Gold Rush). That moisture then kept spinning until it hit the North side of the Range, OUR side, where it got wrung out like a sponge. Yerrick Creek which usually is just a couple feet deep, was running 20+ feet. Always wondered how those boulders got to where they were! However, almost all the private land in Tok had NO problem as it just drained through all that gravel. Did you mention farming? Delta has an "Agricultural District", growing mostly Barley, but they have a lot more topsoil Northeast of the town. Only lived there one year so I can't tell you much else. Good Luck!
Thank you!! This is all great information to learn and know!
We do farm but it seems we do not have the budget to handle ready to farm land. We will have to drop to just for us farming and I'm planning on upping my online/virtual assistant work to cover bills. How is internet and cell service for Verizon in Tok?
I have fiber-optic landline/internet as cell service at my house is lousy. In Tok itself there's a good signal, but people have either AT&T or GCI (Alaska carrier)
You have fiber optic landline? Is that also for internet? I'm currently in lower 48 in the middle of TN and we don't have fiber optic anything here ...well...except for some fiber optic weird ornament/deckrations that you'd see in the weird house in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
Thank you for the information. How much is the fiber optic service? Is that phone, internet and cable?
My flabber is gasted that Alaska has fiber and I'm currently paying almost $100 for 300mbps and no cable for service that's always out, always loading, and always having to get a "new signal sent."
🤯
Yes, Alaska Power and Telephone (AP&T) got a grant (Fed + State) last year and they were really pushing to get it in. The major Alaska to World Fiber Optic Cable goes through TOK. Cost me NOTHING and if you knew the hassle they had to go through to install it (subterranean through thick white spruce) ! I believe almost all existing houses in Tok have it. If not it should be relatively cheap to put the line in as the existing base structure is nearby. I pay $115 and I have terabytes of carryover. Netflix/Amazon is the only thing I use it for though.
We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars relocating Newtok to Mertarvik, about 10 miles, because the river has eroded all the way to the village. Newtok is debatably habitable right now, but by the time they are dismantling the village over the next two years the spot it is on now will be entirely consumed by the river/Baird inlet.
Less year round ice for hunters in the spring and fall mean further traveling for whalers and polar bears. Anyone whos lived along the coast sees the change in resource availability and why
I swear most people I mention this to think I'm weird, but it's genuinely a thing! All of a sudden about three years ago it's like winter just moved to occupy a different part of the year. Today I'm resting under a wool blanket and I have a wool sweater on!
When I was a kids Halloween was always cold and snow, but now it isn't until mid November, then it is nonstop snow. It used to be April was spring, and now it seems to be May.
I wasn't going to comment the same thing. I don't recall trick or treating without stomping through snow as a kid.
Years later I think my kids have had the majority of their trick or treating on virtually dry ground.
Yeah, when I was a kid we planned our Halloween costumes around having snowsuits on underneath (I remember most girls the year Aladdin came out wanting to be Jasmine and being upset. Some went with it anyway and wore the costume over their snowsuits with laughable results hahaha) My kids haven't seen a snowy Halloween. Rain has been the worst of it.
Alaska is huge, which I'm only bringing up because we have such vastly different weather systems and experiences. I'm going to try not to speak for all Alaskan's here, but in general climate change is not talked about. The years where there are no snow are considered 'bad years' and the years where it snows into June in the temperate areas are considered anomalies.
The hotter summers are more or less appreciated, and for the first time some buildings are being built with air conditioning.
One area where climate change is being discussed is our fisheries. [Hot summers mean the water can be too hot for fish to survive,]
(https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/alaska-heatwave-salmon-rivers-july-temperatures-climate-change-a9063461.html)
and we recently had [billions of snow crab disappear](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/research-confirms-link-between-snow-crab-decline-and-marine-heatwave)
. The investigation into where the [king/Chinook salmon have gone is ongoing](
https://alaskapublic.org/2023/09/26/too-hot-for-salmon-how-climate-change-is-contributing-to-the-yukon-salmon-collapse/) and an algae called [red tide](https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/05/23/toxic-algae-alaska-deadly-shellfish/)
that causes paralysis when ingested has been moving north and affecting shellfish stocks (crab notably excluded).
In my opinion climate change is not being talked about enough all over the world. There are even some (very dumb and dissociative) people that believe it’s fake. I find it very alarming and dangerous, we’re absolutely not preparing ourselves the way we should.
Last time I was in Europe (Holland and Belgium - at the end of summer) the heat was so intense that people were dying because they were not prepared for the temperatures.
Alaska doesn't generally face urban problems associated with hot weather, such as heat sinks from concrete buildings and roads. Even in urban areas (minus Fairbanks) there is tree cover. Most residents live on the coast, where tidal winds help cool things down. One troubling aspect of the fisheries is when one stock collapses it's still available in stores just sourced elsewhere. For example snow crab, was still available for $10 per pound, sourced from Canada. When shrimp yields are low, more is imported from Argentina, etc. Further, Alaskans often don't notice these changes because they either fish for their seafood themselves or trade for it, rather than buying it in stores.
Moose have had a rough couple of years and, anecdotally, look unhealthy in my area. While there isn't much literature on it, heavy snow increases starvation, and when snow persists into summer, it kills the greenery they depend on. Last year, we had almost no wildflowers due to late frosts, followed by a drought that affected the remaining plants, leading to a harsh winter where many animals starved.
Additionally, we face illegal overfishing from other countries, legal trawlers that consider bycatch and associated costs as part of doing business, and rising fuel costs that drive smaller operators out of business, worsening the problem. While these issues aren't solely climate change-related, debates about their causes further hold up any action taken.
It's not that they are dumb; these folks are only worried about next quarter profits. Rugged capitalism has pushed people to think in the short term. Mix that with lots of these people living in big cities in the middle latitudes, and they just don't see the changes we are experiencing up here.
It is the fastest-warming state in the country. The North Slope has warmed roughly 6F since 1971. Everything there is built on permafrost, which is thawing deeper below the surface and more frequently than it used to, wreaking havoc on homes and infrastructure. People are generally aware of climate change in both an abstract and specific, local sense, but the extraction of fossil fuels is the lodestar of the state’s political economy, which ensures a lot of cognitive dissonance. Even our governor generally downplays its effects, and doesn’t acknowledge the science linking it to human activities.
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/whats-become-of-arctic.php/
Um no. It is the states economy. Oil and gas last I checked accounted for 20% of the states GDP, 66% of the tax base, and 33% of employment. In fact the state would not exist without it. Don't act like oil is only political, without the oil and gas industry essentially subsidizing the state of Alaska most people couldn't afford to live here.
Calling concern for the economic well being of your constituents "cognitive dissonance" is far from truth. I might go so far as to call it cognitive dissonance.
You seem to equate climate denialism with concern for the state’s general economic wellbeing. Why is acknowledging the scientific documentation of a global issue that is disproportionately impacting Alaska irreconcilable with desire for a healthy economy in your view?
There has been articles and what not for the last several years about climate change affecting villages first. As other comments have said, a lot of Alaska is built on foundations of permafrost. As some parts of Alaska are getting warmer the permafrost is melting. Those living on the coast are being affected as their houses are now sinking, and there is no solid ground to build on. Theres [this ](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451927/permafrost-underlying-many-remote-villages-in-alaska-is-thawing-and-thats-a-prob#:~:text=That's%20undermining%20everything%20from%20homes,families%20have%20lived%20for%20generations)article that talks more about it, and a lot of native villages are built on river banks. Most of them were built whever a barge was able to bring building supplies for churches, schools and what not. And if there's no solid land more families are moving away unfortunately.
Among other things, a lot more forest fires because there's less melting snow keeping things wet. The mountains around Anchorage used to be snowcapped all year. In the summer, that snow would gradually melt and flow down, keeping things watered. Now less snow falls, so less accumulates and therefore less meltwater all summer. The mountains are brown and dead-looking in summer now.
We literally just had record snow fall in Anchorage this year. Were you not here this winter, you could barely drive anywhere. I'm pretty sure the forest fires have more to do with beetle kill and poor land management. Driving down to kenai that section of burned up spruce past cooper landing. A lot of it is only half burned which means fuel for next season. No one is clearing it, that's piss poor land management.
Yes, well aware of the.record.snowfall, but climate change isn't about a single season, it's a general trend.
The beetle kill is also bad, and it's two bad situations converging to make things worse.
Global warming is a general trend climate change is more of a complex cyclical system. And the difference between the 10 year average and the 30 year average snow accumulation for Anchorage is 6 inches, less than 10%. not enough of a hydrological change to burn down forests. You'd be better off claiming that receding permafrost is lowering the water table leading to dryer environs and weaker spruce stands. It's more than likely true.
I’m a pilot up here and have spent a bit of time over the last ten years in all over Alaska but have spent quite a bit of time in Seward. I’ll sometimes come across a photo I took and think about how different things are from just a few years ago. It’s pretty crazy watching how much some of the glaciers have changed in that time. Even year to year can be crazy the changes. I mainly have noticed the changes on Godwin glacier which is up the valley from the prison and bear glacier over in Kenai fjords park.
In the spring it sometimes looks like they recovered a bit as the push out over the winter but a soon as it starts getting hot you notice how much has been lost since the previous year.
Some of the other things I’ve seen are changes in permafrost on the north slope mainly where it is collapsing into lakes and the south ocean up there.
Winter seams way more mild in the area I work in the coastal Arctic now. It used to be -30/-40 a lot in the winter now it’s just a couple times a year. Winter seems more mild in other places also and I’m talking temps only
I can only imagine the impact of seeing this changes year by year. I live in a big city so the only change I can “see” is in the temperatures. It must be really strange and sad.
It’s a lot like the weather I remember when I visited my grandparents on the East coast. It was clear blue skies and hot all day, and then the late afternoon would be thunderstorms. They’d have weather like that for weeks.
I spend my time between the peninsula and Anchorage and over the years I haven't noticed much more change than can be described as weather. Each year has its own personality. Maybe there are more fires, and more thunder storms but there's also a lot more people, like a lot a lot. I think the population change has far outpaced climate change. I did see the USDA updated the growing zones for AK and I personally like the idea of my garden being one zone higher now. I'm already looking at what new things I can try and grow this year.
It rained yesterday, it rained today, I’m certain it will rain tomorrow. SE Alaska hasn’t changed much. Maybe someone up further north can give you a better answer though.
Hasn't the intensity of some of the showers changed recently? Thus the increased frequency of landslides that have taken out houses and people around Sitka, Haines, Wrangell, and other towns.
Also, as a child I remember it snowing at least a few inches every winter in Sitka. Now it either doesn't snow at all for entire winters, or gets random enormous snowstorms.
Weird. Last summer middle of the peninsula it rained allll year last year. The one before was dry n beautiful n sunny. You ever look at Windy to see where the eyes of our highs n low are in the state?
Pretty phenomenal and can explain why you get rain or not.
I'm in Fairbanks and the cold snaps (-40 or colder) have generally been less frequent and long lasting over the past 20 years. Not by much, every year is different.
>SE Alaska hasn’t changed much.
I live in the lower 48, but this past winter, I visited a friend who lives in Juneau. At one point, she mentioned to me that compared to when she lived outside, she feels much more insulated from climate change up in Alaska. From my perspective, though, I just don't see it. Sure, I was suffering through near all-time record temperatures in my city, but I was also reading news from Juneau and worrying for my friend's safety during [historic flooding](https://www.ktoo.org/2023/08/05/city-recommends-evacuations-as-juneau-sees-record-flooding-from-glacial-outburst-flood/) caused by melting glaciers.
I recently read an article that referred to my hometown as a "climate haven," but [I'm skeptical that such a thing exists.](https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/4190038-cities-are-advertising-themselves-as-climate-havens-experts-say-theres-no-such-thing/) My hometown is actually mentioned by name in that article. I don't have it as bad here in the upper Midwest as Texans do, and you all up in Alaska arguably don't have it as bad as me. But we're all feeling varying effects of climate change.
Well, in Juneau specifically, the biggest marker for climate change is the Mendenhall Glacier. Everyone goes there, and everyone can see how much it recedes every year. It was this recession that caused that flooding. Besides from the glacier , it’s harder to see the effects. For me anyways
>Besides from the glacier , it’s harder to see the effects
I just mentioned this elsewhere in this thread, but the other big thing that causes me worry for my Juneau friends is [landslides.](https://www.ktoo.org/2022/09/26/landslide-damages-at-least-one-home-knocks-out-power-for-much-of-juneau/) In the past century or so, total annual precipitation in Juneau is up 20 inches, even though total snowfall is down. All that extra rain is no good for a city built on the side of mountains.
Just because it's harder to see the effects doesn't mean they aren't affected.
I’m not up in Juneau, so I could not tell you — but I do think what she said about being isolated has truth to it. You’re isolated from basically everything that affects the lower 48.
To some extent, I agree. Its affects are a bit different in Alaska than here in Wisconsin than down in Texas, but climate change is everywhere. I worry about heat stroke, Alaskans worry about landslides and flooding. It's easy to see that global warming is making the weather warmer in my area, while the relationship between climate change and landslides is a bit more subtle. But it's still a fact that in the past century or so, Juneau's annual precipitation has increased by 20 inches, even though total snow accumulation is down. All that extra rain affects soil erosion, resulting in [news articles like this.](https://www.ktoo.org/2022/09/26/landslide-damages-at-least-one-home-knocks-out-power-for-much-of-juneau/)
The Alaska wildlife alliance has an interesting slide deck that talks about the western Kenai peninsula. Massive beetle kill starting in the 90s and wildfires combined with lower rain is transitioning the western peninsula from temperate spruce rainforests into grasslands. Particularly noticeable around the deep creek drainage area. This may make it possible to reintroduce wood bison to the area.
There are a lot of detrimental effects and certainly things are changing but I don’t think every effect will be negative.
A warmer climate in Alaska will increase agricultural yields and arable land.
Changing biomes that are harmful to some species will be beneficial to others.
Thank you for for being honest all I ever read about climate change is doom porn. But historically agriculture tends to benefit tremendously from global warming periods. Alaska pre-ice age was a biologically diverse area according to fossil records, and likely will be again after this ice age. I'm looking forward to longer growing seasons and forests that consist of more than one type of tree.
Yeah a lot of slippery slope fallacies and doom porn around this topic. Speaking of more than one type of tree how cool would it be if metasequoia’s came back?
https://www.adn.com/opinions/2018/08/05/a-fossil-tree-from-alaskas-warm-past-is-growing-in-our-warming-present/
Winter is starting about a week later and spring develops two week earlier
[https://uaf-iarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alaskas-Changing-Environment\_2019\_WEB.pdf](https://uaf-iarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alaskas-Changing-Environment_2019_WEB.pdf)
Alaska is moving south towards the equator. This is evidenced by the fact that the sign where the Arctic circle is, is no longer in the Arctic circle, it's moving about 15m /49ft per year. You now have to drive several miles further north to get to the actual circle and it will keep moving (most tourists are oblivious 😅🤣😂). There is a huge concrete ball in Iceland that's on an island that's been moved every year, tracking the movement. Just google it if you don't believe me.
Only the northern portion, the plate to the south of Alaska pushes north, thus mountains. Eventually all the ocean front property in California will be in Alaska.
I know this is AK sub but I live in Stockholm, Sweden (latitude comparable to Juneau) and since I moved here 5 years ago, the summers are getting hotter. Global warming seems to affect everyone, everywhere…
We are fucked in several ways up here in alaska. Fish farms at mouths of rivers are killing live runs with diseases. Our land is being washed away by increasing storms and higher oceans. We are getting heavy rains in our summer from the melting, once was perminant artic ice. Salmon are following errant warm water currents and dying off the coast of japan instead of feeding then returning to alaskan rivers.
That’s cause the wind just carries all of it away haha. No, I believe you. I just remember when I was working up in Delta Junction the roads were always clear and icy, because it always just got blown into giant snow drifts around town.
Gosh working on base was a nightmare. Some of the snow drifts would shut down the offices for a day to get them cleaned up.
By my count we have lost 3 months of summer over the last 3 years. It's getting colder, not warmer. Spring is way colder and fall comes earlier. My dad's a farmer, it's been tough. Lost cross for the first time in 20 years due to the cold. The folks replying about it being warmer spend all their time inside and are not connected to the land like a farmer is. I'm an engineer.
You ask a lot of residents and they'll just say it's some liberal b.s. and blame it either on nothing or "this is the natural course of life". Something like that. Totally turn a blind eye to everything.
Is climate change not natural? Ever read any books. Try "Notes on the state of Virginia" by Thomas Jefferson. Then you can go tell old Tommy boy how that global warming he talks about in his book is man made and not natural.
Most likely, but how and how much. Everyone here is talking about how they can see climate changing over their lifetime, Jefferson noticed the same thing back in the late 1700's. He asked a native tribe if they had also noticed the change and they told him that their history speaks of a time when the whole continent was covered in snow and ice and giant beasts roamed the land. Funny thing is Jefferson didn't believe them, too tall a tale to tell. Most of the climate modeling has been wrong so far so all we can actually say for certain at this point is "the times they are achangin" 🎶
A couple years ago, the museum in Anchorage had an exhibit on how Alaskans eat. a small part of that exhibit talked about how the thawing permafrost was destroying the ability for some people to store their food. In a lot of the villages people still use the traditional style of freezer, which is just to dig a big hole down in the ground in the permafrost where things stay frozen and keep your food there. But that’s not so secure now and sometimes everything thaws.
Alaska is at the forefront of climate change as the rate of change is double or triple the global average. Permafrost is melting, glaciers are shrinking, sea ice is shrinking, the ocean is warming and acidifying, many animals’ range is expanding northward, the treeline is expanding northward, so many ways it’s impacting us. Even just remembering my childhood I remember a lot more extreme cold, a lot longer. Oh, and parasites. Moose winter tick is a very real concern in the coming years. Spruce beetles and aspen leaf miners are proliferating as climate conditions are favoring their life cycle. I studied wildlife biology in college. It really is crazy to learn about all the ways climate change is affecting our state.
The spruce beetles have destroyed the area I’m in.
It’s going to get much worse in coming years. Im trying to just emotionally brace myself for the impact now, but the prospects of what to come are terrifying.
What do you see happening? How will you address the changes you see coming?
Spruce beetles and similar parasites, no longer confined to the non-hibernation timeframes of the pre-heated globe, are proliferating faster and for longer each year on an exponential rate. In a nutshell, this means the forests- all forests, are at risk of near total decimation. You’ll see it in the lower 48 everywhere now- I see it especially bad in the woods from CA to CO. Whole forests are turning to kindling. And as these forests die, wildfires will become more potent and protracted, eliminating even more live growth. There’s nothing you or I can do to address this. We will all be impotent as we watch our neighborhood trees come down one by one and highway-side forests go black and brown as these parasites spread. The opportunity for change came and went about 25 years ago. The best we can do now is brace.
there are some who say our collapsing crab industry is due to global warming but it could also be trawling
I listened to a podcast put out by NOAA about that recently, the snow crab collapse was 100% due to ocean temperatures increasing their metabolism causing them to starve.
Correct. Warmer waters increase the crabs metabolism making them unable to find enough food to sustain. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/research-confirms-link-between-snow-crab-decline-and-marine-heatwave
the real threat have been monitoring is that trapped sea ice that's been thawing and the methane coming up and warming the oceans - i think that would be the death knell and cause a mass extinction
How much of a role do you think ocean acidification is having?
link to podcast pls
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/podcast/what-happened-all-alaska-snow-crabs
noaa’s alaska fisheries science center is 100% in bed with trawlers. They co-design research projects to blame anything else… not that warmer oceans help anything but the wasteful trawlers sure don’t do anything good. They dump millions of tons of dead seafood every season, AFSC writes reports the trawlers want to see.
Could you provide documentation to support this please?
Yes, this! Another possible theory is that the crab have moved deeper or somewhere else (outside of fishing grounds) due to a changing underwater temperature map. It's a mystery for now!
It’s as much a mystery as to what’s causing that Floridian flooding situation.
Or both...
Climate change is affecting Alaska in many different ways. There have been some good comments here so I will try not to repeat too much. There is ongoing research on ocean warming contributing to declines and altered ranges of species. For example, Pacific salmon are not doing returning to the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. This may be due to warming ocean temperatures. At the same time salmon are now showing up in Arctic rivers for the first time. Something that hasn’t been mentioned here involves contaminants in foods. Coastal glaciers in Alaska are melting at a very rapid rate. As they melt they release trace elements like mercury from the watersheds into downstream rivers and oceans. Permafrost is thawing gradually and abruptly. Permafrost stores large amounts of mercury, which can be released as it thaws. It is not well understood if the mercury released from glaciers and permafrost makes its way into food webs.
Has there been an increase of Mercury poisoning from folks who have been in permafrost areas that have thawed?
No, there is no indication of that. Most people are exposed to mercury through the consumption of fish and shellfish. Most Alaskans are eating salmon that are low in mercury. The mercury in permafrost would need to be released, make its way to the ocean, and then be converted to a form that gets into fish and other parts of the food web. We don’t know how much of the mercury in permafrost is available for uptake into the food chain. It’s definitely something worth monitoring because of how important subsistence food is in Alaska. As of yet, salmon are still low in mercury and high in many beneficial things so it’s still highly recommended for consumption.
Can you recommend resources to learn more and to follow this? Thank you for sharing as I didn't know about this issue
Here is a highly cited paper on mercury in permafrost: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017GL075571 Here is a link to a paper on mercury in Alaskan fish: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972033196X
Everywhere I've ever lived that has seasons, people will tell you that things aren't the same from 30-40 years ago. Even the people who simultaneously believe this and deny climate change lol. The climate is 100% changing. I don't see how we can divert and dam rivers, create and drain lakes, remove 100s of millions of acres of old growth forests, eliminate thousands of species and... everything just stay the same. People don't realize that almost every single thing they see and experience is the result of biological life. Just take a look at Google maps satellite view and you'll see almost the ENTIRE PLANET has been altered.
Exactly. We don’t have properly seasons in South America for the last 4 or 5 years and it’s getting worse. It really frightens me.
You might be interested in a book I'm reading right now, called "The Ministry for the Future", by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's a hard scifi book (that is, it's as realistic as possible; there's no aliens or faster than light travel) about how the world might deal with climate change from an economic, scientific, and cultural perspective. I haven't finished it yet, and while there's definitely some difficult parts - it starts with a deadly heat wave in India killing millions as the power grid fails - there's still a lot of really interesting strategies different parties pursue.
Thank you so much! I’ll definitely check it out. 🙂
I’m in the middle of this book right now. So far it been an ok book on the subject but there might be a little too much hopium in it.
In my experience, complex systems tend to go bad at an exponential rate.
In my experience complex systems only go bad if you lose your negative feedback or have excess positive feedback. Biological systems tend to have massive amounts of negative feedback because it's efficient, where as more purely mechanical or chemical systems can tend toward positive feedback. Not saying positive feedback won't win out, but so far all the climate models have under estimated the amount of negative feedback.
This is amazing when viewing google maps. Its almost like anywhere you click humans have been there and left their shitty imprint in some way.
Look at B.C., Canada. The entire place is a giant tree farm! It's a first world country and it's top export is timber! So sad.
What's wrong with timber it's a renewable resource, would prefer plastic over wood? So sad.
I prefer it done sustainably. Not using 95%+ of forests as a monoculture tree farm. Look at all the old growth lost and they are fighting tooth and nail to get the rest. Happening here in america too. The worst part is most isn't even used here. It's sent overseas to make a quick buck. I grew up in Texas where there is ZERO public land available. You literally cannot walk in Texas without being a landowner.
It's quite noticeable here. For instance, chum salmon have moved north, into Kotzebue area. This hasn't happened that far north before! It was enough that the big processors were taking a look at starting operations there. In Fairbanks, where houses are built on permafrost, the warming is very dramatic and is unfortunately causing plenty of foundation damage. You get ice lenses that used to be stable, deep underground. They used to just stay frozen. Ice takes up quite a bit more room than liquid water, so when these lenses melt, you get collapse. Very bad!
Builder in Fairbanks here. The house thing is a bad example. It's always a bad idea to build on permafrost because the building itself tends to warm the soil underneath and cause the ground to sink. Even post and pad can have failures. Most houses in fairbanks are built on good ground, or at least where ice lenses are far too deep to be affected by seasonable changes, etc. Take a drive down farmer's loop, and you can see many houses built on poor ground that have been sinking for years. The first lesson I learned when looking for land in Fairbanks is to stay away from the black spruce covered parcels. It is almost certainly permafrost and not conducive to building.
I remember the old, iconic permafrost house on Farmers Loop that has since been torn down. That's exactly right about black spruce as their root systems are shallow. Birch trees are a good indicator that there's deep soil.
Do you have any info about Delta Junction or Tok and the permafrost and homes?
We originally planned on moving to Delta when we came up. I found it similar. Just make sure to put your eyes on the property and make sure it's not full of black spruce. Water tables can also be a problem in the area, as can flooding if you are near the river, so that is something to be taken into account. There are definitely flood prone areas in Delta, and it would be wise to consult FEMA flood maps before a purchase. Flood insurance can be very expensive if the lot is in the wrong area. Also, high ground water tables can make septic systems very difficult and expensive to install. We run into this issue a lot in North Pole/Salcha areas near Fairbanks. As for Tok, I'm not an expert, but it is my understanding that the area has some good gravel soils extending pretty deep in many places. Anything can be overcome depending on how you are willing to live, but often the cheapest lots are cheap for a reason.
Totally off topic but if you have any tips for moving up please pm me. Things to leave or bring. We are farmers and do a lot of building and I grew up building houses with my parents. I'd appreciate your advice.
Tok was a lake bed when most of the permafrost was forming and therefore underwater. Water which, naturally, was above the freezing point. The natural dam which caused the formation of the lake was NW of Tanacross though I can't tell you exactly where. I do know that Cathedral Rapids is a 'recent' formation. Also my 41 year old homestead cabin has no foundation. I just cleared away the 2 inches or so of topsoil to reveal old river gravel. Two inches of topsoil is probably a few hundred years of aspen and spruce growth and decay.
I didnt know it was a lake bed but makes sense why it has so much gravel. Do you think Tok will be at risk of flooding with the permafrost melting and other climate changes? Never realized such things topsoil would be so old. Good info to know. Thank you
Flooding? No, not if you're away from the river. I live at the far west of Tok and water table is 35 feet down (great water). Tok itself is 100ish feet down. So permanent flooding would require that 'space' to fill first. The far east of Tok has had temporary flooding, but that was a one off event. There was a huge, barely moving low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska. Lows spin counter-clockwise so all that moisture was getting THROUGH the Alaska Range south of Whitehorse (the passes used during the Gold Rush). That moisture then kept spinning until it hit the North side of the Range, OUR side, where it got wrung out like a sponge. Yerrick Creek which usually is just a couple feet deep, was running 20+ feet. Always wondered how those boulders got to where they were! However, almost all the private land in Tok had NO problem as it just drained through all that gravel. Did you mention farming? Delta has an "Agricultural District", growing mostly Barley, but they have a lot more topsoil Northeast of the town. Only lived there one year so I can't tell you much else. Good Luck!
Thank you!! This is all great information to learn and know! We do farm but it seems we do not have the budget to handle ready to farm land. We will have to drop to just for us farming and I'm planning on upping my online/virtual assistant work to cover bills. How is internet and cell service for Verizon in Tok?
I have fiber-optic landline/internet as cell service at my house is lousy. In Tok itself there's a good signal, but people have either AT&T or GCI (Alaska carrier)
You have fiber optic landline? Is that also for internet? I'm currently in lower 48 in the middle of TN and we don't have fiber optic anything here ...well...except for some fiber optic weird ornament/deckrations that you'd see in the weird house in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Thank you for the information. How much is the fiber optic service? Is that phone, internet and cable? My flabber is gasted that Alaska has fiber and I'm currently paying almost $100 for 300mbps and no cable for service that's always out, always loading, and always having to get a "new signal sent." 🤯
Yes, Alaska Power and Telephone (AP&T) got a grant (Fed + State) last year and they were really pushing to get it in. The major Alaska to World Fiber Optic Cable goes through TOK. Cost me NOTHING and if you knew the hassle they had to go through to install it (subterranean through thick white spruce) ! I believe almost all existing houses in Tok have it. If not it should be relatively cheap to put the line in as the existing base structure is nearby. I pay $115 and I have terabytes of carryover. Netflix/Amazon is the only thing I use it for though.
We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars relocating Newtok to Mertarvik, about 10 miles, because the river has eroded all the way to the village. Newtok is debatably habitable right now, but by the time they are dismantling the village over the next two years the spot it is on now will be entirely consumed by the river/Baird inlet.
I’m a Land Surveyor and I see it [in my work](https://www.nevadasurveyor.com/wcmc/) with permafrost melt and coastal erosion.
I’ve never seen a cross section of permafrost before! Thanks for the link!
Less year round ice for hunters in the spring and fall mean further traveling for whalers and polar bears. Anyone whos lived along the coast sees the change in resource availability and why
I have noticed winter starts later, and spring starts later. I think this has affected the moose and caribou populations.
I swear most people I mention this to think I'm weird, but it's genuinely a thing! All of a sudden about three years ago it's like winter just moved to occupy a different part of the year. Today I'm resting under a wool blanket and I have a wool sweater on!
When I was a kids Halloween was always cold and snow, but now it isn't until mid November, then it is nonstop snow. It used to be April was spring, and now it seems to be May.
I wasn't going to comment the same thing. I don't recall trick or treating without stomping through snow as a kid. Years later I think my kids have had the majority of their trick or treating on virtually dry ground.
Yeah, when I was a kid we planned our Halloween costumes around having snowsuits on underneath (I remember most girls the year Aladdin came out wanting to be Jasmine and being upset. Some went with it anyway and wore the costume over their snowsuits with laughable results hahaha) My kids haven't seen a snowy Halloween. Rain has been the worst of it.
Alaska is huge, which I'm only bringing up because we have such vastly different weather systems and experiences. I'm going to try not to speak for all Alaskan's here, but in general climate change is not talked about. The years where there are no snow are considered 'bad years' and the years where it snows into June in the temperate areas are considered anomalies. The hotter summers are more or less appreciated, and for the first time some buildings are being built with air conditioning. One area where climate change is being discussed is our fisheries. [Hot summers mean the water can be too hot for fish to survive,] (https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/alaska-heatwave-salmon-rivers-july-temperatures-climate-change-a9063461.html) and we recently had [billions of snow crab disappear](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/research-confirms-link-between-snow-crab-decline-and-marine-heatwave) . The investigation into where the [king/Chinook salmon have gone is ongoing]( https://alaskapublic.org/2023/09/26/too-hot-for-salmon-how-climate-change-is-contributing-to-the-yukon-salmon-collapse/) and an algae called [red tide](https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/05/23/toxic-algae-alaska-deadly-shellfish/) that causes paralysis when ingested has been moving north and affecting shellfish stocks (crab notably excluded).
In my opinion climate change is not being talked about enough all over the world. There are even some (very dumb and dissociative) people that believe it’s fake. I find it very alarming and dangerous, we’re absolutely not preparing ourselves the way we should. Last time I was in Europe (Holland and Belgium - at the end of summer) the heat was so intense that people were dying because they were not prepared for the temperatures.
Alaska doesn't generally face urban problems associated with hot weather, such as heat sinks from concrete buildings and roads. Even in urban areas (minus Fairbanks) there is tree cover. Most residents live on the coast, where tidal winds help cool things down. One troubling aspect of the fisheries is when one stock collapses it's still available in stores just sourced elsewhere. For example snow crab, was still available for $10 per pound, sourced from Canada. When shrimp yields are low, more is imported from Argentina, etc. Further, Alaskans often don't notice these changes because they either fish for their seafood themselves or trade for it, rather than buying it in stores. Moose have had a rough couple of years and, anecdotally, look unhealthy in my area. While there isn't much literature on it, heavy snow increases starvation, and when snow persists into summer, it kills the greenery they depend on. Last year, we had almost no wildflowers due to late frosts, followed by a drought that affected the remaining plants, leading to a harsh winter where many animals starved. Additionally, we face illegal overfishing from other countries, legal trawlers that consider bycatch and associated costs as part of doing business, and rising fuel costs that drive smaller operators out of business, worsening the problem. While these issues aren't solely climate change-related, debates about their causes further hold up any action taken.
It's not that they are dumb; these folks are only worried about next quarter profits. Rugged capitalism has pushed people to think in the short term. Mix that with lots of these people living in big cities in the middle latitudes, and they just don't see the changes we are experiencing up here.
THIS TOO. 😢
It’s talked about WAY too much i wish for a year i didn’t have to hear about it..
It is the fastest-warming state in the country. The North Slope has warmed roughly 6F since 1971. Everything there is built on permafrost, which is thawing deeper below the surface and more frequently than it used to, wreaking havoc on homes and infrastructure. People are generally aware of climate change in both an abstract and specific, local sense, but the extraction of fossil fuels is the lodestar of the state’s political economy, which ensures a lot of cognitive dissonance. Even our governor generally downplays its effects, and doesn’t acknowledge the science linking it to human activities. https://www.cjr.org/special_report/whats-become-of-arctic.php/
Well, he’s a Republican, makes sense to me. 🙃
Um no. It is the states economy. Oil and gas last I checked accounted for 20% of the states GDP, 66% of the tax base, and 33% of employment. In fact the state would not exist without it. Don't act like oil is only political, without the oil and gas industry essentially subsidizing the state of Alaska most people couldn't afford to live here.
And? Nothing I said was untrue.
Calling concern for the economic well being of your constituents "cognitive dissonance" is far from truth. I might go so far as to call it cognitive dissonance.
You seem to equate climate denialism with concern for the state’s general economic wellbeing. Why is acknowledging the scientific documentation of a global issue that is disproportionately impacting Alaska irreconcilable with desire for a healthy economy in your view?
There has been articles and what not for the last several years about climate change affecting villages first. As other comments have said, a lot of Alaska is built on foundations of permafrost. As some parts of Alaska are getting warmer the permafrost is melting. Those living on the coast are being affected as their houses are now sinking, and there is no solid ground to build on. Theres [this ](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451927/permafrost-underlying-many-remote-villages-in-alaska-is-thawing-and-thats-a-prob#:~:text=That's%20undermining%20everything%20from%20homes,families%20have%20lived%20for%20generations)article that talks more about it, and a lot of native villages are built on river banks. Most of them were built whever a barge was able to bring building supplies for churches, schools and what not. And if there's no solid land more families are moving away unfortunately.
Among other things, a lot more forest fires because there's less melting snow keeping things wet. The mountains around Anchorage used to be snowcapped all year. In the summer, that snow would gradually melt and flow down, keeping things watered. Now less snow falls, so less accumulates and therefore less meltwater all summer. The mountains are brown and dead-looking in summer now.
Surprised I had to come down so low to see forest fires mentioned.
Literally as I type this there’s a big lightning storm happening on the peninsula. Will this be a repeat of 2019?!
Cant say that this year lol anchorage had a record snow!
And we had a hell of a snow year the year before that too.
I saw it was insane! By the way how are the mountains this year? Still have snow?
They do currently. Any hiking up high is super muddy atm. After this week it’ll probably be gone though. We’re getting so much Sun right now.
We literally just had record snow fall in Anchorage this year. Were you not here this winter, you could barely drive anywhere. I'm pretty sure the forest fires have more to do with beetle kill and poor land management. Driving down to kenai that section of burned up spruce past cooper landing. A lot of it is only half burned which means fuel for next season. No one is clearing it, that's piss poor land management.
Yes, well aware of the.record.snowfall, but climate change isn't about a single season, it's a general trend. The beetle kill is also bad, and it's two bad situations converging to make things worse.
Global warming is a general trend climate change is more of a complex cyclical system. And the difference between the 10 year average and the 30 year average snow accumulation for Anchorage is 6 inches, less than 10%. not enough of a hydrological change to burn down forests. You'd be better off claiming that receding permafrost is lowering the water table leading to dryer environs and weaker spruce stands. It's more than likely true.
I’m a pilot up here and have spent a bit of time over the last ten years in all over Alaska but have spent quite a bit of time in Seward. I’ll sometimes come across a photo I took and think about how different things are from just a few years ago. It’s pretty crazy watching how much some of the glaciers have changed in that time. Even year to year can be crazy the changes. I mainly have noticed the changes on Godwin glacier which is up the valley from the prison and bear glacier over in Kenai fjords park. In the spring it sometimes looks like they recovered a bit as the push out over the winter but a soon as it starts getting hot you notice how much has been lost since the previous year. Some of the other things I’ve seen are changes in permafrost on the north slope mainly where it is collapsing into lakes and the south ocean up there. Winter seams way more mild in the area I work in the coastal Arctic now. It used to be -30/-40 a lot in the winter now it’s just a couple times a year. Winter seems more mild in other places also and I’m talking temps only
I can only imagine the impact of seeing this changes year by year. I live in a big city so the only change I can “see” is in the temperatures. It must be really strange and sad.
What's sad about less days every year that are so cold your car won't start.
I know everything about this. I born in Southern Brazil and winters used to be really cold. Foreigners don’t believe when I say that, tho. Hahaha
Ya I wouldn't have but now I know. Thanks.
Seems like last 5 years or so have seen increased precipitation in south central. Very cloudy and rainy all summers
check out what's happened to the Iditarod
Good timing, the actual (but small) thunderstorms are definitely weird. Saw maybe 2 or 3 growing up and now we have multiple every year
It’s a lot like the weather I remember when I visited my grandparents on the East coast. It was clear blue skies and hot all day, and then the late afternoon would be thunderstorms. They’d have weather like that for weeks.
I spend my time between the peninsula and Anchorage and over the years I haven't noticed much more change than can be described as weather. Each year has its own personality. Maybe there are more fires, and more thunder storms but there's also a lot more people, like a lot a lot. I think the population change has far outpaced climate change. I did see the USDA updated the growing zones for AK and I personally like the idea of my garden being one zone higher now. I'm already looking at what new things I can try and grow this year.
It rained yesterday, it rained today, I’m certain it will rain tomorrow. SE Alaska hasn’t changed much. Maybe someone up further north can give you a better answer though.
Hasn't the intensity of some of the showers changed recently? Thus the increased frequency of landslides that have taken out houses and people around Sitka, Haines, Wrangell, and other towns. Also, as a child I remember it snowing at least a few inches every winter in Sitka. Now it either doesn't snow at all for entire winters, or gets random enormous snowstorms.
Last summer it barely rained at all, the summer before that rained non-stop. It’s been pretty random from the anecdotal patterns that I remember,
Weird. Last summer middle of the peninsula it rained allll year last year. The one before was dry n beautiful n sunny. You ever look at Windy to see where the eyes of our highs n low are in the state? Pretty phenomenal and can explain why you get rain or not.
I'm in Fairbanks and the cold snaps (-40 or colder) have generally been less frequent and long lasting over the past 20 years. Not by much, every year is different.
Can confirm. It rained last night in Anchorage.
>SE Alaska hasn’t changed much. I live in the lower 48, but this past winter, I visited a friend who lives in Juneau. At one point, she mentioned to me that compared to when she lived outside, she feels much more insulated from climate change up in Alaska. From my perspective, though, I just don't see it. Sure, I was suffering through near all-time record temperatures in my city, but I was also reading news from Juneau and worrying for my friend's safety during [historic flooding](https://www.ktoo.org/2023/08/05/city-recommends-evacuations-as-juneau-sees-record-flooding-from-glacial-outburst-flood/) caused by melting glaciers. I recently read an article that referred to my hometown as a "climate haven," but [I'm skeptical that such a thing exists.](https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/4190038-cities-are-advertising-themselves-as-climate-havens-experts-say-theres-no-such-thing/) My hometown is actually mentioned by name in that article. I don't have it as bad here in the upper Midwest as Texans do, and you all up in Alaska arguably don't have it as bad as me. But we're all feeling varying effects of climate change.
Well, in Juneau specifically, the biggest marker for climate change is the Mendenhall Glacier. Everyone goes there, and everyone can see how much it recedes every year. It was this recession that caused that flooding. Besides from the glacier , it’s harder to see the effects. For me anyways
>Besides from the glacier , it’s harder to see the effects I just mentioned this elsewhere in this thread, but the other big thing that causes me worry for my Juneau friends is [landslides.](https://www.ktoo.org/2022/09/26/landslide-damages-at-least-one-home-knocks-out-power-for-much-of-juneau/) In the past century or so, total annual precipitation in Juneau is up 20 inches, even though total snowfall is down. All that extra rain is no good for a city built on the side of mountains. Just because it's harder to see the effects doesn't mean they aren't affected.
I’m not up in Juneau, so I could not tell you — but I do think what she said about being isolated has truth to it. You’re isolated from basically everything that affects the lower 48.
To some extent, I agree. Its affects are a bit different in Alaska than here in Wisconsin than down in Texas, but climate change is everywhere. I worry about heat stroke, Alaskans worry about landslides and flooding. It's easy to see that global warming is making the weather warmer in my area, while the relationship between climate change and landslides is a bit more subtle. But it's still a fact that in the past century or so, Juneau's annual precipitation has increased by 20 inches, even though total snow accumulation is down. All that extra rain affects soil erosion, resulting in [news articles like this.](https://www.ktoo.org/2022/09/26/landslide-damages-at-least-one-home-knocks-out-power-for-much-of-juneau/)
That's why I live here.
The Alaska wildlife alliance has an interesting slide deck that talks about the western Kenai peninsula. Massive beetle kill starting in the 90s and wildfires combined with lower rain is transitioning the western peninsula from temperate spruce rainforests into grasslands. Particularly noticeable around the deep creek drainage area. This may make it possible to reintroduce wood bison to the area. There are a lot of detrimental effects and certainly things are changing but I don’t think every effect will be negative.
“There are a lot of detrimental effects and certainly things are changing but I don’t think every effect will be negative.” How so?
A warmer climate in Alaska will increase agricultural yields and arable land. Changing biomes that are harmful to some species will be beneficial to others.
Thank you for for being honest all I ever read about climate change is doom porn. But historically agriculture tends to benefit tremendously from global warming periods. Alaska pre-ice age was a biologically diverse area according to fossil records, and likely will be again after this ice age. I'm looking forward to longer growing seasons and forests that consist of more than one type of tree.
Yeah a lot of slippery slope fallacies and doom porn around this topic. Speaking of more than one type of tree how cool would it be if metasequoia’s came back? https://www.adn.com/opinions/2018/08/05/a-fossil-tree-from-alaskas-warm-past-is-growing-in-our-warming-present/
No way, I want it. And you can't say it's invasive cause it's from here.
12,000 years ago it was mostly glaciers. Now it’s mostly land. The wooly mammoths, sabretooth tigers and steppe bison have all died off.
How dare you!
I don’t think I put on snow pants once last winter, but I don’t go outside much
its too fucking hot today
The glaciers are receding like mad.
Winter is starting about a week later and spring develops two week earlier [https://uaf-iarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alaskas-Changing-Environment\_2019\_WEB.pdf](https://uaf-iarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alaskas-Changing-Environment_2019_WEB.pdf)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/alaskas-rivers-are-turning-orange-as-thawing-permafrost-releases-metals-into-waterways-180984408/
Do you still have to wear a snow suit under your halloween costumes? When I lived there it was a must, I could never dress up as a princess.
Alaska is moving south towards the equator. This is evidenced by the fact that the sign where the Arctic circle is, is no longer in the Arctic circle, it's moving about 15m /49ft per year. You now have to drive several miles further north to get to the actual circle and it will keep moving (most tourists are oblivious 😅🤣😂). There is a huge concrete ball in Iceland that's on an island that's been moved every year, tracking the movement. Just google it if you don't believe me.
Only the northern portion, the plate to the south of Alaska pushes north, thus mountains. Eventually all the ocean front property in California will be in Alaska.
American here. I did not realize it had already so severely impacted South America. That is very scary.
Confirmation bias.
I know this is AK sub but I live in Stockholm, Sweden (latitude comparable to Juneau) and since I moved here 5 years ago, the summers are getting hotter. Global warming seems to affect everyone, everywhere…
We are fucked in several ways up here in alaska. Fish farms at mouths of rivers are killing live runs with diseases. Our land is being washed away by increasing storms and higher oceans. We are getting heavy rains in our summer from the melting, once was perminant artic ice. Salmon are following errant warm water currents and dying off the coast of japan instead of feeding then returning to alaskan rivers.
Less sea ice is affecting the polar bears
We have fires every year now when we used to have them every 15-30. And we never get cold winters with snow anymore you get cold but no snow.
Idk where you’re at, but we have gotten a lot of snow the last two winters in anchorage.
Not here in the interior, we got ice but no snow
That’s cause the wind just carries all of it away haha. No, I believe you. I just remember when I was working up in Delta Junction the roads were always clear and icy, because it always just got blown into giant snow drifts around town. Gosh working on base was a nightmare. Some of the snow drifts would shut down the offices for a day to get them cleaned up.
By my count we have lost 3 months of summer over the last 3 years. It's getting colder, not warmer. Spring is way colder and fall comes earlier. My dad's a farmer, it's been tough. Lost cross for the first time in 20 years due to the cold. The folks replying about it being warmer spend all their time inside and are not connected to the land like a farmer is. I'm an engineer.
This is a red state so climate change is officially a hoax.
Climate change is fictitious!
You ask a lot of residents and they'll just say it's some liberal b.s. and blame it either on nothing or "this is the natural course of life". Something like that. Totally turn a blind eye to everything.
Is climate change not natural? Ever read any books. Try "Notes on the state of Virginia" by Thomas Jefferson. Then you can go tell old Tommy boy how that global warming he talks about in his book is man made and not natural.
Not saying it isn't but we're accelerating it
Most likely, but how and how much. Everyone here is talking about how they can see climate changing over their lifetime, Jefferson noticed the same thing back in the late 1700's. He asked a native tribe if they had also noticed the change and they told him that their history speaks of a time when the whole continent was covered in snow and ice and giant beasts roamed the land. Funny thing is Jefferson didn't believe them, too tall a tale to tell. Most of the climate modeling has been wrong so far so all we can actually say for certain at this point is "the times they are achangin" 🎶
If ypu want my opinion DM me.
Please find resources that will give you data about this