ThinkProgress Home
ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress Logo

Stories tagged with “Alaska”

Climate Progress

Nome Fuel Delivery Exposes Serious Concerns for Arctic Drilling

By Climate Guest Blogger on Jan 13, 2012 at 4:21 pm

If We Have Trouble Delivering Fuel on Land, How Would We Handle a Winter Oil Spill in the Arctic Ocean?

The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy approaches the Russian-flagged tanker vessel Renda Tuesday evening.

By Kiley Kroh

Today the Russian tanker Renda, escorted by the United States’ only operating icebreaking vessel, will attempt to make its final push in delivering much-needed fuel to the remote, icebound community of Nome, Alaska.  The ships’ progress has been impeded by high winds, strong currents, brutal cold, and thick sea ice. They moved just 50 feet on Tuesday and slowed even further on Wednesday.  With a 25-foot ice ridge still blocking access to the harbor, the tanker will be forced to attempt offloading its cargo through a mile-long hose to shore.

The tanker Renda and ice-breaker Healy arrive in the area of the ice-choked Nome harbor today.  Photo KNOM.

Ordinarily, the last delivery is made prior to the ice closing in, but this year it was delayed by a “monster storm” that hit Alaska in early November covering an area twice the size of Texas.  The tempest produced hurricane-force winds, blizzard conditions, coastal flooding, and spurred evacuations of many coastal communities.  The 3,500 residents of Nome, a city located on the western coast of Alaska, rely on tanker barges to deliver home heating oil, gasoline, and diesel for the winter months. The village has enough fuel to last until March, but ice in the Bering Sea won’t clear until midsummer.  In a bid to avoid the $9 per gallon gasoline that would likely result from flying fuel into the isolated city, the Nome-based Sitnasuak Native Corporation signed a contract to have a double-hulled Ice Classed Russian tanker deliver the 1.3 million gallons of fuel.

The unprecedented effort has captured worldwide attention and also brought serious concerns to light about the nation’s insufficient resources and infrastructure in the Arctic.  With the President of Royal Dutch Shell expressing confidence yesterday that his company will begin drilling in the fragile Arctic waters off Alaska’s northern coast this summer, addressing these concerns becomes even more urgent.

Read more

NEWS FLASH

Anchorage Sees Record Snow | “From July 1 through Tuesday, Anchorage has received 81.3 inches of snow,” the Associated Press reports. “Meteorologist Shaun Baines said that makes it the snowiest period for Anchorage since records have been kept. If the pace keeps up through the last snows in either April or May, Anchorage is on track to have the snowiest winter ever, surpassing the previous record of 132.8 inches in 1954-55, Baines said. About 150 miles to the southeast of Anchorage, the Prince William Sound community of Cordova has already been buried under 172 inches of snow since Nov. 1 and is trying to dig out from recent storms.” Global warming has significantly increased the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, and unforeseen weather patterns have left the lower 48 in record warm, dry conditions while Alaska experiences record storms, including a freak polar cyclone in November.

Green

Record-Setting Snowfalls Bury Towns In Southeast Alaska

By Rebecca Leber on Jan 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Cordova, Alaska is buried by snow.

It’s been a strange winter, thanks to climate change. While many cities on the mainland U.S. have experienced record-high temperatures, Alaska has braced an unusual barrage of snowfall — so much that the towns can hardly handle the snowy load.

The National Guard estimates more than 18 feet of snow has fallen the past few weeks, and the drifts can measure 12 to 14 feet high. The Associated Press reports:

“It’s a lot of snow. I’ve lived here 33 years and this is the most snow I’ve ever seen,” she said by phone. “The thing I’m impressed most with is we haven’t had any injuries. Maybe a few back strains from all of the shoveling. But we have a very, very efficient, professional emergency staff here.” [...]

The town issued a disaster proclamation last week after three weeks of relentless snow overwhelmed local crews working around the clock and filled snow dump sites.

“We had no alternative but to declare an emergency,” Cordova Mayor Jim Kallander said. “It became a life-safety issue.”

While Cordova, Alaska is familiar with snow, the snow dump fueled by climate change has immobilized the city. Thankfully there have been no injuries but like Cordova resident Wendy Rainney told the AP, “This is more quantity than can be handled.”

NEWS FLASH

Alaska Gov. Parnell Meets Oil CEOs In ‘Virtually Unheard-Of’ Meeting, Pushing For Pipeline Project | Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) will meet today with the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips. The AP calls this meeting “virtually unheard-of,” as the parties converge to develop a strategy for promoting oil development and shipping. Parnell originally invited the CEOs, so the Alaskan government and industry can “work collectively to determine the shape of the next generation of North Slope resource development.” Parnell is pushing for a natural gas pipeline project, which would include TransCanada. He has indicated the state is open to additional royalties and tax incentives for the major companies.

Climate Progress

Must-See Video of Rep. Don Young (R-AK) Bullying a Witness: “I Can Call You Anything I Want…. You Just Be quiet!”

By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 25, 2011 at 9:20 am

By Don Shelby, in a re-post

On Nov. 18 the celebrated historian, Dr. Douglas Brinkley, testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. The committee was taking testimony on another congressional effort to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration and drilling.

Brinkley was there to suggest that the ANWR be designated a national monument, preserved and protected. Brinkley knows about conservation. Among his award-winning publications and best-selling books is “Wilderness Warrior” about Theodore Roosevelt’s environmental policies. His most recent book, “The Quiet World,” traces the history of Alaska’s wilderness. He’s currently writing a new history on the conservation movement in America.

After Brinkley delivered his testimony, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, walked into the hearing late. Please watch this short clip of what happened:

By way of full disclosure, Dr. Brinkley is a friend of mine, but had Dr. Brinkley been a stranger to me, I would still be mortified that a United States congressman would treat a guest of the House in such a fashion. I hope this piece of video is seen by as many Americans as possible. I shouldn’t like people in other countries to see it. We still have an image to uphold in the world. Young makes it look like the most powerful nation on earth is run by the inmates of the asylum.

You may also notice that Dr. Brinkley doesn’t suffer fools gladly. I talked to him about the confrontation. He told me: “I felt like I needed to hold my own against them. I feel good about it.”

He continued: “I’m a historian and I read a lot of testimony. It is important to me to have an accurate record. I thought I needed to set the record straight for Congressman Young. My name is not Dr. Rice, it is Dr. Brinkley.”

That is certainly part of it. It is likely, as well, that Brinkley had studied the history of Congressman Young before he arrived at the hearing. Brinkley told me he knew that Congressman Young, at another hearing, had waved a walrus penis bone at Mollie Beattie, the incoming chief of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OR COMMENT

Read more

NEWS FLASH

Freak Polar Hurricane Pummels Alaska | “The most powerful storm to affect the Bering Sea coast of Alaska in 37 years is pounding Alaska’s west coast and Eastern Siberia with hurricane-force winds, a destructive storm surge up to 7 feet high, waves up to 35 feet high, and blinding snow,” Wunderground’s Jeff Masters reports on the Alaska superstorm. “Tin City on the west coast of Alaska north of Nome recorded sustained winds of 70 mph, gusting to 81 mph, at 1:55 am local time this morning, and hurricane-force winds are likely affecting much of the open waters of the Bering Sea. A storm surge of 6 feet hit Nome, Alaska this morning, pushed inland by sustained winds that reached 45 mph, gusting to 61 mph. A even higher storm surge is predicted for this evening. The last time Nome, Alaska saw a storm this strong was November 11 – 12 1974, when the city experienced sustained winds of 46 mph with gusts to 69 mph, a pressure that bottomed out at 969 mb, and a storm surge of 13 feet that pushed beach driftwood above the previous high storm tide mark set in 1913. The center of today’s storm moved ashore over eastern Siberia near 12 UTC with a central pressure of 945 mb. The storm has likely peaked in strength, and will gradually weaken as it moves northeast into the Arctic.”

Green

Alaska’s Katrina Looms: ‘Extremely Dangerous And Life Threatening Storm Of An Epic Magnitude’ Approaches

By Brad Johnson on Nov 8, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Satellite loop of Bering Sea superstorm

Global warming intensified the destructive power of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast six years ago. Now Alaska is facing its own freak superstorm. The storm threatens thousands of miles of Alaska coastline. “Currently there are 35-foot waves and 100 mph winds in the open waters as the storm moves at 60 mph toward the western Alaska coastline,” the National Weather Service reports. The National Ocean Service has activated systems normally only used for tropical storms. Excerpts from the National Weather Service special weather statement issued Tuesday morning give a sense of the severity of the threat:

…ALASKA WEST COAST TO BE HIT BY ONE OF THE MOST SEVERE BERING SEA STORMS ON RECORD…

A POWERFUL AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM OF NEAR RECORD OR RECORD MAGNITUDE IS BEARING DOWN ON THE WEST COAST OF ALASKA. . . .

. . . THIS INCLUDES THE VILLAGES OF NOME AND KIVALINA WHERE MAJOR DAMAGE FROM COASTAL FLOODING AND STRONG WINDS IS EXPECTED . . .

AGAIN…THIS WILL BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND LIFE THREATENING STORM OF AN EPIC MAGNITUDE RARELY EXPERIENCED. ALL PEOPLE IN THE AREA SHOULD TAKE PRECAUTIONS TO SAFEGUARD THEIR LIVES AND PROPERTY.

“The current lack of sea ice in the Bering Sea will allow this storm to maximize its impact,” the Weather Channel’s Tim Ballisty writes. Alaskans are also bracing for the threat of oil spilled by ships rammed ashore, pipelines broken, and by coastal oil facilities hit by waves and large chunks of ice.

In 2008, Kivalina sued Exxon Mobil and other top carbon polluters because climate change is destroying the village. In 2009, a judge dismissed the case, saying the damages are a “political question.” The case is now on appeal.

Climate Progress

Drilling in the Arctic: Perspectives From an Alaska Native

By Climate Guest Blogger on Oct 7, 2011 at 8:57 am

“Climate change is already wreaking havoc in our environment….”

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/05/20/us/ALASKA/ALASKA-articleLarge.jpg

by Colleen Swan and Christine Shearer in a re-post

On October 3, 2011, the Obama administration said it was moving forward with oil-drilling leases off the coast of Alaska issued by the Bush administration in 2008. The leases had been challenged by environmental groups, opposition that gained momentum after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Yet the Interior Department said it would uphold nearly 500 leases issued in the Chukchi Sea, a victory for oil companies in the battle over Arctic Ocean drilling.

Those opposing the leases say there is no proven clean-up method for an oil spill in such harsh terrain and ice-choked waters, and that the environmental assessment done by oil companies for the area is inadequate.

There are also Alaska Natives living off the coast of the Chukchi Sea who worry about how the drilling and its impacts will affect their way of life. One of them is Colleen Swan, a resident of Kivalina, Alaska. Kivalina is a largely Inupiat community on a barrier reef island in the northwest of the state. The island already faces erosion from climate change, and its residents are trying to relocate. In the meantime, they are still dependent on the local environment. Colleen shared some of her thoughts on the oil leases:

Read more

Climate Progress

September 26 News: For Alaska Natives, Global Warming Triggers Sweeping Change, Thin Ice and Stranger Weather

By Stephen Lacey on Sep 26, 2011 at 8:49 am


Warming climate triggers sweeping change for Interior Alaska Natives

Warmer winters, thinner ice, stranger weather — climate change has begun to undermine subsistence life along the Yukon River, according to a new federal study that collected and analyzed observations by Native residents in two southwestern Alaska villages.

“They expressed concerns ranging from safety, such as unpredictable weather patterns and dangerous ice conditions, to changes in plants and animals as well as decreased availability of firewood,” say the researchers in this story about their work that was posted by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study, published this month in the journal of Human Organization, found that hunters and elders in the Yup’ik communities of St. Mary’s and Pitka’s Point noticed a litany of dramatic climate shifts over the course of their lives, forcing changes in how they gather food and wood while making it more difficult to read the sky correctly before heading out into the tundra.

Among the findings:

Read more

Justice

Alaska Judge Strikes Down State Tax Law That Discriminates Against Gay Couples

By Ian Millhiser on Sep 20, 2011 at 3:20 pm

Alaska law permits older married couples to take a property tax deduction that is as much as twice as generous to married couples as it is to unmarried couples who own their home together. Because gay couples are unable to marry in Alaska, this means that people in committed gay relationships are excluded from the favorable tax treatment enjoyed by straight married couples.

Yesterday, however, a trial judge in Anchorage, Alaska struck down this law for violating the Alaska Constitution’s guarantee of that “all persons are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and protection under the law”:

The court finds that the legislation fails to pass even the minimal scrutiny that economic burdens trigger. [...] If the policy underlying the Tax Exemption’s additional benefit to married couples is the recognition that people in long term, committed relationships build their lives together, then there is no reason to distinguish between married couples and couples who would make the marital commitment but for their sexual orientation.

If this decision is upheld on appeal — and there is good reason to believe that it will be — it could have sweeping implications for gay rights in Alaska. Because the court concluded that one anti-gay law does not survive the lowest level of constitutional scrutiny under the state’s constitution, the court’s rationale provides a powerful precedent suggesting that any law that discriminates against gay couples cannot survive scrutiny.

That is, of course, except for one. Alaska’s constitution expressly forbids marriage equality — although it does not forbid gay couples from enjoying the package of legal rights normally associated with marriage. Nevertheless, there is nothing in Alaska law that prevents the state courts from recognizing the right of gay couples to join together in civil unions.

Older

Switch to Mobile