In Alaska, everyone is struggling with climate change

(The Conversation is an independent, non-profit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Nancy Fresco, University of Alaska Fairbanks

(THE CONVERSATION) Coastal villages sink into the Bering Sea, trees grow in the tundra and shipping lanes open into an ocean once trapped in the ice. In Alaska, climate change is not a distant or abstract concern.

As a researcher on climate change at the Arctic International Research Center at the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks, I see a lot of compelling data – and I also hear a lot from Fascinating stories. Data and stories are important.

For everyone, from national parks to armed forces, from the oil industry to municipal managers to traditional hunters, adaptation to climate change is the new reality in Alaska.

It's happening – and fast

Nearly 12 years ago, we launched a new research effort in our state university. The idea was simple: to meet the needs of those planning the future of our state by providing local, relevant and scientifically valid information on climate change.

First called the Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning (SNAP), we quickly added the word "Arctic" to our name because we realized that Canada and other countries in the polar region were just as eager to know the long-term forecasts of climate change trends as Alaska was.

In the Arctic and the sub-Arctic, climate change is accelerating and its effects are profound. This is mainly due to the so-called "albedo effect": when we lose reflective ice and snow due to warming, more and more dark soil and dark water absorbing heat are exposed . Thus, local warming becomes even more extreme.

Where the effects of climate change are extreme, the data is often limited. Few weather stations offer reliable long-term records. Populations are sparse. We collect information from various sources and combine it with historical data and accumulated knowledge about people living in the landscape. All point irrefutably to a warming environment.

Generalized effects

The ways in which this change occurs are as diverse as the people and landscapes of Alaska.

Our state includes not only the arctic tundra underlying permanently frozen ground called "permafrost" but also vast expanses of spruce, birch, aspen, alder and willow: the boreal forest . To the west, the windy islands of the Aleutian Islands extend into the Pacific, and to the southeast, Alaska marries the coast of British Columbia and has a dense and imposing coastal rainforest.

Across the state, hundreds of small communities – mostly indigenous villages in Alaska – are not connected to the road network. Accessible only by air, sea, river or winter tracks, these communities maintain traditional lifestyles based on hunting, fishing, gathering food and other resources.

The extraction of oil and gas enriches the coffers of the state, two fundamental sources of climate change, an irony that has not gone unnoticed by those struggling to develop long-term plans for Alaska.

With 6.640 miles of coastline, Alaska is a state dependent on the ocean. Due to the loss of sea ice that protects loose soils from seasonal storms, vast expanses of this coastline drain into the Bering Sea. For communities at risk of erosion, all other concerns are small by comparison. What is at stake is not only structures and money, but also traditions, a sense of belonging and even lives.

In Shishmaref, an inupiat village with about 500 inhabitants, houses escaped from the cliffs and a hunter fell through thin ice. Relocation is expensive and an ultimate option.

On the coast of the Arctic Ocean, walruses, seals and polar bears can no longer find the ice they need to rest, hunt, mate and breed. The shortening of the sea ice season also threatens traditional hunting practices.

Even for the inhabitants of the interior, the health of the ocean is crucial because the salmon caught in the Alaskan rivers feed on the high seas. If climate change makes the ocean too acidic because of the modification of the atmospheric carbon, the small sea snails on which the salmon feeds would be in danger, as they may no longer be able to form their shells.

Within the state, forest fires are burning more and more and are hotter than in the past. The boreal forest system depends on the renewal of young vegetation after a fire. But with the warmer and drier spring, the sparks of dry lightning have burned more acres than usual. Neighborhoods were evacuated and dense smoke clouds spread throughout the state.

These fires also accelerate the other big change inland: thawing permafrost. On the newly soft and saturated soil, roads and foundations are not curled, while previously frozen soils collapse and move. Roads, trails and bridges can suffer expensive damage. Here in Fairbanks, sloping and sinking homes are commonplace.

When organic soils break down, they begin to decompose, releasing carbon into the atmosphere. These carbon emissions, which exacerbate climate change, are particularly powerful in the form of methane bubbles from lakes.

Urban problems too

About half of the population of Alaska lives in Anchorage. Here, livelihoods tend to be more urban, but hobbies often depend on snow – snow that does not appear.

The Iditarod sled dog race had to move its starting line and redirect the mushers. Tourism businesses are suffering. The city, like many communities around the state, is working on a plan to adapt to climate change.

Meanwhile, around the state capital, Juneau, and other communities in southeastern Alaska, the mountains are losing their snow cover early and are gaining late. The water flows downstream of the season, which can have a significant impact, from salmon stocks to hydroelectric power generation. The iconic yellow cedars die because of lack of protective snow cover on their roots.

Here, as elsewhere in the North, entire ecosystems are changing, endangering some migratory birds such as eiders and some small arctic mammals such as pikas and marmots. The lifestyles and livelihoods of Alaska's caribou herds, which may lose the lichen they need to survive, are also at risk.

Mitigation, adaptation and change

Although mitigation of climate change through the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions is crucial, even the most optimistic scenarios predict significant temperature changes for several decades. Adapting to this change may be expensive, but not adapting to it will still be.

Aware of this, communities and land managers in Alaska are taking action.

Last year, a state-wide plan was developed. The University of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage are developing a climate action plan to deal with issues as diverse as invasive beetles, cultural losses and lack of opportunities for ski. For Newtok Village, planning involved seeking federal funding for total resettlement.

When a glacier in the heart of a national park melts quickly, the thaw itself is part of the park's educational mission. Federal agencies, including the National Parks Service, the Department of Defense, the Land Management Office and the Forest Service, are working with my planning group and other partners to integrate climate change into their workplaces. vision of the future.

For those who live and work in Alaska, it is difficult to adapt to such profound changes in our state. Not doing so would probably be catastrophic.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/in-alaska-everyones-grappling-with-climate-change-105032.