That Summer When Climate Change Baked Alaska
An Anchorage-based wildlife biologist describes what life is like in our northernmost state—one that’s been dramatically altered by rising temperatures.
NRDC
August 09, 2019
By Jeff Turrentine
Chris McKee lived down the street from me when we were kids growing up...I’m going to move to Alaska and work with animals when I grow up,” nine-year-old Chris would say with perfect self-assurance as we kicked the soccer ball in his backyard, imagining our futures. Remarkably, Chris did exactly what he said he would do all those many years ago. Today he’s a wildlife biologist living and working in Alaska, the place he’s called home for the past three decades. Over that period of time he’s watched closely—with a scientist’s eye—as the physical environment of his beloved state has changed and continues to change.
...Thanks to climate scientists, we know that the average global temperature has risen by 1 degree Celsius over the past century. What many people may not realize is that over the same time frame, Alaska’s average temperature has risen twice as much. To hear Chris tell it, the changes resulting from this phenomenon can be seen—and felt—just about everywhere. “My first winter here, in Fairbanks from 1988 to 1989, was the coldest I’ve ever experienced. Temperatures of minus 40 were common, and even 50 and 60 below weren’t unheard of.”
That was the same winter he witnessed his first glacier: the Portage Glacier, just south of Anchorage. “There was a brand-new visitor center that had just been built,” he recalls. “It had a direct view, and it was a magnificent sight.” But when he went back to visit with his family last month, “the glacier had retreated so that you now have to take a boat to be able to see it. Every glacier I visited in my first decade up here has retreated so much, in fact, that sometimes it takes great effort to be able to see it.”
Despite all the bad news coming out of Alaska, my old friend has managed to retain his youthful optimism—although it’s definitely tempered by a middle-aged melancholy. “I think Alaska, and all polar communities, have already passed the tipping point in terms of preventing widespread problems from happening,” he says. “We’re now in a position of having to try and figure out how to deal with and react to those problems.”... It’s a startling thought, but when today’s nine-year-olds are kicking the soccer ball in the backyard and imagining where they’ll live when they grow up, they have to consider something that Chris and I didn’t: what kinds of places will—and won’t—still be around.
Worth the whole read and the photos are shocking.
https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/summer-when-climate-change-baked-alaska
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From 1970 through 1973 my Dad was the Army IG and we lived in Ft Richardson, not far from Anchorage. It was quite a change from where we lived just prior, Panama. Talk about extreme changes!
Anyway, Alaska is amazingly beautiful and I wish that some of our family would have come visit us there. During the summer when we had daylight for 22+ hours us kids would be out and about in the woods or meadows all around. Going to the creek (damn that water was cold!). Exploring nature. Seeing incredible wildlife. Winter was the opposite 22+ hours of darkness and maybe 5ft of snow in the front yard. But as kids we still found ways to enjoy ourselves and play outside.
I always looked forward to the yearly school trips to Portage glacier. Such an amazing sight to see!
Seems to me that during the height of summer a 70-degree-sh day was warm. I can't imagine what last summer was like there when it got to 90 in Anchorage. No one up there has air-conditioning...although the houses are well insulated.
Looking at those pictures in the link, man, I'm so sad at what is happening up there....and it is too late to stop it! 
