Alaska - The Climate Change Poster State - USA Today

[hatrack]

EDIT

Alaska is important in measuring the effect of global warming on the USA because what happens here soon will be felt in the Lower 48 states, say experts such as Robert Corell, a senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society. The spruce budworm, aspen leaf miner and the spruce bark beetle, pests once kept in check by winter cold, are flourishing here. Statewide, insect outbreaks have killed more than 4 million acres of forest in a decade and a half, says John Morton, a biologist at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Soldotna.

Fires, long an integral part of the forest ecology here, are burning millions of acres as summers get longer and hotter, says Scott Rupp, a University of Alaska-Fairbanks professor of forestry. And with each wave of fires, trees have a harder time coming back in the increasingly warm and dry landscape. This great northern forest may end up a grassland. "Soon, people will be coming to the great plains of Alaska," Juday says.

Alaska is ahead of the climate-change curve because polar regions warm the fastest. They had long been kept frigid by vast regions of snow and ice that reflect 70% of the sun's energy back out to space. But higher temperatures are shrinking that snow and ice cover. In the Arctic, summer sea ice has shrunk 15% to 20% in the past 30 years, according to 2005's Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report. And as the snow and ice recede, the sun's rays are hitting more dark ground and water, which absorb most of the heat, reflecting just 20% of the energy away, says Matthew Sturm, a research scientist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Fairbanks.

Lakes and ponds are disappearing as the permafrost, permanently frozen ground that underlies much of Alaska north of Fairbanks, melts. "It's like pulling the plug in a bathtub," says Peter Schweitzer, an anthropologist who works with the Arctic peoples in Alaska and Russia. In some areas, as much as 40% of surface water has disappeared, taking with it vital habitat for ducks and other waterfowl, says Juday. The permafrost that underlies much of the central and north of the state is a relic of the last Ice Age. Some of the frozen ground under Fairbanks is 100,000 years old, says Vladimir Romanovsky, a permafrost expert at Fairbanks. And it's now starting to get "slushy." For Ruth Macchione, that meant a more expensive design to her new home after the cabin her husband built in the 1950s sank into the ground. The permafrost under the cabin thawed because the structure wasn't built to keep the ground cold — a key trick in building in cold regions.

EDIT

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-05-29-alaska-globalwarming_x.htm

[mcscajun]

1. A most alarming and depressing article. This will impact everything.

Global warming will change everything from allergies and the spread of disease, to the cost of food and agricultural employment, from hurricanes to home construction. Ugh.

Selected details from the OP article:

Rising temperatures will mean rising milk prises; cows produce less milk when it gets over 80°F. The yield for feed crops and sweet corn will drop as temps rise also. Fruit production is imperiled as "Spring" arrives earlier than it used to, but cold snaps follow older patterns. Fruit trees blossom and the cold snap kills the flowers, wiping out production. California stone fruits (peaches, plums, and nectarines)and snack nuts (almonds and such) don't do well in warmer winters; the trees need some cold in order to bloom and produce their fruits.

Here's another case of offshoring jobs we can't afford to lose; plum producers are on the move.

Packers already are moving some production to Chile. There could soon come a day when California, which grows 95% to 98% of all plums in the USA, is out of the business entirely.

Got allergies? No? Wait a while; you might yet develop some, or if you already have 'em, brace yourself. They're bound to get worse.

U.S. asthma and allergy rates are increasing in part because more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is supercharging the production of pollen that can trigger them, he says. When carbon dioxide is doubled, ragweed stems grow 10% more but pollen increases by 60%.

"Pollen counts of 120 used to be cause for alert. We're seeing counts like 6,000 now," Epstein says.

And let's not forget the insects that carry diseases; we usually count on freezing temps to kill them off during winter. Hang onto your hats, now.

Warmer winters also mean insects can survive and thrive in places where the cold used to keep them in check. Lyme disease is spreading beyond the former winter confines of the tick that carries it. And West Nile virus is spreading farther because spring drought amplifies the bird-biting mosquito cycle, Epstein says.

I'm surprised this OP didn't get more responses yesterday. Hmmm... :shrug:

I cross-posted to GD and voted (fifth) to send this to the Greatest Page. Maybe it'll get some attention now. :)

[EVDebs]

2. Portage Glacier is almost around the bend from the visitor's center

were you could see it close up in the late '70s. I went back in 1999 and was blown away by how far it has receded.

Okay, so where's the Glacier?
http://www.alaska.net/~design/scenes/portage/portage.html

[roguevalley]

3. I am out poisoning my trees to kill the bark beetles so my huge

monster trees in the front yard can survive them. It is awesome to see the kill off from them. Winters are bad enough with trees breaking up the winds. If this becomes grasslands, god help us all.

RV, who lives in Soldotna

[phantom power]

4. I feel as though this deserves some kind of comment...

but I'm kind of at a loss for words.

The new world is coming.

[gulfcoastliberal]

5. Damn, too late to rec. I've always thought of Alaska as the proverbial

canary in the coal mine reagrding the warming we're undergoing. It just sucks so bad knowing I can't really do anything to stop this trainwreck other than to leave as small a footprint as possible - and not breed because I wouldn't want to knowmy offsprng would most likely face a very unpleasant existance.

Great post as usual hatrack.