That’s when outsiders started showing up in Kaktovik: tourists, who wanted to see polar bears before they went extinct.
Climate Change
In the air with NASA: studying environmental change from 40,000 feet
There’s a whole host of environmental changes the project is examining, like the severity and frequency of forest fires, insect activity and wildlife migration.
Some of the oldest ice in the Arctic is now breaking apart
A massive ice pack that normally clings to northern Greenland’s coastline is splitting apart and floating out to sea. Climate change is to blame, scientists say.
Shipping titan Maersk sends company’s first container ship to test trans-Arctic trade route
The world’s largest container shipping company is about to send its first cargo vessel across the Arctic. It’s a small step, but a significant one in the expansion of trade in Arctic waters as ice recedes due to climate change.
New study says global models sharply underestimate permafrost emissions
Some scientists said the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, underscores the limitations and uncertainties of climate modeling – and how policymakers might need to take more aggressive steps if they want to keep global temperatures under control.
Napakiak gets federal funding for erosion, climate change impacts
The village of Napakiak received $449,000 in federal funding Thursday that could help them respond to the “imminent threat” of climate change. Napakiak’s shoreline is eroding at an alarming rate, even by Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta standards.
In Utqiaġvik, a growing erosion problem may soon outpace local efforts to slow it
“We know that the berm isn’t the long-term solution,” said Scott Evans with the North Slope Borough. “But that’s what we have the ability to do right now. So that’s what we’re continuing to do because we know it’s slowing everything down.”
Decades-old federal policy placed Newtok in the path of climate change
Some advocates say it’s largely because of federal policy that some of these villages are so vulnerable to climate change in the first place.
Researchers study climate change impacts on Sitka Sound kelp forest
Sitka Sound Science Center is hosting researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz who are examining the forests in Sitka Sound.
New data on Chukchi Sea polar bears leads to subsistence harvest level increase
Native hunters in Alaska are about to see an increase in the number of polar bears they can harvest from the Chukchi Sea bear population.