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Elizaveta Svenson

Professor Hawkins

ENC 2135

10 October 2017

Climate Change in Alaska

In the modern world, the technological advances are beyond imaginable, but with all of

these innovations, people forget about an important issue. Climate Change is ignored by many,

because the climate of the planet is known to change every once in a while. Although, this time

the change in temperature and the level of sea rise is extremely rapid. Climate Change is

affecting the whole planet, but it is approaching those who live specifically in the Arctic part of

Alaska twice as quick as the rest of the nation, bringing negative effects with it that people can

avoid if this issue is addressed (Reiss 58)

Personally, I never took the issue of climate change seriously until I started dreaming of

moving to Alaska for a year and exploring it. After doing a research that included reading

multiple blog posts, articles and watching YouTube videos and TV shows, I found out that the

Arctic Alaska is going to experience the negative consequences of the climate change extremely

soon. These harmful effects will include flooding of the Arctic towns, expanded rivers and faster

flow and lack of ice protection of the coastal areas. For instance, the Bering Strait is one of the

many water bodies that is affected by ice that is melting extremely fast. The native residents or

the Alaskan Eskimos are worried that due to the melting ice, humans will increase the boating

and shipping activities in the Bering Strait putting the marine life and local resources at risk

(Reiss 58).
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It is important to realize, that the government officials can soon be urging the residents of

forty-three Alaskan towns to move from their home towns to safer areas, that are not as affected

by the issue of the Climate Change. Not only people of the Arctic Alaska will be forced to leave

their homes, but also Alaskas marine inhabitants such as whales will have to migrate due to

warmer temperatures than the ones they are used to (Hamilton 116).

Another problem that arises from the main issue of climate change is damage to Alaskan

boreal forests due to fire. In other words, warmer temperature are the causes of forest fires. It is

important to point out that after a tree is burned, a greenhouse gas and organic soils are emitted

into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases trigger the increase of carbon in the atmosphere, which

causes the global warming (Senkowsky 917).

In order to improve the Climate Change situation in Alaska, people have to take many

steps. It is important to realize, that one cant stop or slow down the Climate Change

immediately. It is a process that takes time. First of all, the government needs to address this

problem and educate the population about the importance of this issue. Secondly, it is necessary

for individual countries and territories to set up organizations that focus strictly on Climate

change. There needs to be reflection and analysis of human actions that trigger climate change.

Not to mention, governments and nations should help each other, because this problem affects all

the humans on this planet. Instead of waiting for the Climate Change to completely overtake

human activities, people need to follow the precautionary principle. It states that if theres some

type of risk that this planet faces, it is better to take action now then to wait for a disaster to

happen (Fedorov 32)

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Annotated Working Bibliography/Works Cited

Fedorov, E. K. "Climatic Change." Environment, vol. 21, no. 4, May 1979, pp.

25-32. EBSCOhost. Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.

Climatic Change by Fedorov is an article that describes how Climate Change was seen back in

time. It defines climate as well as climatic change. It goes further to talk about how men cause

this to happen. This article looks at the changes in different systems of nature such as water, land

surface, energy balance. It also describes how local events affect climate globally. After listing

all the negative effects, this article presents ideas and solutions of this problem that can be

employed in the future. The author presents his opinions and strategies in order to improve the

situation in this world and slow down the climate change.

Hamilton, Lawrence, et al. "Climigration?Population and climate change in Arctic

Alaska." Population & Environment, vol. 38, no. 2, Dec. 2016, pp. 115-133.

EBSCOhost. Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.

This article defines the term climigration as well as describes an example of climigrations in

the history of the world. It is important to realize, that climigration isnt always easily

recognized. This article describes a possible climigration that is related to the Arctic towns of

Alaska. Although, at the moment climigration isnt happening in the Arctic Alaska, it may have

to happen due to extreme Climate Change in the future. In other words, it will be mandatory for

every resident of those towns.

Reiss, Bob. "WELCOME TO BARROW, ALASKA, GROUND ZERO FOR CLIMATE

CHANGE."

Smithsonian, vol. 40, no. 12, Mar. 2010, pp. 58-66. EBSCOhost.

Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.

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This article introduces the readers to the most northern city in Alaska Barrow. It describes what

the living situation in the Barrow including the local weather, transportation situation, homes as

well as the residents of this town or the Eskimos. The author describes his journey to the

northernmost city step by step. The main goal of his journey and the article is to describe the

issue of climate change from the Eskimo point of view as well as the scientific point of view.

Not to mention, he introduces the issue of the disappearing species due to climate change.

Senkowsky, Sonya. "A Burning Interest in Boreal Forests: Researchers in Alaska

Link Fires with Climate Change." BioScience, vol. 51, no. 11, Nov. 2001,

pp. 916-922. EBSCOhost. Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.

This article focuses on the link between the Climate change, forest fires and carbon emissions. It

compares the area of the forest that was on fire to the carbon that was emitted from that forest. It

includes land satellite images that help get a better look at the intensity of the fires and their size.

Most of the research for this article was conducted in Alaska, which has boreal forests. Alaskan

fire statistics can be found in this article. It compares the number of fires in Alaska to the number

of forest fires in the other states combined. Not to mention, it describes a study done in Alaska on

the effects of the forest fires on the climate change.

Steadman, Hugh. "Climate Change or Climate Catastrophe?" New Zealand

International Review, vol. 42, no. 4, July-Aug. 2017. questia. Accessed 9

Oct. 2017.

This article describes the modern priorities and how people as the citizens of the world put their

industrial interests first and environment last. It goes on to explain how major companies can

employ green strategies. It provides graphs with temperatures throughout the years as well as

graphs predicting future emissions. This article views the climate change from different
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perspectives such as political perspective, optimistic perspective and others. It includes

instructions about what should be done in order to stop the global warming. Not to mention, it

underlines some of the key points that help one define climate change and its negative effects

and causes better.