The Elephant
A resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
The ElephantA resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
El Niño forecast to drive record heat from the Amazon to Alaska in 2024
2024-02-29 in The GuardianCoastal areas facing ‘enormous and urgent climate crisis’ as event supercharges human-caused global heating, scientists say
Tagged under: El Niño | South America | Alaska
In an era of climate change, Alaska’s predators fall prey to politics
2024-01-14 by in Popular ScienceWith Alaska's wildlife numbers declining, agencies are blaming—and culling—predators. The true threat is much more complex.
Tagged under: Wildlife | Alaska
‘Hope is a discipline’: youth climate case plaintiff on why he’s suing the US government
2023-12-31 in The GuardianNathan Baring of Alaska is part of a group of young activists suing the US, which they say ‘willfully ignored’ dangers of fossil fuels
Tagged under: Oregon | Fossil Fuels | Alaska | Activism
Why Are Alaska's Rivers Turning Orange?
2023-12-21 (or before) by in Scientific AmericanStreams in Alaska are turning orange with iron and sulfuric acid. Scientists are trying to figure out why
There's a crisis in the Yukon River
2023-12-03 in YahooEAGLE VILLAGE, Alaska - When Jody Potts-Joseph was growing up, her family mushed sled dogs during the harsh Alaskan winters to hunt and trap, feeding them salmon caught from the Yukon River by the thousands. But after rebuilding her sled dog team as an adult, Potts-Joseph, a member of the Han Gwich'in tribe, had to turn to store-bought dog food. The river that was once renowned for its salmon doesn't have enough to offer anymore.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and in
Tagged under: Rivers | Salmon | Alaska
Opinion | More lightning, more wildfires and a warmer world. Welcome to the ‘doom loop’ | South China Morning Post
2023-11-17 in South China Morning PostClimate-induced lightning is becoming more frequent and powerful, triggering more wildfires, particularly in Siberia, Canada and Alaska, and releasing the carbon locked in permafrost.
Tagged under: COP28 | Permafrost | Wildfires | Alaska | Russia
Approval of divisive Alaska oil project upheld in blow to US climate goals
2023-11-10 in The GuardianAdvocates warned of ‘tragic consequences’ should the project in a remote part of northern Alaska go ahead
Tagged under: Fossil Fuels | Joe Biden | Alaska
Billions of Alaska snow crabs likely vanished due to warm ocean, study says
2023-10-21 in The GuardianThe crabs starved to death en masse because the change in water temperature increased their caloric needs, according to the NOAA
Tagged under: Fish | Oceans | Wildlife | Alaska
'The Next Climate Litmus Test': Sen. Merkley Joins Fight Against CP2 LNG Terminal
2023-09-29 in Common DreamsCP2, which the Biden administration is expected to either approve or reject in the coming months, would emit 20 times the climate pollution expected from the controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska.
Tagged under: Alaska
Biden administration cancels controversial oil leases in Alaska wildlife refuge
2023-09-06 in The HillThe Biden administration on Wednesday confirmed it will cancel seven controversial oil and gas leases in an Alaskan wildlife refuge issued at the very end of the Trump administration The admi…
Tagged under: Arctic | Wildlife | Alaska
Biden administration cancels years-long attempt to drill in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge | CNN Politics
2023-09-06 by in CNNThe Biden administration announced Wednesday it will cancel seven Trump-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and protect more than 13 million acres in the federal National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, stymieing a years-long attempt to drill in the protected region.
Tagged under: Arctic | Wildlife | Joe Biden | US Politics | Health | Alaska | Finance
How Warming Ruined a Crab Fishery and Hurt an Alaskan Town
2023-06-11 (or before) in Yale E360As the world warms, extended spikes in ocean temperatures are triggering the collapse of key marine populations. For the Aleut community of St. Paul, Alaska, the loss of the snow crab fishery is having a profound economic impact and raising questions about the future.
Tagged under: Oceans | Climate Change | Fish | Collapse | Alaska
Harvard climate expert draw fire for serving on Willow oil company board - The Washington Post
2023-04-22 in The Washington PostJody Freeman has served on the board of ConocoPhillips for 11 years. She’s made a “positive difference,” she said, but her detractors disagree.
Tagged under: Alaska
Biden approves Alaska gas exports as critics condemn another ‘carbon bomb’
2023-04-14 in The GuardianEnergy department gives green light to exports from liquefied natural gas (LNG) program, after Willow project approved last month
Tagged under: Fossil Fuels | Joe Biden | US Politics | Alaska
Opinion: Biden betrays our generation by greenlighting the Willow Project | CNN
2023-04-07 by in CNNPresident Joe Biden's recent approval of the Willow Project in Alaska has alarmed many young people. Climate activists Sophia Kianni, Greta Thunberg, and Vanessa Nakate urge Biden to consider our collective future before short-term political gains.
Tagged under: Renewable Energy | Climate Change | Activism | Joe Biden | Health | Alaska | Finance
Opinion | How Big of a Climate Betrayal Is the Willow Oil Project?
2023-03-16 in The New York TimesTagged under: Renewable Energy | Climate Change | Alaska
How Biden Got From ‘No More Drilling’ to Backing a Huge Project in Alaska
2023-03-13 in The New York TimesTagged under: Joe Biden | Alaska
Willow Project: US government approves Alaska oil and gas development - BBC News
2023-03-13 (or before) in The BBCPresident Biden approves an $8bn oil drilling project, in a move that has angered climate activists.
Tagged under: Joe Biden | Alaska | Activism
Biden Officials Back Alaska Oil Project Scorned as Carbon Bomb
2023-03-11 (or before) in BloombergThe Biden administration has decided to authorize a mammoth ConocoPhillips oil project in northwest Alaska, despite arguments by opponents that it will exacerbate climate change, according to people familiar with the matter.
Tagged under: Joe Biden | Climate Change | Russia | Alaska
Outrage as US government advances $8bn Alaska oil drilling plan
2023-02-01 in The GuardianInterior department report recommends scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project despite Biden campaign pledge
Tagged under: Joe Biden | Fossil Fuels | Alaska
US gets 1 bid for oil and gas lease in Alaska’s Cook Inlet
2023-01-07 (or before) in mixfmalaska.com(AP) - The U.S. government on Friday said it received on bid for the right to drill offshore for oil and gas in Alaska’s Cook Inlet near habitat for bears, salmon, humpback whales and endangered beluga whales.
Tagged under: Whales and Dolphins | Salmon | Alaska
1 billion crabs go missing, causing cancellation of Alaskan snow crab season
2022-10-16 (or before) in Massachusetts Local News, Breaking News, Sports and WeatherThis marks the first time that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has canceled the winter snow crab season, coming as a consequence of their massive population drop.
Tagged under: Oceans | Fish | Wildlife | Alaska
The New York Times: Digital and Home Delivery Subscriptions
2022-10-14 in The New York TimesDiscover the value of independent Times journalism today.
BLM reconsiders Trump-era midnight orders opening Alaska lands
2022-08-17 by in E&E News | Essential Energy and Environment NewsThe Biden administration will review orders meant to open 28 million acres of the Last Frontier to resources development, issued in January 2021 by
Tagged under: Alaska
‘All that’s needed is a spark’: why the US may be headed for a summer of mega-fire
2022-07-07 in The GuardianAn explosive spring season has already burned more land than the 10-year average, with summers only expected to intensify
Tagged under: Oregon | Wildfires | Drought | Texas | California | Alaska
Overwintering fires in boreal forests - Nature
2022-07-05 (or before) in NatureLarge forest fires in Alaska and the Northwest Territories can ‘overwinter’ and then reignite in the following fire season, contributing up to one-third of the burned area in individual years.
Tagged under: Forest Fires | Alaska | Trees
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The animals at risk from Alaska oil drilling - BBC News
2022-04-29 (or before) in The BBCAs Donald Trump pushes forward with plans for drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, what is at stake?
Tagged under: Donald Trump | Arctic | Wildlife | Alaska
Arctic Report Card 2021
2021-12-16 (or before) in YouTubeArctic Report Card: Update for 2021 - Tracking recent environmental changes, with 14 essays prepared by an international team of 111 researchers from 12 diff...
Tagged under: Oceans | Arctic | Ocean Acidification | Rivers | Alaska
Eyewitnesses to disaster: Commercial fishermen implore action on the collapse of Alaska ecosystems
2021-10-30 (or before) in The Seattle TimesThe North Pacific ecosystem is asking us to re-calibrate. Fish and crab stocks are crashing. As professional commercial fishermen, we need regulatory rules nimble enough to deal with new, rapidly-changing realities.
Tagged under: Pacific Ocean | Fish | Collapse | Alaska | Washington State
Court Blocks a Vast Alaskan Drilling Project, Citing Climate Dangers
2021-08-19 in The New York TimesTagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Litigation | Alaska
Why whales in Alaska have been so happy - BBC News
2021-08-11 (or before) in The BBCWhat will happen to Alaska's whales when tourism returns to waters stilled by Covid?
Tagged under: Whales and Dolphins | Alaska
When Climate Change Came for My Favorite Glacier
2021-07-30 in Outside MagazineAs a college student, writer Julia Rosen spent a summer on Alaska’s Taku Glacier, which kept growing for decades in spite of warming temperatures. Now, she reckons with its uncertain fate.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Alaska
Alaska Red King Crab Dethroned by Scientific Fraud - PEER.org
2021-04-26 by in Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility - PEER.orgBristol Bay red king crab is nearing commercial extinction due to scientific fraud by the fisheries branch of NOAA, according to a complaint filed by PEER.
Federal appeals court rejects Trump administration permit for offshore oil project in Arctic Alaska
2021-01-06 (or before) in Anchorage Daily News: Alaska News, Politics, Outdoors, Science and EventsAgencies did not follow environmental requirements in reviews that led to the permit, the court said.
Tagged under: Donald Trump | Arctic | Alaska
‘Forever chemicals’ pollute water from Alaska to Florida
2020-12-22 in The GuardianWhichever state you are in, there could be harmful PFAS chemicals in water near you
Tagged under: Florida | PFAS aka Forever Chemicals | Alaska
Trump kick-starts oil drilling licence sales in Arctic refuge
2020-12-03 in The GuardianFossil fuel extraction sell-off in pristine Alaskan wilderness set for 6 January, predating Biden inauguration by days
Tagged under: Oceans | Joe Biden | Donald Trump | Arctic | Wildlife | Alaska
Trump in final push to open up Alaska's Arctic refuge to oil and gas drilling
2020-08-17 in The GuardianInterior department to reportedly auction leases before year’s end as critics condemn plan to drill in America’s ‘last great wilderness’
Tagged under: Donald Trump | Arctic | Wildlife | Fossil Fuels | Alaska
Most polar bears to disappear by 2100, study predicts
2020-07-20 in The GuardianMelting Arctic sea ice could cause starvation and reproductive failure for many as early as 2040, scientists warn
Tagged under: Arctic | Greenhouse Gases | Predictions | Wildlife | Ice Melting | Russia | Alaska
Arctic warming, as seen by Alaska’s Native Inupiat - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
2020-07-08 in Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsWe’re taking on all the risks of these global and environmental changes, said one Native Inupiat whaling captain. “The train wreck is here... we’re just looking at it and trying to figure out: What do we do now? Who’s responsible? Now we have to deal with it.”
Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills | Reuters
2020-05-19 (or before) in ReutersThe Trump administration has ended a two-year rent holiday for solar and wind projects operating on federal lands, handing them whopping retroactive bills at a time the industry is struggling with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, according to company officials.
Tagged under: Renewable Energy | USA | Donald Trump | Solar Energy | Climate Change | Wind Power | US Politics | California | Alaska
Elite Panic vs. the Resilient Populace - James B. Meigs, Commentary Magazine
2020-04-17 in commentary.orgNorth America’s strongest recorded earthquake struck just off the Alaskan coast at 5:36 p.m., on March 27, 1964. The shaking from the magnitude 9.2 quake
Tagged under: Alaska
Interior Alaska is too warm for North Pole’s annual Christmas ice park
2019-11-21 in Anchorage Daily News: Alaska News, Politics, Outdoors, Science and EventsOfficials canceled the event for the first time in 14 years, citing lack of ice on ponds to harvest for ice carving.
Tagged under: Ice Melting | Alaska
Warm ocean water delays sea ice for Alaska towns, wildlife | AP News
2019-11-19 (or before) in Associated Press NewsANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. research vessel Sikuliaq can break through ice as thick as 2.5 feet (0.76 meters). In the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska this month, which should be brimming with floes, its limits likely won’t be tested.
Tagged under: Oceans | Arctic | Wildlife | Alaska
Climate warming is changing Arctic freshwater ecosystems
2019-10-25 in The Freshwater BlogThe Delta River in Alaska. Much of the river's watershed consists of arctic tundra, which is at risk from climate warming. Image: Bureau of Land Management | Flickr Creative Commons Biodiversity in arctic lakes, rivers and wetlands is increasingly threatened by climate warming, according to a report published earlier this year. It is suggested that…
Tagged under: Arctic | Rivers | Wetlands | Alaska
Sea Ice| ACCAP
2019-09-04 in ACCAP - Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and PolicySea Ice Updates on seasonally relevant ice extent and ice thickness, as well as historical analyses Sea ice plays a profound role in the climate, environment, and economies of Alaska. Nothing in th…
Tagged under: Alaska
Air Temperature| ACCAP
2019-09-04 in ACCAP - Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and PolicyAir Temperature Includes historical analyses, spatial trends, and changes in extremes Temperatures in Alaska and the Arctic are rising twice as fast as other parts of the U.S. and-except for sea ic…
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Arctic | Alaska
Trump Moves to Open 16.7 Million Acre Alaskan Rainforest to Corporate Exploitation - EcoWatch
2019-08-28 in EcoWatch - For a Healthier Planet and LifeTrump has reportedly ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to open Alaska's 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest — the planet's largest intact temperate rainforest — to logging and other corporate development projects, a move that comes as thousands of fires are ripping through the Amazon rainforest and putting the "lungs of the world"
Tagged under: Donald Trump | Wildfires | Rainforests | Forest Fires | Alaska | Trees
North Pole: multiple lightning strikes follow record-low sea ice levels
2019-08-13 in The Guardian‘Furthest north lightning strikes in Alaska forecaster memory’ hit as high temperatures and widespread fires plague region
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Arctic | Sea Level | Alaska
Arctic wildfires spew soot and smoke cloud bigger than EU
2019-08-12 in The GuardianPlume from unprecedented blazes forecast to reach Alaska as fires rage for third month
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Wildfires | Arctic | Greenhouse Gases | Russia | Alaska
Alaska records warmest month ever in July with coastline barren of sea ice
2019-08-08 in The GuardianAverage temperature for month amid Arctic heatwave was 58.1F (14.5C), nearly 1F above previous high set in July 2004
Tagged under: Extreme Weather | Heatwaves | Arctic | Alaska
Scientists say climate change is pushing Alaska’s weather ‘into record territory.’ - The Washington Post
2019-07-30 in The Washington PostAlaska will soon shatter its record for warmest month, and between sea ice loss, permafrost melt and skyrocketing temperatures, scientists say climate change is thrusting its weather “into record territory.”
Tagged under: Climate Change | Alaska
Meet the 'star ingredient' changing fortunes in Alaska's waters: seaweed
2019-06-11 in The GuardianGrowing awareness of the climate crisis and a shift to plant-based diets have turned kelp farming into a thriving industry
Harvard chemist: Permafrost N2O levels 12 times higher than expected
2019-06-06 in Harvard GazetteA recent study shows that nitrous-oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost are about 12 times higher than previously assumed. About a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere is covered in permafrost, which is thawing at an increasing rate. And, even though researchers are monitoring carbon dioxide and methane, no one seems to be monitoring N2O, the most potent greenhouse gas.
Tagged under: Oceans | Arctic | Greenhouse Gases | Methane | Alaska | Sustainability
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