President Trump Pushes To Open Pristine Alaska Forest To Logging

President Trump Pushes To Open Pristine Alaska Forest To Logging

Twenty years ago, President Clinton put a large area of pristine Alaskan rain forest off-limits to logging, but President Trump is now apparently set to open parts of the 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest up again, according to The Washington Post.  The President spoke to Alaska’s Governor and then directed the Secretary of Agriculture, who manages national forest lands, to lift the restrictions on road building, which in effect banned logging and other development there.

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Greenland Ice Melt Is A Huge Story

Greenland Ice Melt Is A Huge Story

In early August, Greenland lost between12 and 24 billion tons of ice each day, which, The Washington Post reported was about 6 to 18 billion tons greater than the typical rates seen during the same dates during the time period from 1981-2010.  According to The Post, the melt season overall — which has about 35 to 40 days to go — is poised to set a new and more significant record, the 2012 record ice loss, which reached 300 billion tons of surface ice mass loss from Greenland.

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Wildfires in Siberia Force Government To Declare An Emergency

Wildfires in Siberia Force Government To Declare An Emergency

Wildfires raging across Siberia this year have reached historic levels — It is estimated that the fires released 300 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in July, the most since satellite records began around two decades ago. In response, the government declared a state of emergency for five regions of Siberia — with the “acrid smoke” impacting both small settlements and “major cities in Western Siberia and the Altai region as well as the Urals such as Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg,” and even disrupting air travel. 

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Alaska Burns Due to Vicious Heat Wave

Alaska Burns Due to Vicious Heat Wave

Extreme temperatures in Alaska are causing an outbreak of explosive wildfires throughout the state, with Fairbanks, Anchorage experiencing its warmest March to date, as reported recently by Our Daily Planet. Just in the week of July 3rd, more than 600,000 acres of lands burned – doubling the year-to-date burn total which now sits at 1.28 million acres. By the end of the year, it is estimated that 2 million to 3 million acres will have been engulfed in flames. Fires are not only getting more frequent, but increasingly bigger and harder to contain. In Anchorage, the Hess Creek fire is now the largest fire in the U.S. at over 149,000 acres. 

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One Funny Thing: Hey! On Pompeo’s Ridiculous Climate Comments

One Funny Thing: Hey! On Pompeo’s Ridiculous Climate Comments

Late night commentator Seth Meyers and MSNBC Anchor Chris Hayes both took a minute to make “light” of Secretary of State Pompeo’s speech at the Arctic Council Meeting on Monday in which Pompeo listed all the “blessings” that the melting ice provides.  Hayes had a devastating riff on the speech noting the irony of Pompeo […]

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Secretary Pompeo’s Arctic Council Climate Denial

Secretary Pompeo’s Arctic Council Climate Denial

At a meeting of Foreign Ministers from all the Arctic Nations held Monday and Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to sign a previously negotiated declaration of support by the nations for their joint strategy and cooperation plan in this key region because it involved working to address climate change impacts in the region.  […]

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