12/19/24

Stars cover the night sky above a cabin in Denali National Park and Preserve. Photo by Emily Mesner

We have a few end-of-year items for you, including a short survey and some exciting news about a new artist contributor. As a way to ensure our staff has time to reenergize and prepare for 2025, our office will be closed beginning today through January 5. Thank you to everyone who has contributed in some way to our work this past year. Whether that was by signing petitions, writing to your state representatives, or staying updated and informed, we thank you for your contributions and look forward to continuing this work with you in the New Year.

- Emily Mesner (mesner@northern.org)

  Communications Coordinator

In this moment of reflection, we want to hear from you to help us better understand the effectiveness of this E-Newsletter. What is working? What would you like to see more of? Is there anything we can do differently to make this a better resource for you? 

Please help us out by completing this short survey and be automatically entered into a drawing for a brand new pair of NOCS Provisions binoculars! 

We’ve known for years that the Arctic is warming much more rapidly than the global rate, with recent research saying the region is heating up as much as four times faster. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2024 Arctic Report Card revealed another troubling trend; Arctic tundra is releasing more carbon than it stores. 

Permafrost has historically locked carbon into Arctic soils, but as it warms and thaws it spurs more microbial activity and decomposition, which in turn releases carbon and methane into the atmosphere. This year’s report found that permafrost now emits more carbon than it’s taking in, globally.

Increased carbon and methane emissions from the Arctic add to the global impacts of climate change, with a huge range of issues for the region. Winter rain-on-snow events impact caribou herds' forage, and unreliable river and sea ice impact wildlife and community subsistence access and leads to coastal erosion. Summer temperatures are consistently rising, and Arctic wildfire risks continue to grow. 

These trends are a stark reminder of the work we must do together to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife that Alaskan communities rely on. Read more about the 2024 Arctic Report Card at the Alaska Beacon.

Structures in a fish camp slump with the ground due to coastal erosion near Nuiqsut, photographed in July 2018. Photo by Keri Oberly

With the ore haul operating for more than a year now, the Alaska-Richardson-Steese Highway Corridor Action Plan (ARS-CAP) is finally available. The publicly-funded analysis of the ore haul route is a whopping 457 pages and there’s a lot in there. 

Here are some initial takeaways:  

It begins with a statement from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities that the intent of the ARS-CAP was to assess facility and safety impacts of the ore haul and offer a common set of facts for which the public could have policy discussions. They say it was not to determine where to assign blame and liability for the wear and tear on the State’s highway infrastructure. 

DOT&PF emphasizes that it has no regulatory control to address many of the concerns raised by the Transportation Advisory Committee–who were representative of various public interests–and therefore some of them were not analyzed.

The plan also documents public concerns, including strong criticism of the ore haul itself. At an Alaska Department of Transportation Roads and Highways Advisory Board meeting in early November, project lead Randy Kinney acknowledged that the draft plan received 400-500 total comments from 127 individual commenters. “While overall mine and ore haul support was not the point,” he said, “people still offered a lot of opposition and alternatives to using the ore haul route.”

As the lengthy process of reviewing this belated plan continues, Northern Center encourages everyone to use this data to bring concerns to our state legislators as they prepare for session next month.

A self portrait created by Hazard Hughes.

Starting in January, we will be sharing monthly art related to our work from Hazard Hughes, a 17-year-old artist currently based in New York. 

"When creating comics and comic strips, I am mostly inspired by the natural world and the life in it," he said. "It is a love of Arctic animals and desire to help them which prompted my interest in the Northern Alaska Environmental Center." 

Both his father and grandmother are artists–one specializes in comic art and the other in botanical watercolor paintings. Hughes said that his art is influenced by both of these styles.

He has been creating a comic strip for about seven years and it features Pengi, a suburban penguin and nod to his favorite animal, the gentoo penguin. "Animals that live in extreme environments are particularly compelling to me," he added. "Penguins in the far south, and caribou in the far north."

When asked about the message he hopes to convey to our readers through his art he said, "If I can endear people to the Porcupine caribou (herd) through my art, maybe that can help with Northern Center's activism in protecting them." 

We are so excited and grateful to be sharing Hazard Hughes' art! 

Click the button below to listen to Charitie Ropati talk with KYUK's Sage Smiley about being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, what it means for her nonprofit education organization, and her work as a water engineer.

• Recurring monthly donations are incredibly valuable to even out our budget for the year. Consider making a monthly recurring donation in honor of a friend or family member and we will send them a card to let them know you're thinking of them! Donate here and write in the comments "In honor of (Name)" and the address where we should send the card.
• In this video from Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, learn more about how AIDEA is irresponsibly wasting state funds and ignoring the voices of Alaskans. Click here to sign SILA’s petition holding AIDEA accountable.
• Save the Date! The Yukon River Science Symposium is in February. Register to attend in-person in Anchorage, or virtually here.

MISSION

The Northern Alaska Environmental Center promotes conservation of the environment and sustainable resource stewardship in Interior and Arctic Alaska through education and advocacy.

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