Climate Change Notes

Slide 1: There has been a lot of debate about the reality of climate change. The best way to evaluate this is to look at a place where the impact is obvious and ongoing.

Slide 2: Some of the places where the impact of climate change is most obvious are coastal islands in the Arctic, where ice cover typically reduces the erosive impact of winter storms and where small changes in sea level can have significant impact. Source: Kolbert, Elizabeth (2006) Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing, NY.

Slide 3: The Bering Land Bridge Preserve is one of the most westerly points in North America (only the Aleutian Islands are farther west. The village of Shishmaref is located on a barrier island and is closer to Siberia (Russia) than any other part of North America. Images: www.nps.gov/bela/html/vvcenter.htm

Slide 4: This national park is the only part of the former Bering Land Bridge (which was several hundred miles across) that remains above sea level. With continued climate change this will no longer be the case. Image: www.nps.gov/bela/html/vvcenter.htm Source: Kolbert, Elizabeth (2006) Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing, NY.

Slide 5: This is not Shismaref, but an Inuit Village in Arctic Canada that is also locked in by sea ice. This shows what relatively normal spring sea ice would look like.

Slide 6: Bearded seals and walrus live on the pack ice year round, moving with it as it ebbs and flows. Moose and birds are hunted during late spring through early fall, when pack ice is well offshore and marine mammals are inaccessible. Image: http://www.glaucus.org.uk/BeardedSeal-RF.jpg Source: Kolbert, Elizabeth (2006) Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing, NY.

Slide 7: Image: www.canada.com Source: Kolbert, Elizabeth (2006) Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing, NY. To see a video of this hunting activity click here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2778083953185851660 or see below

Slide 8: Image: http://majikimaje.com/JOHNNYKa.jpg Source: Kolbert, Elizabeth (2006) Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing, NY.

Slide 11: In these images you can see the erosion and the effects of a winter storm that normally would just be wind because the Bering Sea would have frozen by October. Source and Images http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/human-shishmaref.shtml

Slide 12: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/human-shishmaref.shtml References:･Jordan, J.W., and O.K. Mason, 1999. A 5000 year record of intertidal peat stratigraphy and sea- level change from northwest Alaska. Quaternary International 60:37-47･ Jordan, J.W., 1989. Rhythmic berm ridge deposition on the coastal barriersof northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. In: Coastal Sediment Mobility;Proceedings of the Eighth Symposium on Coastal Sedimentology, W.F. Tanner ed., Department of Geology, Florida State University, Tallahassee. pp.137-150. Jordan, J.W., 1987. Erosion characteristics and retreat rates along the north coast of Seward Peninsula. Chapter 7, In: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve: an Archeological Survey, J. Schaaf ed., National Park Service,Alaska Region, Anchorage.･Mason, O.K., J.W. Jordan, and L. Plug, 1995. Late Holocene storm and sea level history in the southern Chukchi Sea. In: C.W. Finkle ed., Holocene Cycles: Climate, Sea Level, and Sedimentation. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 17.･ Mason, O.K. and J.W. Jordan, 1993. Heightened storminess and synchronoustruncation of northwest Alaska beach ridges. Quaternary Research, 40:55-69.

Slide 13: This has become an environmental justice issue because the impact is being borne primarily if not exclusively by an indigenous community. http://www.shishmarefrelocation.com/

Slide 14: This represent a way of life that is being lost rapidly to climate change, while some US Senators and Congressmen still try to claim that climate change is not happening. Source: http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2006/1206alaska.shtml