Every country in the world has been affected by climate change.
"Climate change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system that persists for several decades or longer" (Montgomery, 2015). Climate change (or global warming) can be caused by a natural progress such as sun 's radiations and volcanoes, or it can be caused by human 's actions such as land use, deforestation, and pollution. (Hardy, 2003).This phenomenon not only affects the environment, but it also affects human lives. Alaska is the largest state in the United States. It includes lands on both sides of the Arctic Circle. Sixteen national wildlife refuges are home to a great variety of flora and fauna. In the past 60 years. The Alaska 's environment changed drastically; the climate is warming up as twice as much in comparison to all the other states. This essay will discuss firstly the climate change in the Alaskan environment. Then it will highlight the changes in the ocean and costs, the effects that global warming is having on Alaska 's natives and the melting permafrost. It will then finally address who is responsible for this effects and some measures that can be taken.
The first effect that global warming is having on Alaska regards coasts and oceans. In the northern summer, the sea ice is decreasing faster than previously recorded and it is foreseen to melt before mid-century (Chapin, F.S 2014). Solid ice is disappearing as there are no longer massive icebergs during fall and winter,
More than 90% percent of the food in Alaska comes in from elsewhere. Also the Circumpolar Council-Alaska looks out for coastal villages in the state. The United States and the other countries all contribute to global warming and pollution that affects the Arctic. The oogruk are the largest of Alaska’s Ice seals. The inuit live in the Arctic region, which includes parts of Alaska, a few European countries and Russia. The Inuits in Alaska are having many problems because of global warming. They are having trouble finding food while hunting and Alaska already has to find it's food from other places.
Well to start off, many of the Alaska native/American tribes gave little to the causes of climate change. But have faced uneven risks. Many of the tribes have interesting cultures/economies, that are/could be, weak to the impact that is climate change. For the tribes, climate change and some of the supposed solutions threaten ways of living their everyday lives. For instance, their lands, their rights, and
Global warming affects the ocean water level because of the raising temperatures; it causes the icebergs to melt which adds more water in the ocean. This poses a threat to Hawaii and other islands because Hawaii is made up of islands, which are small and surrounded by water. This leaves us at risk for many things with the reef and the people.
Healthy coastal marine ecosystems are critically important to America’s ecology, economy, and standard of living. While Alaska contains nearly half of the nation’s coastline, we have little understanding of how future climate variability will impact ecological
Alaska is an ever changing place. It is known for its massive area, abundance of coast line, its rocky peaks and low lying mountains, arctic tundra, and boreal forests. It has one of the lowest populations of the United states with having less than a million people living in it, but it is the largest state with having an area just over 650,000 square miles. Alaska boasts some of the most extreme temperatures in the Americas, with extreme lows in the northern region, to moderate and even high temperatures in the interior. The many different regions of Alaska provide varying climates and ecosystems throughout them. Just as the climate is so varied the ecoregions and more so the ecosystems of Alaska are just as varied. There are three major
The local economies in Alaska are being negatively affected as well. Their main source of income is fishing, but since global warming has made the water warmer, the fish that are normally suited for colder climates have died back (Lapowsky, 2015). With the decrease in the fishing industry in Alaska, many people working for fishing companies could expect in the near future layoffs and unemployment. Another problem with global warming in Alaska is the fact that the resources they need to keep their economy going are gradually declining. It is not just Alaska’s economy that will be heavily affected by global warming. Industries that benefit from the fishing industry in Alaska could see most of their income and profit taken away. Many places may
“An acceleration of these climatic trends is projected to occur during this century, due to ongoing increases in concentrations of green houses gases in global atmosphere. While green house gas emissions do not primarily originate in the arctic, they are projected to bring wide-range changes and impacts to arctic. These arctic changes will, in turn, impact the planet as a whole. For this reason, people outside the arctic have a great stake in what is happening there. For example, climatic processes unique to the arctic have significant effects on global and regional climate. The arctic also provides important natural resources to the rest of the world (such as oil, gas, and fish) that will be affected by climate change. And melting of arctic
Alaska has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the nation, bringing widespread impacts. Sea ice is rapidly receding and glaciers are shrinking. Thawing permafrost is leading to more wildfire, and affecting infrastructure and wildlife habitat. Rising ocean temperatures and acidification will alter valuable marine fisheries.
High temperatures and the sea level in the state will change the makeup of whole ecosystems making wildlife shift their ranges, and adapt
Although the increase in permafrost temperature seems like a small change, the possibility of vegetation being unable to thrive in these areas would be life changing for both people and wildlife. The melting of permafrost is also having a direct impact on weather patterns around the world. Bursts of abnormally cold weather in the Eastern U.S. and Europe during the winter have been linked to Arctic warming. Jennifer Francic and Stephen Vavrus “proposed that warming of the Arctic can modify the shape of the jet stream- the fast flowing air currents that circle the planet- enough to directly influence the weather at midlatitudes.” As these drastic changes are occurring in the Arctic region, the area is close to reaching a tipping point. A tipping point is a series of small changes that have a large enough impact to make a big, important change. When conditions in the Arctic reach this tipping point, causing rapid environmental impacts, a new equilibrium must be developed (Oleg Anisimov et al). Climate change is melting Arctic sea ice, which is causing changes in weather patterns in several other
Hello, I’m sending this letter from the state of Alaska. Alaska is also known as The Last Frontier. It’s exact location is located at 58 degrees north and 134 degrees west. Alaska is west of Canada, north of the Pacific ocean, and south of the Arctic ocean. It is also west of Canada and east of Russia. Alaska is not in contact with the rest of the United States but it is still part of that country. Alaska is blocked off by Canada from the United States. Alaska is a beautiful state that you should think about visiting.
This report will analyze climate change and the initiative that the United States is taking in the Arctic. If ignored, climate change poses serious problems for the world’s population in the near future. The increasing amount of media regarding the severity of climate change has pushed researchers for answers. The report will explore the causes of climate change, how climate change is affecting the ecology, economy and people in the Alaskan Arctic, and possible solutions to the climate changing.
Global warming has been a problem for the last 15 years in the Arctic. The Arctic is affected by Global warming due to the fact that the earth’s surface heats up. The earth warms up through the increased level of carbon dioxide that humans make. The carbon dioxide goes into the earth’s atmosphere and traps more of the sun’s rays, making the earth warmer. Global Warming affects the Arctic sea ice, the ocean sea level, and animals in the Arctic food chain.
The effects and changes of global warming are many. Changes include rising sea levels due to melting of glaciers and at the Earth’s polar ice caps. Ice is melting worldwide in mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic Sea ice. Therefore the sea level has been rising faster of the last century. As a
If global warming keeps going unchecked, there will be dire consequences for the Arctic. There have been several prediction models that show what type of climate and environment that the Arctic will have in the future. Stephen Vavrus and his colleagues display this prediction through the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Community Climate System Model, version four (CCSM4). The CCSM4 shows that the it is going to be “a much warmer, wetter, cloudier, and stormier