a warming alaska
Alaska is warming nearly three times faster than the global average, and the effects are already visible: villages forced to relocate as the ground erodes beneath them, fisheries collapsing, glaciers and sea ice vanishing at record pace, and ecosystems shifting so quickly that polar bears, caribou, and Arctic foxes are losing the ranges they depend on. Even the tundra — frozen for thousands of years — is now burning, releasing stored carbon that fuels further warming. Driving it all is a self-reinforcing feedback loop, where melting ice exposes darker ocean water that absorbs more heat, melting still more ice.
a warming arctic
Alaska has warmed 4.2°F since 1970, nearly three times the global average, driving widespread glacier retreat and accelerating ice loss across the state's mountain ranges and coastal regions.
arctic amplification effect
The Arctic Amplification Effect comes down to a simple, self-feeding loop. Bright white sea ice acts like a mirror, bouncing sunlight back into space — but as it melts, it uncovers darker ocean water underneath, which soaks up heat instead of reflecting it. That warmer water melts even more ice, exposing even more dark water, and the cycle keeps feeding itself in an acceleration vicious cycle.
Relocation of Native Villages
Coastal erosion and permafrost thaw have already forced some Alaska Native communities to relocate from their ancestral villages including Newtok & Mertarvik which will visited during this project.
Ecosystem Transformation
Warming temperatures are driving a cascade of ecosystem transformation — shifting boreal forests northward, thawing permafrost that destabilizes the land itself, and reshaping habitats for species like polar bears, caribou, salmon, and walrus, whose populations and migration patterns Indigenous communities have relied on for generations.
tundra carbon feedback loop
Tundra is now catching fire after being too wet to burn for the past 5,000 years releasing stored carbon back into the atmposhere— a single fire in 2007 released as much carbon as the entire Arctic tundra had absorbed over the previous quarter century.
Glacial Retreat and Sea Ice Loss
Alaska is among the fastest glacier-loss regions on Earth. Sea ice is disappearing as well, eliminating natural coastal buffers that protect communities from storm surges and erosion. These effects are accelerating.