Published Apr 26, 2023 by Jenessa Duncombe

Making total estimates of the gas in the Arctic—or even on the planet—is unbelievably complex, involving data collection from an area that spans 22 million square kilometers.

University of Alaska Fairbanks professor Katey Walter Anthony led the day’s fieldwork. She’s spent 2 decades studying high-latitude lakes in some of the most remote reaches of Alaska, Greenland, and Siberia.

Methane is around 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and scientists worry that methane emissions will continue to accelerate and exacerbate climate change. Unlike the rise of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which comes primarily from well-understood fossil fuel emissions, methane has many sources that are hard to constrain.

Curbing methane emissions from human sources like oil and gas production, landfills, and agriculture would limit warming. But natural sources of emissions, such as thawing permafrost, must also be well understood to model and forecast warming trends accurately.

Published Apr 26, 2023 by Wrangell Sentinel

To optimists, the plants that grow in the sea promise to diversify Alaska’s economy, revitalize small coastal towns struggling with undependable fisheries and help communities adapt to climate change — and even mitigate it by absorbing atmospheric carbon.

Cultivation of seaweed, largely varieties of kelp, promises to buffer against ocean acidification and coastal pollution, promoters say. Seaweed farms can produce ultra-nutritious crops to boost food security in Alaska and combat hunger everywhere, and not just for human beings.

“Kelp is good for everybody. It’s good for people. It’s good for animals,” Kirk Sparks, with Pacific Northwest Organics, a California company that sells agricultural products, said in a panel discussion at a mariculture conference held in February in Juneau, sponsored by the Alaska Sea Grant program.

But before it achieves these broad benefits, Alaska’s mariculture industry must first address significant practical issues, including an American consumer market that has yet to broadly embrace seaweed.

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Other investments range from $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a mariculture incubator and processing facility to several million dollars appropriated by the state Legislature to the University of Alaska for mariculture research and training.

Alaska is currently a long way from being the world’s seaweed-producing capital. The global commercial industry, with an estimated value of $14 billion in 2020, is heavily dominated by Asian countries. Harvested seaweed from Asia goes into a variety of products — for industrial and agricultural use as well as well as for food.

Published Apr 26, 2023 by Kavitha George, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage

As Alaska wildfire seasons grow more intense, access to air quality data is crucial for communities trying to limit smoke exposure. But in most of rural Alaska, that data is sparse or difficult to access.

“‘How bad is it outside? Should I go to fish camp? Should I go collect berries right now or should I wait till tomorrow when the smoke is better?’ People can’t make even basic daily decisions because they don’t have access to that information,” Hahn said.

Hahn is trying to make that access easier.

She and her team at the University of Alaska Anchorage recently secured a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to work with scientists and individual communities across the state to build an online tool to monitor climate hazards like smoke and track community health across the state. She’s hoping it will give rural communities a better picture of how wildfires are affecting them over time, by following, for example, asthma prevalence, mental health or ecological health impacts.

Hahn also hopes having easy access to historical fire information will help communities get more climate resilience funding.

Published Apr 26, 2023

President Biden hosted the Top Teachers in the Nation at the White House on Monday, April 24.

Five finalists were chosen to interview for the 2023 National Teacher of the Year Award by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The educators were honored for their excellence in teaching and commitment to students’ learning.

One of the five 2023 finalists includes Alaska resident Harlee Harvey, who is a first grade teacher at Tikiġaq School in Point Hope, Alaska. She has taught at the school for a total of nine years, teaching fifth grade for three years before transferring to first grade.

Harvey was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. After completing her Bachelor of Arts Degree in elementary education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2014, she moved to Point Hope.

Published Apr 25, 2023 by Izzy Ross

The UAF Bristol Bay campus is holding a three-day refrigerated sea water systems workshop this weekend. The Alaska Sea Grant's Tav Ammu stopped by KDLG to talk about the class, and he said it wasn't just for fishermen — anyone who wants to learn more about refrigeration can attend. Bristol Bay residents can attend for free.

Dan Mielke and Gabe Dunham will be instructors, and along with the Alaska Sea Grant it's also sponsored by the Bristol Bay Campus and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation.