Published Apr 11, 2023

“How Do Different Disciplines Understand Arctic Environments?”

This is the question our speakers will address in this free six-part lecture series, moderated by the University of Washington’s 2022-2023 Fulbright Canada Visiting Chair in Arctic Studies, Jonathan Peyton.

We will hear from a wide range of perspectives on Arctic environments including social scientists, colleagues in the environmental humanities, art historians, environmental field scientists, policy and governance experts, and those working closely with communities.

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“War and Energy: Mobilizing the Arctic Environment, 1938-1968” – April 12, 2023, 2:30 PM-3:30 PM PT

Philip Wight – Assistant Professor, History and Arctic & Northern Studies, University of Alaska

The Arctic in 1968 was almost unrecognizable compared to pre-World War II. In a span of just thirty years, Arctic North America became a militarized defense frontier and the United States’ “last best hope” for energy security. This environmental history presentation explores how the exigencies of World War II and the Cold War compelled the US and Canadian federal governments to transform the American Arctic into ground zero for petroleum innovation and production, and the long legacies of these 20th Century developments.

Published Apr 11, 2023 by Alex DeMarban

Scott Hamel, dean of the civil engineering department at the University of Alaska Anchorage, said property owners this summer should take steps to address significant ice damming. The solutions could include more ventilation in roofs, or changes to insulation in the roof, he said.

“An expert can look and say you need more insulation, or less, or more ventilation, which is usually better than more insulation,” Hamel said. “It has to be done in summer. You can’t fix ice damming in winter when the ice damming is actually happening.”

Noffsinger said the city for the first time plans to issue specific snow-removal guidance next winter explaining when commercial building owners and others should consider removing snow from their roofs, with special instructions for different types and ages of buildings, he said.

“We learned a lot this winter and we know we have to give a more nuanced message,” he said.

Published Apr 10, 2023 by Linda Jacobson

This month, the Council of Chief State School Officers will name one of these five state teachers of the year the national winner. That educator will serve as an ambassador for the profession, speaking across the country and focusing on an issue that defines them as a teacher.

Harlee Harvey has immersed herself in the culture of one of the most remote places on earth — the Alaskan tundra, accessible only by bush plane. 

Harvey teaches first grade at Tikiġaq School, which serves a native whaling community in Point Hope, a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Chukchi Sea. After growing up in Fairbanks, where she went to the University of Alaska, she felt drawn to teach in the rural Iñupiaq village.

Most educators there don’t last long.

The school is “constantly restarting,” Harvey said. “We’ve had a new principal just about every year.”

In the spring, children often hunt with their parents for bowhead and beluga whales. The resulting bounty forms the centerpiece of the village’s spring festival and can feed families for months. Harvey designs culturally relevant lessons on topics such as ice fishing and how Native Alaskans melt ice and snow to make water in winter.

“The big push is framing education through their worldview,” Harvey said. “If there’s a story about going to the market and buying watermelon — they don’t do that out here.”

Harvey consults with Molly Lane, the school’s librarian, on hunting seasons throughout the year, blending facts about bearded seals, caribou and other animals into her lessons. Her attention to enduring traditions reflects broader efforts in the North Slope Borough School District, which includes Tikiġaq School, to infuse the students’ culture into the curriculum. 

The year Harvey took charge of the yearbook, for example, she included students’ Iñupiaq names along with their English ones.

“That had never happened before,” said Lane, who has had three children taught by Harvey. “So many people appreciated her effort in getting the names spelled correctly.”

Published Apr 10, 2023 by Yereth Rosen

BP’s ultra-extended-reach drilling project was never a good idea, said Mark Myers, a former Alaska Department of Natural Resources commissioner who served previously as director of the U.S. Geological Survey and director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas.

“It was just, technologically, a bridge too far,” said Myers, a geologist who serves on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and previously also served as a chancellor for research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The problem with such long-distance directional drilling is that it would have required too much drilling through a difficult shale layer, called Kingak, that is known for swelling and slumping, Myers said. Typically, operators on the North Slope try to limit their penetration of the Kingak layer, he said.

The plan for ultra-extended-reach drilling was replaced by a more traditional Alaska development and production plan featuring an artificial island similar to four others that are in use elsewhere on the North Slope. That island plan was the one overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020. No updated plan has yet been submitted to federal regulators.

Despite the stall, there are still factors weighing in favor of Hilcorp eventually developing the Liberty project, Myers said.

“The oil’s there. It’s not very far from infrastructure,” he said. “They’re definitely motivated to do it.”