Rapid icemelt practically destroys small Alaskan town.

"Temperatures in some parts of Alaska soared into the 70s this week, causing a rapid "melt-out" of ice and snow along the Yukon River and unprecedented flooding that nearly wiped out the small community of Eagle.

...Borg says the Yukon rose 30 feet over its normal level when 4- to 7-foot-thick ice pans surged downstream, choking the river and bulldozing islands and shorelines. The devastation stretches for miles up and down the river, where trees have been sheared off and muddy banks scooped away like chocolate ice cream."

LINK

Intense article about plastic marine debris.

"We still have limited tax dollars to spend and scarier nightmares to fear. No one — not Pallister, not Moore — will tell you that plastic pollution is the greatest man-made threat our oceans face. Depending whom you ask, that honor goes to global warming, agricultural runoff or overfishing. But unlike many pollutants, plastic has no natural source and therefore there is no doubt that we are to blame. Because we can see it, plastic is a powerful bellwether of our impact upon the earth. Where plastics travel, invisible pollutants — pesticides and fertilizers from lawns and farms, petrochemicals from roads, sewage tainted with pharmaceuticals — often follow. Last June, shortly before my voyage in the Opus began, Sylvia Earle, formerly N.O.A.A.’s chief scientist, delivered an impassioned speech on marine debris at the World Bank in Washington. “Trash is clogging the arteries of the planet,” Earle said. “We’re beginning to wake up to the fact that the planet is not infinitely resilient.” For ages humanity saw in the ocean a sublime grandeur suggestive of eternity. No longer. Surveying the debris on remote beaches like Gore Point, we see that the ocean is more finite than we’d thought. " LINK

Alaska salmon, headed out?

"With a sickening thud, another hefty and handsome salmon lands in the waste barrel, headed for the dogs.
More Alaskan salmon caught here end up in the dog pot these days, their orange-pink flesh fouled by disease that scientists have correlated with warmer water in the Yukon River.
The sorting of winners and losers at Moore's riverbank fish camp illustrates what scientists have been predicting will accompany global warming: Cold-temperature barriers are giving way, allowing parasites, bacteria and other disease-spreading organisms to move toward higher latitudes.
"Climate change isn't going to increase infectious diseases but change the disease landscape," said marine ecologist Kevin D. Lafferty, who studies parasites for the U.S. Geological Survey. "And some of these surprises are not going to be pretty."
Mary Ruckelshaus, a federal biologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, has been running climate models to peer into the future for Pacific Northwest salmon. Those models predict that salmon will become extinct without aggressive efforts to preserve the clear, cool streams needed for spawning, such as planting trees to shade streams and curtailing the amount of water siphoned off by farmers."It's sort of a time bomb," Ruckelshaus said. "If people don't have a plan for it, it can be disastrous when it hits." Her models didn't factor in the potential for emerging diseases, such as the one that Kocan, her former professor, has been studying."
It's the kind of redistribution of disease that can be expected with climate change, Kocan said: "Everything is getting warmer, and that's how climate change is going to redistribute all kinds of disease. Parasites have their optimum conditions -- upper and lower limits. We'll notice where they show up but not necessarily where they disappear."" LINK

So. Much. Faster.

Wow.

"Rapid Arctic sea ice loss could triple the rate of warming over northern Alaska, Canada and Russia and trigger permafrost thawing that unleashes extremely potent greenhouse gases, according to a new study.

Our study suggests that, if sea ice continues to contract rapidly over the next several years, Arctic land warming and permafrost thaw are likely to accelerate," lead author David Lawrence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said in a statement.

Arctic sea ice extent shrank to a record low last summer, more than 30 percent below average, while air temperatures over land in the western Arctic were unusually warm from August to October — reaching more than 4 degrees F above average.
Researchers used a climate model to study whether the two events were related, and found that when sea ice melts quickly, the rate of Arctic land warming is 3.5 times greater than the average 21st century warming rates predicted in climate models. "LINK

Mmmm salmon! Oh, no. I guess not.

For the fish? They are gone. This is a terribly sad story- one that's probably not going to get a lot of looks what with the collapsing economy, rising gas prices, increased unemployment, ever more desperate and stupid ideas from politicians for how to fix it all (hey, who wants $300?), Chinese slaughter of monks, and tornadoes destroying a good chunk of Atlanta, for Christ's sake, but it is something. It certainly is something. Good NYT article. Heartbreaking.

"The Chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations — and coming up dry." link

Oh to be in Alaska, now that spring is here? Maybe.

"Alaska to get British-style temperatures" LINK

Alaska, again.

Shrub is at it again.

"WASHINGTON - President Bush lifted the drilling ban Tuesday for Alaska's Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development.
Environmentalists have warned against drilling in the bay, which is also a major fishing area for salmon, crab and cod."
LINK

Alaska Cook Inlet beluga whales at risk

Another story out of Alaska. I've hear a few places called the new 'canaries in the mine' for climate change, but dang, every day I'm seeing something from Alaska.
"The study found there is a 26 percent chance the Cook Inlet belugas will be extinct in 100 years."
LINK

No more salmon??? Damn- new planet, stat!

Warming temperatures > melting glaciers > riverbeds rising because of soil erosion from excessive meltwater > salmon can't get through such shallow water > wamer water in shallower rivers mean salmon won't breed > no food for bears, eagles, otters, and Lexacats.

Doom.
LINK

Oh, and there's stuff in the article about the dissapearing lands, like Shishmaref, the melting permafrost, etc etc.

India wins! Oh, wait, they lost. Bye Lohachara, we hardly knew ye.

In a surprise upset, India now can claim the loss of the first inhabited island to sink beneath the rising ocean. Tuvalu, long thought to be a frontrunner in this contest, has indeed lost islands already, but the island of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people is now officially the first inhabited island out.

"Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas. " from The Independent.

Elsewhere, "Papua New Guinean authorities are trying to convince thousands of Polynesians to abandon their homes " because rising seas threaten the Carteret Islands.

In the USA, the small Arctic village of Shishmaref is being engulfed. Inhabited for 4,000 years, the remaining indiginous population have petitioned the US Government to move the remaining buildings of their village away from the coastline, even as the coastline gets closer to the buildings. "Soon this entire village will be relocating to the mainland - making the people of Shishmaref the first refugees of global warming."

Well, it seems that that was typical American vanity, imagining that the first climate refugees would be American citizens. India beat us to it, and so did Vanuatu. Papua New Guinea, too.

Hey, you know what, it's not that bad- we're still number one when you look at carbon dioxide emissions! USA! USA! USA!