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Alaska is experiencing the impacts of climate change more intensely than the rest of the nation: limiting the causes and consequences of climate change.

Alaska News Brief February 2023. I’m still shoveling. Let the celebration begin!

Here we are, well into Alaska’s notorious faux spring, where we’re so excited about the returning light that we forget we’ve got another two or three months of deep winter. If you love snow, Anchorage sure has it. I don’t mean to pour water on those fired up about playing in snow, but I’d be happy to do less shoveling. Especially since I’ve mostly run out of places to put it and I’m having trouble throwing snow that high!

I guess that’s the state of play for Trustees, too.… Read More

Between a rock and a hard place: the road to Ambler

In the first piece in our series on mining in Alaska, we talked about how the push for green energy mining could replace one catastrophe with another.

The Ambler road project is the poster child. The project is being promoted by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency with little to no legislative oversight, an insulting lack of public transparency, and a rigid agenda impervious to good sense.… Read More

Stories can teach, stories can lie: Alaska News Brief April 2022

It doesn’t take long spending time with dogs, bears, birds and bees to know they communicate. Some animals even manipulate. Only human animals uniquely share knowledge, wisdom, tall tales and lies through stories. The writer Margaret Atwood describes the origin of storytelling as the coupling of language with concepts of the past, present, and future to help people learn about what happened before—to teach people things to avoid having to learn by trial and error every time.… Read More

We can repair the climate crisis. Will we?

I want to tell you about a podcast that gets real about the climate crisis. You might say, “Great, another post about climate change telling me about a podcast about climate change. I’ve had enough of the doom and gloom!” I hear you. The Repair does talk about how we got here, and also how we as humans can take responsibility and make changes that make a meaningful difference in our future.… Read More

Hurtful feelings and hard conversations: Alaska News Brief January 2022

It’s hard for me to understand why we can’t look directly at the insurrection, or climate chaos, or the way technology has undermined social connections and democratic principles, and then have the hard, necessary conversations to get back to our common constitutional values. When you really listen to people, you hear the same claims of feeling left out, of feeling demeaned or without opportunities—and the same fears, resentments, anger, and other dangerous emotions—no matter their political perspectives.

There is common ground, even if it’s lost in the chaos and sound bites.… Read More

Alaska News Brief May 2021: Shining light on what the world could be

In our work, we sometimes talk about going on the defensive. For us, that means doing everything we can to hold the line in court when those with power make decisions and take actions that put the health of Alaska’s lands and communities, water and air at risk. Defensive work requires focusing on stopping harmful things and sometimes forgetting to shine the light on what we can build together. So today, I want to shine that light again on who we are and what we stand for.… Read More

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