In
fact, for the first time in recorded history, the temperature never dropped
below zero in Anchorage for a whole calendar year. 2014
was one of the warmest years on record for America’s wintriest state.
It was also the warmest for the Bering Sea and Anchorage’s warmest since
1926.
So
with skis stuck in closets and White Christmas dreams dashed (see video),
Alaskans have more reason than ever to pay attention to climate change.
“To me, the fact that Anchorage won’t dip
below zero degrees in calendar year 2014 is just one more signal — as if we
needed another one — of a rapidly changing climate,” said Andrew Hartsig,
director of the Ocean Conservancy’s Arctic program.
Hartsig
said Anchorage’s comparatively balmy weather is consistent with other long-term
trends, including diminishing summer sea ice and increasing sea surface
temperatures.
 |
| Will the sleds need wheels soon? |
“These
are definitely red flags that are very consistent with climate change,” said
Chris Krenz, senior scientist at Oceana, an international conservation group.
“These are anomalies … that show our climate system is off-kilter.”
But
Alaska’s hyper-variable weather conditions mean the climate connection isn’t a
straight one: James
E. Overland, a research oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, […] argues that Alaska’s very cool heat wave is not evidence of
climate change but rather the next stage in a long-term weather pattern that
began with six years of warming in the Bering Sea and southern Alaska, followed
by six cold years.
“This
year, then, was the breakdown of the string of cold years,” Overland said. … We
don’t know, and it makes a big difference.”
 |
| When the roads turn into rivers |
Over
at Andy Revkin’s DotEarth, scientist Mike McCracken argues that current weather
extremes may offer a preview of new norms under advanced climate change:
Such
large variations of the climate likely won’t occur every year over the next few
decades given the limited global warming to date, but it would seem likely such
conditions will occur more and more frequently as global warming continues,
disrupting both social systems and ecosystems.
At Sustainable
Green Initiative, we plant trees to help the fight against climate change
and also hunger, poverty and rural migration. By planting a tree through
us you can help in doing your bit to mitigate your carbon footprint. Did you
know a tree sequesters about 1 ton of carbon and processes enough oxygen for
two peoples requirements in its life-time?
So what are you waiting for?
Plant a tree today.
