Word: alaskas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sharon E. Gagnon, president of the Board of Overseers, will have a long commute for committee meetings. A resident of Alaska, Gagnon is the former President of the Board of regents at the University of Alaska--she even has a street in Anchorage named after...
...terms, a satisfied ecotourist, defined by the Ecotourism Society as someone engaged in "responsible travel to natural areas, which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people." Here in the Great Bear Rainforest--which lies between Knight Inlet, about 100 air miles northwest of Vancouver, and the Alaska border--are some of the highest concentrations of grizzlies in North America. Up to three times as many live here as in all the U.S. Not only can I commune (at a safe distance) with the bears; I can get amazingly close to orcas, bald eagles, ospreys, sea otters...
...global warming might arrive and what changes it will bring: hop a plane to the Arctic and look down. You'll see that climatic changes are already reworking the far-north landscape. In the past two decades, average annual temperatures have climbed as much as 7[degrees]F in Alaska, Siberia and parts of Canada. Sea ice is 40% thinner and covers 6% less area than in 1980. Permafrost--permanently frozen subsoil--is proving less permanent. And even polar tourists are returning with less than chilling tales, one of which was heard around the world last week...
Humans are feeling the heat too. In Alaska, melting permafrost (occasionally hastened by construction) has produced "roller coaster" roads, power lines tilted at crazy angles and houses sinking up to their window sashes as the ground liquefies. In parts of the wilderness, the signal is more clear: wetlands, ponds and grasslands have replaced forests, and moose have moved in as caribou have moved out. On the Mackenzie River delta in Canada's Northwest Territories, Arctic-savvy Inuit inhabitants have watched with dismay as warming ground melted the traditional freezers they cut into the permafrost for food storage. Permafrost provides stiffening...
...Clinton administration envisions deploying 100 rocket interceptors in Alaska to counter a missile threat from North Korea, the rogue state it considers most likely to field long-range missiles the soonest. Last week, the CIA repeated a warning it has delivered to the White House before that Pyongyang could have missiles capable of striking...