I wrote this note to my colleagues at UAF from a small village in Mexico. I thought anyone who still checks out this site might like to read it as well… Greetings and salutations from Tucson! I hope that my letter finds you in good health and not too frozen. I myself have adjusted to the milder weather and now can understand what motivates the snowbirds to travel so far each year. Arizona has been a kind and friendly destination so far, and my hosts here at the Sonoran Institute are as hospitable as one could hope.

I think that I could not have chosen a more enlightening, yet grounding internship experience.  

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The curse of rainy weather notwithstanding, fair-time is a cracking-good time of year in Fairbanks, one I’ve looked forward to eagerly every year since attending my first way back in 2005. Yeah, I’m a relative new-comer to Alaska, for those who didn’t know. But that first fair made a pretty big impression on me, especially coming from a place and culture so diametrically opposed to Alaska as South Florida. To be fair, there are certainly county- and state-fairs there as well, that is, annually-held carnivals which somehow pass for state fairs. The agricultural aspects of these, though still touted if you dig deep enough on their websites, seem to barely extend beyond petting-zoos and cartoon cows seen on billboard advertisements. Thus, not only did my first Tanana Valley Fair reinforce my certainty that the move to Alaska had been a proper one, it also consoled much personal skepticism that there is still great hope for our food future to be a bright, healthful, and local one.

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I’m traveling this week to the island of Unalaska, home of the famous ‘Dutch Harbor,’ featured in the Discovery Channel’s hit show Deadliest Catch. Its a preliminary research trip, and I had the opportunity to interview with the local public radio station.

A story can be found here.

And when the audio is up for the interview, I’ll share that as well.

Over the last week, lots of news outlets have picked up on a report out from the WWF. I thought I’d share, since I helped write it!

Here are some of the news stories:

Global Warming Is Affecting Arctic Faster, WWF Says (Update1)
Bloomberg - 19 hours ago
By Alex Morales April 24 (Bloomberg) — Global warming is hitting the Arctic harder and faster than scientists expected, causing unforeseen changes to the …

Arctic ice melting faster than anticipated -WWF
Reuters - Apr 23, 2008
By Laura MacInnis GENEVA, April 24 (Reuters) - Arctic ice may be melting faster than most climate change science has concluded, the conservation group WWF …

Eyewitness To A Melting World
Huffington Post, NY - Apr 22, 2008
In February, I came within a few degrees of 70 latitude south in Antarctica (see Solo to Antarctica …) And I returned a few days ago from northern …

The WWF press releases were picked up all over the world it seems, though mostly by countries other than the US. They also seem to have focused on the sea-ice/polar bear issue, even though there’s a LOT more in the report (including my piece on the impacts on Arctic peoples.

The full report can be accessed here: (My section starts on page 91, bullet summary on p14)

 http://assets.panda.org/downloads/final_climateimpact_22apr08.pdf