Study Will Not Avert the Crisis
. One of our most dangerous self-deceptions these days is the belief that simply studying the impacts of climate change will somehow avert the crisis. It won’t. Studying climate change will not keep one carbon atom out of the global atmosphere. We already know enough about the disastrous impacts of climate change to know that we need to take bold, urgent action to solve it, and we know exactly what steps to take. Yet many in government, industry, and academia continue to insist that more study is needed before we take difficult steps to solve the crisis. Scientific uncertainty is…
Chasing Ice
It’s always curious to hear protests from the Lower 48 insisting that climate change is a hoax, especially when one lives down the road from glaciers that aren’t—shall we say—what they used to be. I remember when I first moved to Alaska, back in 1991. One of my first “touristy” destinations was Portage Glacier. It’s just a quick drive down the Seward Highway from Anchorage. You could take a quick boat ride up to the face of the glacier, but I pulled up to the Begich-Boggs Visitors’ Center, got out of the car, and spent my time instead wandering the…
Oyster Roundup!
Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more… Palin Quits for Jury Duty? She’ll quit on Republican women’s groups, she’ll quit on pro-life fundraisers, she’ll quit on CPAC, she’ll quit on four colleges, she’ll quit on the great state of Alaksa. Frank Bailey said that trying to get Sarah Palin to commit to anything was like “nailing Jell-O to a tree.” So I found it interesting that her sudden affinity for commitment was for something that everyone else tries to get out of – jury duty. Considering that jury duty comes with a couple…
An Open Letter to Lisa Murkowski
By Elstun Lauesen Dear Senator Murkowski, Congratulations. You made history. You persuaded 10s of thousands of Democrats and Independents who otherwise would have voted for Scott McAdams to write you in. We will see what the final count is, but it appears that your margin is substantial and may well carry you forward for another six-year term. One of the persistent arguments that we heard from your supporters during the campaign was that you were going to be independent, because the Party leadership ‘threw you under the bus’ (though it is difficult to see how supporting the nominee of the…