From Across Alaska, Residents Converge On Capital With Stories Of Warming - ADN

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A number of rural Alaskans flew or drove to Anchorage this week to tell their personal stories about a warming Alaska to a state commission the Legislature set up to take stock of climate change's consequences for Alaska. "Less ice for us means less opportunity for food," Sage told the Alaska Climate Impact Assessment Commission on Friday.

The 11-member commission also heard from scientists describing how caribou, marine mammals, birds, fish and other species are shifting geographically. Some species could be in trouble due to the warming trend's effects on the availability of their food.

In the Northwest town of Selawik, villagers are worried about winter travel and hunting. Two years ago, the village lost two young girls and one man who fell through ice. The ice was considered safe in previous years, testified Hannah Loon, a part-time University of Alaska student who grew up in the village of about 850 and transmitted the concerns from one of the village's elders to the commission.

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Safe hunting is a big concern in Barrow. With recent years of dramatic loss in the Arctic Sea ice, and scientists predicting more ice loss in the future, hunters and their families have immediate safety concerns, Sage said. "Multiyear ice is thick and stable and preferred while conducting the spring whaling hunt. Young ice is thin and not so stable," explained Sage, whose husband is co-captain of a whaling crew. Twice in the past 10 years, shore ice at Barrow became unstable and broke apart, sending about 160 whalers adrift in the Arctic. All of the hunters were rescued, but not all of their snowmachines, she said. The last time the Barrow whalers had a similar event was in the 1940s.

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http://www.adn.com/news/environment/story/8792199p-8693372c.html