Submitted / Matt Rafferty
A polar bear watches from the edge of the ice as another takes an icy dip off the coast of Alaska. Autumn air temperatures in the Arctic have reaches a record 9 degrees above normal, which could melt pack and glacial ice and upset the delicate ecology of the region.
Most people might never make it to the Arctic region to experience firsthand its unparalleled beauty or meet its hearty inhabitants. I have been privileged enough to explore this region and experience the midnight sun, see the caribou herds migrate, and experience all the magic that unfolds in one of the last truly wild places left on earth. Regardless of whether one ever steps foot in this part of the world, we all have a stake in its fate. The Arctic region is the earth's refrigerator, and the health of its ecosystem has a profound effect on global ocean currents and climate patterns the world over.
Sierra Club founder and naturalist John Muir famously said in the late 19th century, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." During this period, the scientific discipline of ecology emerged from these same philosophical underpinnings and sought to describe the planet's basic biological connections and interdependencies in scientifically verifiable terms.
In the 21st century, our basic cultural understanding has grown to include the notion that we truly do live in a highly interconnected global community. In addition, most people understand that we are taking more from the planet than we are giving back. It is with these basic realizations that we may find our deepest hopes and concurrently confront our most intense fears.
As citizens of the most prosperous democracy in the world, we need to be contemplating two distinct futures as equally possible: a world quickly becoming inhospitable to the human civilization or global ecological restoration -- or respect and redemption. We clearly can see these two potential futures in the Arctic, a place that is on the forefront of our planet's rapid ecological changes.
Many Americans do not think of our country as an "Arctic nation," but America's portion of the Arctic region lies to the north of the Brooks Mountain Range on the North Slope of Alaska. In this region of mostly tundra region live polar bears, bowhead whales, snowy owls and arctic foxes, among countless other unique wildlife species. Also inhabiting America's Arctic are members of Inupiat and Gwich'in nations, two indigenous groups that have subsisted in this region for tens of thousands of years. As many of these native inhabitants can attest, the term "canary in the coal mine" never has had a more apt application than in the Arctic region.
Recent scientific reports have confirmed that the Arctic is the fastest warming part of our planet, and the rate of warming in the Arctic region is nearly two times that of the rest of the planet. Autumn air temperatures in the Arctic are at a record 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports also note that 2007 was the warmest year on record the Arctic, leading to a record loss of 40 percent of sea ice. All of the last eight years have been among the lowest for September sea-ice extents since 1978, when satellite-based observations began. In one of the least studied and poorly understood ecosystems on the planet, we are finding the most direct affirmation that the planet is indeed changing at an unprecedented rate.
There is a deep irony at play in America's Arctic. At the northern tip of Alaska lies Prudhoe Bay, our country's largest domestic onshore oil field. For years, Prudhoe Bay and its satellite oil fields both on and offshore have pumped from under the Alaskan tundra and coastline millions of barrels of oil, the very substance we now know is the chief culprit causing global climate disruption.
The more direct consequences of oil development in Alaska's North Slope have been enormous over the years, with an average of 400 oil spills happening every year in the Arctic. Yet the Department of Interior recently approved additional offshore drilling in the extremely fragile Arctic Ocean at the same time that it has proposed critical habitat designations in the same areas for the threatened polar bear. In addition, the state of Alaska continues to aggressively pursue onshore oil development. With the cumulative consequences of these activities staring us in the face, we must re-examine the lengths we are willing to go to fuel our carbon intensive society.
Kit McGurn is the Arctic Campaign Conservation Organizer for the Sierra Club in Seattle. McGurn will speak about oil development and climate change in America's Arctic from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Bronze Room at the Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St., Moline. For more information, call (309) 797-4416.
