When my boss, Sue Mitchell, was in Tibet recently, she asked a local guide if the glaciers there were shrinking. The guide told her no, the glaciers were fine. When she returned to Alaska, Mitchell asked the same question of glaciologist Martin Truffer, who also works at UAF’s Geophysical Institute. He said no, Himalaya glaciers […]
An ocean view of McBride Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Photo by Joanna Young. Authors of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, delivered a stunning alarm bell for our planet’s oceans and frozen landscapes, one that may ring uncomfortably loud in Alaskan ears. Hundreds of government […]
Image: Cynthia Pflughoeft found this tapeworm at Eielson Air Force Base. Photo by Cynthia Pflughoeft A few times each week, someone carries something dead or alive through the doors of the University of Alaska Museum of the North, hoping an expert can identify it. A couple weeks ago, a woman arrived with a small jar […]
A new analysis of Kotzebue Sound fish has found that mercury levels in a variety of its subsistence species are safe for unrestricted consumption. The University of Alaska Fairbanks-led study tested 297 subsistence-caught fish, which included eight species — chum salmon, fourhorn sculpin, least cisco, humpback whitefish, starry flounder, Pacific herring, Pacific tomcod and sheefish. […]