Far North Science

Syun-Ichi Akasofu

An international panel calls evidence for global warming “unequivocal,” with greenhouse gas emissions “very likely” the main cause.

Researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center declare that a summer meltdown of Arctic sea ice will occur within a generation or two.

Stern-faced U.S. senators pronounce the politcal debate at end. Hundreds of thousands of people urge federal protection for polar bears. Native elders tell us the world has quickened, that nature has gone askew. The day for global warming action has dawned.

Not so fast, says one of Alaska’s most distinguished scientists.

Syun-Ichi Akasofu, the former head of the Geophysical Insitute and the retired chief of the International Arctic Research Center, says he’s leery of so much concensus and questions the conclusions that rely so heavily on satellite age data.

“I always become suspicious when many scientists agree on some interpretation,” he says, in a new Alaska Science Forum by Ned Rozell.

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Will Polar Bears lose their habitat?
USFWS

Imagine a world where vast stretches of Arctic tundra have vanished. Where the jungled rain forests of the Amazon Basin and Indonesia have toppled. Where southeast United States sizzles and shrivels in summer heat. A world with ecosystems no one has ever seen.

Brace yourselves, people. “By the end of the 21st century, large portions of the Earth’s surface may experience climate not found at present, and some 20th century climates may disappear,” concluded a University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer after applying climate models to ecosystems around the world.

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Masatoshi Kuriaki on Denali in winter
Credit: Japanese Caribou

A man known as the “Japanese Caribou” for his trans-Alaska treks has become the first person to climb the fourth tallest peak in the United States alone during the winter season.

Masatoshi Kuriaki summited 17,400-foot Mt. Foraker on March 10, completing the first solo winter ascent of the peak, the sixth-highest in North America and widely rated a much more difficult climb than the 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley, only 14 miles to the northeast.

In late January, Kuriaki was dropped off by airplane onto the Kahiltna Glacier, where Foraker rises in a stunning massif that fills the entire western sky. In a dim, wind-scoured glacial basin where the sun never shines in winter, Kuriaki spent weeks ferrying loads through cold snaps and blizzards, gradually working his way up Foraker’s seldom-climbed Southeast Ridge.

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