Each and every time I return to my childhood home on Douglas Island, Alaska, I am struck by the immense sense of change. Crossing over to Juneau and our beloved Mendenhall Glacier I can literally see the new exposed rock as the glacier has receded. That change in the 70s to 90s was so insignificant in comparison to what can be seen, or better yet not seen. No longer the massive extended view of glacial ice that was once visible to now a visitor center that appears miles closer to the viewer not right up to that early glacier.
Researchers are finding that my home and Alaska's largest state just might be serving as our canary in the coal mine for indications of climate change. From family teaching the all grades, one school at Point Hope to visiting their extended family in Barrow, Alaska's native people's are no longer finding their primary and deeply rooted historically and spiritually, sources of food. The polar bears are dying, literally drowning as they cannot find land (frozen ice) for respite, breeding or rest or their own food in warming oceans killing off their fish.
The changes in permafrost is huge and studies over many decades are showing that Alaska just might be the best place for scientifically measurable data as climate change increases...in many, many ways.