Alaskans See Impacts of Climate Crisis as Arctic Warms Two Times Faster than the Planet

Climate Crisis plays out in Alaska.

Arctic warming twice as fast as rest of planet. 

By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent | September 09, 2019

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) - Alaska's summer of fire and no ice is smashing records.

With the Arctic warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, America's "Last Frontier" feels like the first in line to see, smell and feel the unsettling signs of a climate in crisis.

There are the smoky skies and dripping glaciers, dead salmon and hauled-out walrus but scientists also worry about the changes that are harder to see, from toxic algae blooms in the Bering Sea to insects from the Lower 48 bringing new diseases north.

The head shaking among longtime locals really began on the Fourth of July, when at 90 degrees, Anchorage was hotter than Key West.

A dome of hot, dry air over the southern part of the state refused to budge. When lightning struck the Kenai Peninsula, it was just the beginning of a wilderness inferno unlike any other in memory.

Like rainy clockwork, Alaska's fire season usually ends August 1 but the Swan Lake fire is still burning and only 37% contained. To the relief of exhausted fire crews and worried residents, September is bringing the first moisture in weeks but the most populous part of the state is still swallowing more smoke than ever.

"We've had more than twice as many smoky hours in 2019 than in any other season, and in fact, almost as many as all other years combined," says Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist at the University of Alaska.

Strolling in short sleeves atop the rapidly melting Spencer Glacier, Brettschneider lists one superlative after another, pulled from a century's worth of records that predate Alaskan statehood. "Eight of our top 13 warmest days on record are this year," he says. "We didn't just get a little bit past the old marks, we really blasted past them."

He points to the bare rock and dirt 150 feet above us where the glacier once stood. "This is half as thin as it was not very long ago." Every drip is headed to sea, which makes what is happening here directly relevant to New York, Miami, Dubai, Osaka, Hong Kong and countless beach towns in between. According to the European Space Agency, melting Alaskan ice has contributed more to sea level rise than Greenland, Antarctica or any other part of the world.

And then there are the fish, so vital to the economy. While Bristol Bay saw another epic salmon run this season, more and more streams are just too warm for the fish to spawn.

"We definitely have reports from around the state where we've found dead fish that have not made it to their spawning grounds," says Sue Mauger, science director for the nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper. "They still have the eggs inside and have not spawned. Those are just lost future generations."

She has been measuring streams for almost two decades and while the warming trend was obvious, she is stunned by the speed. "The temperatures we saw this summer were what we expected for 2069 -- we're 50 years ahead of where we thought we would be for stream temperatures."