From Brooklyn to Anchorage; or How to Lose an Entire Day without Trying

Unsurprisingly my trip from JFK to Anchorage was defined by mass confusion. My flight was scheduled to leave at 7 am, so I decided the best course of action was to skip the whole sleeping thing, leave my apartment by four, and get to the airport with time to spare. Well, I thought I had accomplished this, but when I made my way to the check in counter around six I was told that I couldn’t get on for reasons I’m still unsure about. Something about it being full, but I was too tired to comprehend anything. I was told to come back at 9:30 to get a flight that would take me to Atlanta, where I would fly to Seattle and then to Anchorage. It seemed to be a bit round about, but I was told it was my only option.
Now my biggest concern was not falling asleep and missing my 9:30 appointment. I struggled through by playing solitaire on my iPod, which wasn’t very exciting and drained my battery fairly successfully. Finally I made my way back to the check in counter and tried once more to board a flight. Well, the original lady who “helped” me was gone, and the new lady didn’t seem to understand what was going on—of course it didn’t help that I had no clue either. She decided the best course of action was for me to switch back to my original flight plan of Salt Lake City to Anchorage, which wouldn’t leave until 5. Now I had seven hours to kill, which was spent largely watching a news loop on CNN Headline News with short, uncomfortable naps. Probably the most exciting thing to happen was a short story about a bear caught in Carbon County (hometown pride!).
Finally at 4:30 I boarded a plane! I managed to get a window seat and the girl next to me, who was from Idaho, asked me to point out the Statue of Liberty. The best I could do was point to a small island with a tiny speck sticking out of it. Flying over the city is always pretty incredible. There are just so many people living in or around the city. Once we got about half way across PA everything turned to farmland—the immensity of which was also astounding. Basically every bit of land was used for farming. It’s hard to imagine that not even three hundred years ago all of that land was undeveloped.
Of course one can look at and philosophize over farm development for so long, so I managed to get a good bit of reading done as well. I brought two books with me: “Genesis: the Scientific Quest for Life’s Origin” by Robert M. Hazen and “Death in the Afternoon” by Ernest Hemingway. The former is an inside account of the current scientific study of emergence theory, which tries to explain how organic molecules (an organic molecule is any molecule that contains carbon; amino acids, proteins, DNA, ect are all organic molecules) could have formed and combined to form larger macromolecules which could be considered alive. It’s a really interesting read, though I still haven’t managed to finish it. Just the scientific debate about what constitutes life is worthy of reading about. There are a lot of theories that are explored in the book, some of which are extremely out there, but one of the more beautiful theories about the origin of organic molecules on Earth is that they came from space. Large clouds of atoms exist in space. These clouds only have about a million atoms per cubic inch, but solar radiation excites these atoms and they can combine to form molecules. As Hazen writes “Eventually, under the pervasive inward pull of gravity, local regions of a molecular cloud can collapse into a new planetary system with a central massive star and an array of planets and moons. As each body forms, a steady rain of organic-rich comets and asteroids contributes to the life-forming inventory. So, the theorists tell us, organic molecules inevitable constitute part of any planet-forming mix.” I really can’t wait to finish the book.
The second book is Hemingway’s view of Spanish bullfights. Anyone who has read anything by Hemingway (and if you haven’t, or have only read “The Old Man and the Sea, stop reading this right now and start reading Hemingway instead. It’s a much better use of your time) knows that he loves bull fighting. I wasn’t sure how I would respond to the book, and I only read the first 40 pages or so, but Hemingway is very unapologetic about his love. He knows that many people will not share his view, but he definitely paints a romantic picture of the fights and culture of bullfights. It’s a very informative book, but I doubt I’ll be going to any bullfights soon. Probably the most interesting part of the book to me was when Hemingway briefly mentions his interest in suicides.
So those are my book reviews. Other then reading, looking at farmland, and watching one episode of the Office, my flight was uneventful, though the Rocky Mountains were absolutely stunning. Also very stunning was Salt Lake City. We flew into the airport over a long stretch of salt marsh. Out of my window was a long strip of development maybe a mile or two wide situated between the mountains and the marsh. At the same time we were landing the sun was getting close to setting so all of the water was a nice pinkish color. It was very picturesque. Unfortunately the sun was close to setting because of the strong headwind we were flying to, which meant that I had all of seven minutes to catch my connecting flight. We unloaded in section A and my plane was located in section D. The airport was shaped like a giant U with A being one end and D being the other. So I had a nice run and made it with a minute or two to spare.
The flight from Salt Lake to Anchorage wasn’t very exciting due to darkness and cloudiness, though once again I had gotten a window seat and was in charge of saving everyone’s lives if the plane crashed by opening the emergency exit. Alas, my services were not needed and we made it to Anchorage, where it was brighter at midnight then it was at 9:30 in Salt Lake. So through the magic of time changes I had taken off from JFK at 5 and landed in Anchorage a little after 12. Not too bad. However I was extremely exhausted and by the time I received by checked luggage it was nearly 2, but I had finally made it and got some sleep (I don’t want to do the math on how long it was since I had proper sleep).
Tune in later for details on my first day in Alaska!

Heavy stuff

This photo is what kicks off Canada's Highway to Hell, an excellent article I found yesterday while starting my research on Alberta's Tar Sands.

So, the picture saves me at least a thousand words concerning exactly what impact strip mining has on the boreal forest. But let me say a few things about Tar Sands in general just to get the facts straight in my own head as I research, and to highlight points of particular interest.

First of all, depending on who writes about the Tar Sands they are described very differently. The language used by the Alberta government, for instance, is sensitive - they prefer to call the resource 'Oil Sands', insisting that since the oil is naturally occuring and tar is, after all, a biproduct of human activities and not what the sands are truly comprised of, this is the correct term. Fair enough.

But there's a reason the sands were dubbed 'tar' sands - it's because the first people to come across them found the heavy-duty sludge reminiscent of the same stuff that gunked up their cities; the same tar used to make cement. It's heavy, black, and nasty. The sands weren't even recognized by the Canadian government as a viable option for petroleum extraction until oil prices began to spike, and even now the fuel derived from the fields is dubbed a 'nonconventional' petroleum product. The 'tar/oil' in the sand has a real name which is not under debate - bitumen, and in fact it only comprises 10-12% of the sands. Of this percentage, only 75% is really extractable as fuel when all is said and done. And the extraction process itself? Well, it's energy intensive. Which doesn't really make sense - so you spend energy to get energy, sure, but at what point are you actually cancelling out and perhaps even digging (literally) an energy deficit? I'm researching specificially how much energy the entire life cycle of, say, a barrel of bitumen-derived petroleum product provides vs. how much it takes to produce that barrel. All sources so far are in agreement: Oil Sands extraction is an expensive process, but I think expensive is really a nice way of saying desperate.

Of course, in a document concerning environmental impacts of the extraction (which Alberta commissioned June Warren Publishing 'Canada's Oil and Gas Publisher' to produce) the preferred descriptive term used to explain bitumen is 'molasses-like'. And technology, they say again and again, has really developed since the '90's and if Canada - the U.S.'s leading oil supplier, believe it or not - is given enough $$ towards research, they can make the whole process of extraction even more efficient. In fact, one of Alberta's many affiliated websites stated, 'strip' mining - the kind you see in the picture above where the top layer (ie the boreal forest) is stripped off to access shallow Sands, which are scooped into trucks that have 40 ft. wheels and haul 320 tons of sand per load, which haul them to processing facilities to stick the sands in a nice, hot bath (ie MUCH MORE ENERGY). Alberta, however, emphasized that this sort of mining takes place on a much smaller scale compared to 'in-situ' mining. In-Situ. That's latin for 'In-Place', and doesn't that sound nice? They use 'In-Situ Methods' when the bitumen isn't close enough to the surface. It involves injecting steam deep into the earth to heat up the 'molasses/tar' enough that a well can be tapped, and the stuff pumped out more like business-as-usual.

This uses up even more energy than strip mining.

In short:

Strip Mining:
- 250 cubic feet of natural gas
- 2-5 barrels of water
per barrel

In-Situ Mining:
- 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas
- 2 1/2-4 barrels of water
per barrel

And just to throw a political monkey wrench in there, here is a recent addition to the U.S.'s 2007 Energy Bill:

“EISA Section 526 states that: "No Federal agency shall enter into a contract for procurement of an alternative or synthetic fuel, including a fuel produced from nonconventional petroleum sources, for any mobility-related use, other than for research or testing, unless the contract specifies that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and combustion of the fuel supplied under the contract must, on an ongoing basis, be less than or equal to such emissions from the equivalent conventional fuel produced from conventional petroleum sources."

Bummer for the U.S. Air Force, who had big plans to use this 'nonconventional petroleum source'. Potential energy hiccup for the U.S. who, as I mentioned before, relies on Canada for 20% of its oil product. However, great leverage for Canada, where they have already pre-emptively suggested that the U.S. bill disproportionately affects purchase of energy from their Sands...which may very well be in violation of WTO rules. Hmm. Excellent info on this whole debacle here.

Right, so this is my research so far. Later in the summer it will be much more comprehensive, more hard facts and numbers, and context as far as Alaska and its natural gas pipeline plans. Let the investigation continue...

Hey I can blog too

Well, I made it to Alaska! I'll make a complete post on that a little latter.

Mainly I'm here to step on Alli's feet and post a link to a Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/science/earth/29arctic.html?ref=science

It's a short article about the US, Canada, Russia, Denmark, and Norway are fighting for a foothold in the melting Northwest Passage.

Update

I'm at work (!!) so this will be a quick one.

There's still an overwhelming amount to say about ACA/ACV, but I figure the earlier on I try and describe what I'm doing the easier it will be.

I have a list of projects for the next 12 weeks:

1. Start the uber-experimental 'Friend-to-Friend' program by calling ACV members one Anchorage voting district at a time. Have some folks come in, serve some pizza, and provide lists of other voters in their district. When voters are ID'd, offer pens/paper/postage and have them write a letter to say they should join up with the ACV. Apparently, a similar endeavor conducted by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters was beyond successful and demonstrated that when friends ask friends to vote/join, they usually do. Hence the name.

2. Coordinate with Sue, who is in Juneau, to design an ACA brochure. ACV already has one. I am in the thick of InDesign as we speak...the nice thing about an internship is that not only do they get me to do internship-y, college kid stuff like design pamphlets, but they give me the time to learn how! My respect for Parsons grows exponentially along with my frustration with myself/Adobe. Still, I'm not doing too badly. My great success this morning was figuring out how to change the background color.

3. Write up fact sheets: most notably, and most intriguingly, about the Alberta Tar Sands (ownership, energy usage, gas usage, net carbon emissions). These are a big deal already and will be only more so depending on how the natural gas pipeline deal goes through. This might end up being what I ultimately write my paper on, seeing as I'll be doing a whole lot of research and it is within the same vein as what I had intended to write anyway.

4. Write newsletters! Update website! Blog?

In other work news, tonight is the Tileston Awards Ceremony and I am wearing heels. That I borrowed from Karen. Who has invited me to see the Sex and the City movie on Saturday with her and a group of friends.

Additionally, marathon training is back full swing now that certain Achilles tendons have stopped whining. And the weather is perfect. STAY TUNED!

Bears woof (photos from Eagle River)

It was the middle of the night. Okay...no, it was probably 5:30 am and bright as noon and in my tent I had my sleeping bag pulled up over my head in a vain attempt to keep warm and ward off the sun. The first sound woke me up. I almost whispered 'did you hear...' under my breath to my tentmate, but then I heard the second noise - I'll say 10 feet away from my head so I know I'm not exaggerating. It was a very gutteral woof. My heart pounded for what seemed like an eternity and I couldn't even summon the courage to poke my head out of my sleeping bag to see what time it was. Eventually when I heard someone snoring from a nearby tent I was able to go back to sleep, thinking that the noise would surely announce our presence.

Anyway, I think that little creature in the picture above made the noise. Look closely and you'll see my first Alaskan black bear. I saw him on a hike back from sunset.

So, to back up a bit - I made a friend named Mitchell on the airplane from Dallas-Anchorage and he gave me his phone number. He said that he lived in Anchorage, and if I needed to go to Wal Mart or anything he had a car and would be happy to help out...oh and by the way, he was working with Americore and on his way back from a restoration Habitat for Humanity Project in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and he had some friends in Anchorage, so if I wanted to meet some cool people...

So I met up with Mitchell and his friends on Friday night who were so nice, laid back, and interesting - and within minutes of my being there they'd invited me on their weekend camping trip. We went to Eagle River, a town maybe 10 miles north of Anchorage, and took off into the Chugach Forest - 2 miles' walk from the Visitor's Center is a really nice campsite. Apparently the rest of the trail goes all the way to Girdwood, I want to hike it by the end of summer. I am seriously stunned by how friendly and open everyone is, and the scenery warn't bad either.

Our campsite.The river off the trail; down a ladder from our campsite.

View from a nearby yurt. It's run by the Forest Service for $15/night (future reference, o Alaska bound New Schoolers...) and it was vacant when we were there. We used the bear bin and clicked the views.

Campfire.Keep hiking beyond our campsite, into the Chugach and toward the town of Girdwood, and here's what you find. We played here for a while.
I warded off bears.
Forded mighty rivers.

..continued to ford rivers...
...devised new strategies for fording rivers...

Sunset. Well, sunset in a purely decorative sense - the sun never completely left its hold of the sky; we used headlamps for a few hours but even then it was just a tiny, tiny bit twilight.

I really, really sincerely hope that anyone else going to Anchorage that has any questions about anything contacts me. I've had a really awesome week and I want to share as much as I can.

First Day at ACA/ACV

I started my internship with Alaska Conservation Association/Alaska Conservation Voters today. As with all orientations I found myself overwhelmed with questions, answers, and general new information. But here's a couple of key things:

1. It's a 7-person staff, two based in Juneau - they're the only non-profit in Alaska with a full time hired lobbyist in Juneau (COOL). The three staffers I met today were very knowledgeable, upbeat, and welcoming. The view from their offices is, as I thought it might be, outstanding. Apparently on 'Denali Days' everyone gets called into Kate's office. (Also, apparently sometimes we will be taking 2-hour lunch breaks to go fishing because Andre says so).

2. What's with the two organizations, you ask? I did too. ACAssociation is what's known to the IRS as a C3 organization, while ACVoters is a C4. Every other non-profit in the state is a C3 - what this allows you to do is lobby (up to 20% of the time), get memberships, organize, educate, and the major bonus is that donations are tax write-offs so it encourages investment. C4, on the other hand, doesn't encourage donations as well - however, ACV can lobby as much as it pleases. I'm sure I am missing a few of the differences and perks, but the basic idea is that ACA and ACV are 'sister' organizations, functioning within a 'loop' as Caitlin, my supervisor, put it, to establish political clout and ensure accountability.

3. Organizations in Alaska can pay to become members of ACA. The major perk is that the research and organization within Alaska politics is all conducted from a central headquarters, and member organizations have access to a lobbyist.

4. Annually all of the members make a list of issues, bills, candidates etc. they want to focus on that year. ACA/ACV, with the help of the member organizations, draws three priority issues from this list and that's what they focus on for the year. A lot of the time ACA keeps quiet about what bills/candidates it supports...for instance, the major energy bill that was recently passed was pushed through due to no small effort from ACA, but since the association could potentially contribute a 'lefty' (synonym in AK='extreme') appearance to the bill, they kept a low profile.

5. Caitlin explained to me that much of what ACA does is strategize as to how to play center field within environmentalism. She says they research things they can say 'yes' to...for instance, recently they worked with an organization called Resource Development Team or something like that, and in Alaska that pretty much states your environmental agenda up front: drill it. What ACA was able to do was a) figure out ways resources could be developed with the least impact possible, and b) establish a relationship with this organization for the future so that, if needed, they could use their support. Additionally, Caitlin pointed out that in a recent survey 79% of Alaskans identified themselves as 'conservationists'. She thinks that by using language that is thought of as less 'extreme' than environmentalism or sustainability, they have a better shot at garnering support and doing some good. She said the organization gets a lot of criticism for not being radical enough, but she thinks they've been able to accomplish much of their goals because of this strategy. Furthermore, she said, member organizations have volunteered in the past to vote 'bad cop' on certain bills (read: crazy lefty liberal crack cases) so that ACA would appear as the comprimise instead of the extreme.

I am missing some vital explanation here. More about the organizations will come as the summer progresses for sure. In the meantime, I'm genuinely excited to be working with these people, at this time, in this place. They have some really cool projects lined up for me which I'll describe later - I officially start work tomorrow at 9am.

Bird Ridge

I have bizarre luck.

Yesterday afternoon I took old bones to Downtown Rental, where I'd purchased her on Sunday, because the gears were acting up. The man I'd purchased her from was exceedingly rude to me, offering a lesson in counting when what I needed was a primer on simple bike maintenance (he spent three minutes pedantically listing off the number of each gear, and when I tried to 'ha ha' interrupt he yelled over me and continued counting). This was the first bad experience I'd had with anyone in AK and it left me rattled, not to mention with a bike that was still not working well.

I rode up toward home and came across another bike shop and decided to drop in on a whim, see what they had to say - this one had an incredibly friendly staff who checked out my bike and agreed that not only did the gears need some tuning up, but had I noticed my brakes weren't really working? (I had). What I hadn't really anticipated was that by taking old bones into the shop, I'd probably be parting with her for a few days. So after my nice-and-friendly interaction and filling out a nice-and-friendly form I found myself out on the sidewalk, bikeless, with my kickass bike lock hanging lonely and useless from the strap of my backpack.

Pretty dejected now, and on foot, I headed to REI to read about hikes from their extensive Alaskan library - er, inventory and look at expensive equipment. I had been trying to scheme up ways to go hiking sans-automobile all day - it seems like most of the local trailheads are only accessible by car. The guy at Downtown Bicycle offered a $20 shuttle/guided tour of Flathead Mt., which I was thinking about doing until he was such a jerk, so now that option was even out.

Anyway, in the parking lot I saw a guy on a yellow bike spot me as he turned onto the road. Thirty seconds later, he cruised back around and said 'What are you doing with a bike lock and no bike?'

I responded, 'I am having separation anxiety. I just left it at the shop, it needs a tune-up.'

He said, 'Aha, 'cause I was about to say - I rent bikes for a dollar a day, sort of a community service thing.' He pointed toward a cell tower five or so blocks away. 'My house is over there and I've got 20 bikes in my backyard.'

I said, 'Wow. Well I still might get in touch with you - I will be bikeless 'til Tuesday. Do you have a card?'

He grimaced and told me they were at his house. He gave me his number instead, and offered: 'I also rent sea kayaks. And give tours.'

'Tours?! Do you do hike tours?' I blurted, wondering if I was even seriously considering this.

'Well - yeah, I mean when the season starts up -'

'Do you have any hikes going out this weekend? I've been trying to figure out a way to get to Flattop, or Bird Ridge or somewhere all day.'

'Well...what are you doing tonight?'

'I, uh - yeah, nothing.'

'My friend and I who usually meet at Kaladi Coffee [that's the place I posted my first blog from, a couple storefronts down from REI] were gonna hike Bird Ridge tonight. He's got a two-year-old - actually, you might have seen them ride out on his bike a minute or so ago - and if he can manage to get him taken care of, we're going to go at around 6:30. We've been talking about hiking together for a while now, and we're finally gonna do it.'

So, I told him - Alan - that I'd call him at 5:30. Which I did, even though when I picked up the phone to call I had decided it was a foolhardy idea and I probably shouldn't do it and there would be plenty of opportunities to hike over the summer and I was simply going to ask what his rates were and then check back with him over the weekend and - and - when I called I found myself asking, 'So, what's the story with tonight?'

Right. So continues the legacy of my strange traveling fortune, coupled with somewhat rash decision making in the far north, which even while I chide myself for it is what got me to this place last night between 7-10:30pm:

Needless to say, it was stunning. Here is a discription of the trail - basically, we got up to 3,500 feet over 2.5 miles within a couple hours, which may not be anything out of the ordinary for those crazy Alaskans, but I was impressed. I learned two key things on that hike - first, while going downhill lean downhill even though it's counterintuitive because it'll save you a lot of skidding and falling (two things for which I am famous). Second, that astringent-pine-distinctively northern smell I was describing a couple of posts back? It's called Cottonwood, and apparently everyone is agreed that it's fragrance is lovely, but not everyone loves the tree itself because it's an invasive species. It has very sticky leaves.

We got back to Anchorage at 11:30 and it was still only dusk, think 8pm lighting in the northeast. I tried to sleep but I was still too jazzed and it wasn't completely dark until well after midnight...this place is something else.

In other news, my internship will begin 12 noon on Tuesday (my birthday!) and I'm really excited. I went by the building yesterday (it's on N street, at the corner of a park and the Coastal Trail, it looks like the offices probably have really nice views of the sound). I've been in touch with the outreach coordinator at Alaska Conservation Association and Matt Rafferty and apparently Tuesday will be a sort of meet-and-greet and get the lay of the land day, which will be a great way to figure out what I'm going to do for the next 11 weeks. Again, I'm really excited - even though I can already feel the time slipping out way faster than I want it to.

Finally! Pictures!

Picture 1: Flying over SE Alaska, taking inventory of a) the spectacle but b) the enormous, frequent bald spots on the tops of mountains. Clear cuts, yikes.

Picture 2: A neat map in the public library. I saw a sign yesterday denoting a building dedicated to 'Tsunami Watch'. Yes, we're close to Japan, yes we're close to Russia. And yet Alaska feels SO much more 'American' than any other part of the States I've visited: everything here is unapologetically bigger - the size of the roads, cars, grocery stores - mountains, distances, daytime.

Picture 3: A snapshot of my house from the front, incuding old bones and me backpack.

Picture 4: A view of Anchorage from about 5 miles from the city center, from the top of the bluffs along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. I'll ride part of the trail every day to get to the city.

Yesterday, given that I had only seen that (very short) distance between my 'hood and downtown so far, on my 'way home' I decided to stay on the trail to explore. I passed through Earthquake Park, which used to be a pretty obvious wreckage scene from the massive earthquake that occured here in the '60s. Everything's healed up pretty well now. Farther along the trail, near to the airport, planes passed precariously near the trail - that's about where this snapshot was taken. For the most part, maybe 5 or so miles, it was flat and I rode at a very moderate cruisin' speed trying to look for moose in the woods - I saw a grand total of 4 moose rear ends, nothing worth taking a photo of (yet). The woods were the kind you could see very far out into, and there were amazing views of Susitna and the Alaska range over the water. The mud flats even seemed to turn into beach at some point, I saw kids running around. Finally, I ended up at Kincaid Park which has an ENORMOUS inner city system of dirt trails. I want to go back there when it's a little drier and mountain bike/run. Anyway, this whole ride was kind of like going home by way of China and next time I'll know to bring H20 and gorp 'cause despite the gorgeous scenery I was cranky toward the end, especially on the massive roads near the airport and back toward my neighborhood.

Picture 5: My particular entry to the Tony Knowles Trail, with a view of Susitna Mt as I cruise down between the playground and ball field. They call this mountain the Sleeping Lady - her feet are said to be on the right; head on the left. I know, I have to squint hard to see it too. But she's a beaut either way.

Pictures 6-10: My guidebook listed a $5 roundtrip shuttle bus between Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. The Mat-Su Valley, about 40 minutes north of Anchorage, produces 75% of Alaska's produce and is responsible for such feats as 109 lb cabbage. I couldn't believe $5 could get you 40 miles anywhere, never mind back, so me 'n old bones hopped on the shuttle (which departs from the main transit center in Anchorage same as the public bus system 'the People Mover') yesterday morning and soon found ourselves in Palmer. I rode around for hours exploring the farms, and taking in extreme views. I loved it there.

Picture 11: And finally, for this blog post anyway, a shot from this morning - up the Chester Creek Trail, which is a 6-miler through the middle of the city. Now I'll e-mail Alaska Conservation Voters and get down to the business of my internship, which starts Monday. !!!!

Word to the wise: bring real important stuff with you on the airplane. American Airlines finally flew my backpack from Dallas to Anchorage last night and came by and dropped it off. I was mid-Sex and the City episode with Karen, my Native-Anchorage landlady whose pasttimes are marathon running, hiking, biology, and apparently watching one of my favorite tv shows (this sublet situation is going to be fantastic) when the doorbell rang. It looked like it was 6:30pm in Brooklyn, it was in fact 10pm in Alaska. The delivery guy was very friendly, and I was very grateful for the change of clothes.

I bought the 'beater' bike yesterday. She is blue with a very wide seat, she has a bobble-esq compass and thumb-clicky style 24 gears, and mountain-bike tires. I named her 'old bones' because she creaks a lot. The weather's chilly right now - I hesitate to say 'chilly' of course, becuase the only context in which I've heard that word used to describe Alaska is tongue-in-cheek at 60 below - windy, 50ish, overcast. The sun's trying to come out. I took old bones for a cruise down the Coastal Trail this morning and then we looped back to my place and from there explored mid-Anchorage, keeping within range of 36th Street because the ultimate destination was the library.

I think - I know - I look like one of those aimless teenage dudes who ride around downtown suburbia endlessly, on bikes that are maybe too small and they are trying too hard to look hardcore, like there's any trouble they could even find. There's really not all that much traffic up here, even on the main roads, so it's easy to just lollygag around on wheels and take in what's around you. The neighborhoods are a hodgepodge variety of eccentric. The streets are wide and quiet and the lawns are flat and look well-worn, nothing is 'manicured' or even matching - I rode by a Gilligan's Island style log cabin today that sat next to a very low typical ranch house that sat next to a converted trailer. Little parks with bike paths weaving through them are, unlike the highway Tony Knowles Coastal trail, bumpy with roots pushing through the concrete and they connect the neighborhoods. I don't know much about trees but they are everywhere and there's a pervasive scent, even on the major roads, of something astringent and distinctly northern, almost pine but different.

There are big box stores a'plenty, but many of your typical lower 48 stripmalls (the places the tourists don't get to from cheesy Downtown) have almost all local tenants. Sure, there's an REI and Outback Steakhouse, but there's also this cute Kaladi Coffee Bros (where I blogged yesterday), a bunch of local sports stores, bookstores, restaurants. The library, where I'm at now, is all bizarre austerity from the front, but once inside there's actually a lot of light.

It can be confusing to bike through Anchorage and see everything from straight flat Florida stripmall, big ol' trucks with Alaskan plates, sidewalks covered in sand from last winter, neighborhoods which range from cookie cutter in the extreme (my neighborhood, including my house, is the Truman's Show meets Northern Exposure set, my house looks so like every other one that I've missed it three times in two days!!) to completely ad-hoc. Yet, like my dear bicycle 'old bones' whose creaking I hope to continue to find charming, there's a sense of liveability that I like. The Alaskan attitude, as I've encountered it so far, is very 'can-do' with no concern for vanity. Of course, the lack of concern for vanity - manifest in the appearance of the environment here - while I find it charming, it's also alarming given that 'conquering the wild north frontier' attitude. The actual consequences of the frontier mindset that rules here are all around - each (wo)man for his own has produced too many cars, homes, and highways, all sprawled in that lovely lower-48 fashion. It's really difficult to even think about asking someone who hacks their way through an Alaskan winter to maybe try getting things done a different way (how about chains and snowtires on that bike come winter, hmm?) because I have respect for what individuals do here.

But I really do have the sense that Anchorage is just a bit in the past, living (although bravely) beyond its means because thus far it has, incredibly, survived. I'm not going to go all melodramatic global warming, but the problem with Anchorage's ad-hoc to-each-his-own fighter attitude is essentially that it overtakes the surroundings from every, individual front without actually addressing environment in any unified way. The result is what I've described in the above paragraph - all that sprawl, all those individual homes, cars, people. There's got to be a way to consolidate somehow.

1st day in Anchorage

Dear Blog,

I picked up a copy of 'Into the Wild' in Logan Airport and dutifully completed it by the time I reached Dallas. From Dallas to Anchorage my safety belt kept me strapped to a chair facing The Bucket List and 27 Dresses, two terrible movies...I had a window seat though, and two interesting Alaskan-ish seatmates, and we watched the Rockies/Cascades/Glaciers go by instead of the movies. So, it was a relatively painless 11-hr ordeal.

'Into the Wild' happened to be a pretty interesting reflection on the sort of romanticized Alaska we've talked about over the semester. Although Krakauer went way farther into McCainless's psyche than I needed to read, he offered so many views (including Alaskan) about 'Alex Supertramp's' solo sojourn into the Alaskan bush that it gave a pretty good idea of Alaskan sympathies toward people who go on spiritual journies in the backwoods...which is to say, they don't have much sympathy.

Today I've been running around trying to score a bike - tried out a bunch at various venues, but I think I'll go with the hundred dollar beater the man at the rental store downtown offered. I think my ears are sunburned because I didn't anticipate high-noon like sun at 8am. The people here are beyond friendly, I've already made a couple of connections and am looking forward to a week of exploring pre-internship. In addition, this Kaladi bros. internet cafe has excellent coffee...

It's all off to a good start.

Alli's final paper topic

Next semester I'll write a paper based on my research in and about Alaska. In an epic (and Nevin-encouraged) moment of non-procrastination, I wrote a proposal for my research topic. It's subject to change over the course of the summer - who knows what influence locals, newsies, and midnight sun could have on my argument - but for now it serves as a launch point.



Proposal for Final Paper
Alli Harvey

In “Frigid Embrace”, Stephen Haycox argued that Alaska’s economy has been developed primarily by outsiders. Time and time again, ‘pioneers’ interested in making a quick dollar have re-enacted the celebrated story of the old American west by traveling to Alaska, tapping a resource, and extracting as much as possible. The profit from such development – ie from gold, fish, timber, and most recently, oil – has not stayed in Alaska. Essentially, Alaska’s resources have been extracted by non-Alaskans for sale to non-Alaskans. As a result, Alaska has frequently been identified by outsiders as either a) a site with seemingly unlimited resources that can be extracted and sold or simply go to waste, or b) one of few remaining vast and unspoiled rich wilderness whose value is inherent.

These conflicting visions of the state are problematic for several reasons. First, development and preservation are identified as having opposite effects on the economy. Development is labeled as ‘pro’ economy, while preservation isn’t. The second problem is that identifying Alaska solely through merits of its natural resources, whether pro-development or not, does nothing to account for the people living there. Non-Alaskans dominate the Alaskan landscape; much of the decisions made about what takes place there are made in the lower 48. How to best utilize the state is always subject for argument.

Recently the topic of debate has been the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge in the northwest part of the state. Much of this debate has taken and will continue to take place in Washington D.C., playing out the same way many other outside-Alaska debates have – pro-development for oil vs. pro conservation for wilderness. However, attention to this issue may be overshadowing concern about projects with potential for greater environmental/economic impact. In Alaska, it’s clear that concern over local off-shore oil drilling projects is building; the rest of the country needs to catch up.

Offshore drilling, which takes place in the same region as ANWR albeit underwater, has considerable potential for oil extraction. A recent lawsuit filed successfully against Shell Oil (who had plans to drill offshore) brought some light to this issue. However, Shell’s attempt to drill is only the beginning of such planning. Ancient ice is melting, fast, opening up possibilities for drilling where there wasn’t any before. In fact, the Northwest Passage which was always fabled as a treacherous ice-ridden passage has been opened up by global climate change. This territory, which nobody cared about ten years ago, is now being fought over by the U.S., Canada, and Russia, for both ownership of the trade route and the rich resources which lie beneath.

Alaska is in a unique position, both geographically and symbolically, compared to the rest of the States. The legacy of ‘wild west’ resource extraction, which has proven time and time again to generate quick wealth for a clever few while destroying the local environs it takes advantage of, is unsustainable. Nobody recognizes this better than the locals, who are greatly affected by the climate change Alaskan oil has contributed to. However it is likely that Alaska will continue to be used as a staging ground where U.S. policy and planning quickly clarify economic aspirations stemming from oil. Yet, if the Passage is claimed, policed using Alaska as the nearest base, and subsequently drilled for its oil, it implies a U.S. support for the bull-headed adherence to the Alaskan legacy of resource extraction for a quick profit. This mistake does not need to be made again.

References

Haycox, Stephen, ‘Frigid Embrace: Politics, Economics, and Environment in Alaska’, Oregon State University Press, 2002.

Gimbel, Barney, ‘The hunt for oil beneath the ice’, Fortune 500, < cnn="yes"> 2008.

Petricic, Saša, ‘Northwest Passage: Northern Logbook’, CBC News, <>, 2006.

Byers, Michael, ‘The Need to Defend Our New Northwest Passage’, The Tyee: A Feisty One Online, <>, 2006.

Buncombe, Andrew, ‘The Northwest Passage: An Awfully Big Adventure’, The Independent: World, <>, 2006.

Burkeman, Oliver, ‘A very cold war indeed’, The Guardian, <>, 2008.

Borgerson, Scott, ‘Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming’, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008.

It all starts here at Lang, spring semester '08

David and I are going to Anchorage, Alaska for 12 weeks this summer through Eugene Lang College's Tishman Environmental Merit Scholars Program. We've been working with our professor Nevin Cohen through an independent study this spring - we've covered a history of Alaska, current events, and are currently working on final paper proposals. Next semester we will present our findings.

David will be interning at Renewable Energy Alaska Project and I will intern at Alaska Conservation Voters. We will both blog about the experience here - including pictures, of course.
Comments and questions are always welcome.