Tishman Environmental Scholars Blog

July in AK

2008-07-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

http://onemansblog.com/2007/07/29/australian-comedy-the-front-fell-off/
Second video down. Funny.

It's been busy here. I haven't been slacking on blogging, per se - check out Alaska Conservation Voters' blog which is secretly maintained by yours truly - but my contributions to this blog have taken a mid-summer nosedive. No, it doesn't have to do with nonstop daylight and beautiful weather. Anchorage Daily News recently reported that this summer may be the coldest on record. It does have to do with the sense that summer's coming to a close; less than two weeks left for me and I am living up what I can. Also, my 'academic' blogwork (ie lots of research with casual delivery) has really taken place on the ACV blog since I started it.

Work:

1. The Alaska Conservation Alliance brochures I designed are about five feet away from me. There are 500 of them and I am proud of how they came out. I don't know about my future relationship with InDesign - there were many...trying moments in the creation of the brochure. I think there should be a way to just get my hands into the computer and directly move things around. But I suppose until high-tech manual collage is back in vogue/technologically possible I am pleased with my InDesign know-how and happy I had the opportunity to learn about it while designing something useful for ACA.

2. Friend to Friend has been more challenging as the summer progresses. I have a lot of 'yes' responses but an almost equal number of no-shows. Many people are on vacation. Still, we've probably sent out a grand total of 50 letters to potential donors through FtF participants. When we get new member envelopes in the mail I'm excited to see if 'FF' is marked on the donation slip and I really hope some will come back before the summer's out. I wonder if we would have a higher turnout in the winter when nobody wants to be outside/people feel more pressure to socialize and be active. I'm not sure, but I've enjoyed meeting the people who came in and I think they've been amused by me (intern, huh? From NYC? You like Alaska and want to come live here, eh? Have you heard about our winters?). Also, I have a much better way of delivering small speeches because of all the practice I had with the phone rap so thanks, Alaska - it'll be nice to have my shiny new presentation mode on hand for senior year.

3. Tabling for the Renewable Energy Fair - this will be my last day. There will be temporary tattoos, big new posters, brochures, a sign up sheet with numbers corresponding to free compact fluorescent bulbs. I would like to find a purple table cloth. I would like to find more volunteers.

NotWork:

1. Karen is away for a while and lent me her car; I've been going on all sorts of adventures (and my running's taken a subsequent hit. Will have to bounce back, carless, next week). Last weekend I went to Eagle River and Girdwood, during the week I meandered a bit around the Seward Highway - nice trails around Potter Creek, apparently they're closed all the time from the McHugh side though because of a lot of bear activity. Hmm. I went to Eklutna Lake, which is a surprisingly quiet place given how gorgeous it is. That can probably be said for much of Alaska though. This weekend I drove down to Homer and that was incredible. I think it beats Seward.

2. Pictures forthcoming.

No Greenhouse Gas Regulations

2008-07-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

Just a few days after the G8 summit in Japan, where President Bush agreed that the United States should reduce it's greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050--and where he also signed off by saying: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" and "then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock"--it has been announced that the EPA will not act to regulate greenhouse gases during the Bush administration.

This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Clean Air Act requires that the EPA regulates greenhouse gases.

From the Washington Post:
"To defer compliance with the Supreme Court's demand, the White House has walked a tortured policy path, editing its officials' congressional testimony, refusing to read documents prepared by career employees and approved by top appointees, requesting changes in computer models to lower estimates of the benefits of curbing carbon dioxide, and pushing narrowly drafted legislation on fuel-economy standards that officials said was meant to sap public interest in wider regulatory action.
...
"Several EPA officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that throughout the process, White House officials instructed the agency to change their calculations with the aim of reducing the "social cost of carbon," a regulatory term that reflects the economic burdens stemming from greenhouse gas emissions.

Career EPA officials argued that the global benefits of reducing carbon are worth at least $40 per ton, but Bush appointees changed the final document to say the figure is just an example, not an official estimate. They prohibited the agency from submitting a 21-page document titled "Technical Support Document on Benefits of Reducing GHG Emissions" as part of today's announcement.

"The administration didn't want to show a high-dollar value for reducing carbon," said one EPA official, adding that the administration cut dozens of pages from a draft that outlined cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

Some officials said the administration has also minimized the benefits of tighter fuel-economy standards by assuming that oil will cost $58 a barrel in the future, compared with its current price of $141.65. While the EPA calculated in a May 30 draft that stricter standards would save U.S. society $2 trillion by 2020, officials revised that figure last month -- using the $58 estimate -- to predict that they would save only between $340 billion and $830 billion.

...

Hutto, a former Cato Institute intern and Bush campaign volunteer during the Florida vote recount in 2000, whose grandfather patented at least seven piston inventions for the Ford Motor Company, has "an anti-regulatory philosophy and concern about what regulation means for the American way of life. He would talk, for example, about not wanting greenhouse gas controls to do away with the large American automobile," said the meeting participant."

------------------

I find it odd that large automobiles are more important to the American way of life, then, say, having a planet that is hospitable to life. I would think that latter would supersede the former.

Gov. Palin & Sen. Stevens: Tag Teaming

2008-07-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

In what the Anchorage Daily News is calling: "a rare tag-team appearance with Gov. Sarah Palin", Ted Stevens has launched a "multi-pronged" (again in the words of ADN) plan to reduce energy costs in Alaska. Sounds promising, right? Multi-pronged--that probably means something other than betting on oil. I mean multi-pronged has to have multiple solutions. It has to.

Well, apparently, Stevens plan is to: 1. End oil speculation. 2. Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 3. Give the state a third of off shore oil drilling revenue.

The only mention of some kind of alternative energy is that the revenue from the Arctic Refuge would go to development of alternative energy sources--which is, in some ways, interesting. It is estimated that it would be 300 billion over 30 years. However, as I pointed out earlier this week, that production would not start immediately and wouldn't peak until 2025, so that money would be a long ways off. By 2025 most technologies to harness renewable energy will not be considered "alternative". Europe, California, Japan, and even countries like China and Brazil are already funding and developing renewable energy technology. Sweden plans to be completely off oil by 2020. Portugal plans to produce 60% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Falling behind now would leave Alaska without a viable economy as the world begins to move from oil and gas to renewable energy. If Alaska wants to develop a sustainable economy, it must start now, not 15 years from now.

Ending oil speculation is starting to look like the new ending the gas tax. It seems that few people actually think that speculation is the leading culprit in skyrocketing prices. As the IEA points out: fast growing demand and finite resources are the driving force behind oil prices.

Number 3 has the same problem as number 2. A good idea 30 years ago, but a bit too late now.

So Ted Stevens and Sarah Palin have created a multi-pronged plan that will: End speculation, which will probably do nothing. Continue the status quo of keep drilling. Begin substantial funding of alternative energy sources after they have become the new status quo 20 years down the line.

Harry Reid: YouTube Celebrity

2008-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Harry Reid had the most popular video on YouTube yesterday--and it is still in the top 5. In the video he says that "coal makes us sick". Apparently, somehow this is being pushed by some as proof of the Democrats being out of touch on energy issues, even though it is a fact that coal does make us sick.

In fact, coal does a lot more than make us sick--coal kills us. Every year 18,700 people die just due to respiratory diseases from coal dust. Then there is the mercury poisoning that comes from coal combustion and mining.

Incredibly, though, Sen. Reid bringing up the fact that there are large externalities associated with the use of coal as an energy source puts him out of though. The cost to burn coal is larger than people assume, that is what he is pointing out. Health costs for the countless people effected by coal production, environmental and building damage due to acid rain, the increasing concentration of green house gases, steadily rising mercury levels, and a whole host of other costs need to be considered when people claim coal is a cheap energy source.

Alli Blogs 6/24

2008-06-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

First, a work update. Second, a recreation update.

1. I am working on the final drafts of the ACA brochure. Soon it will parade its pretty self around the office and then circulate; schmooze with the Anchorage conservation community. Working with InDesign was frustrating at first but we sorted out our differences and eventually, even though I didn't understand why one had to go to 'File' and select 'Place' and then usually hit 'Undo Replace' in order to freakin' add a picture, we came to an understanding. Or a sort of mutually accepted low-grade frustration that at least resulted in a nice product. But hey I don't want to speak ill of a computer program; I feel like that could karmically come back at me (probably during finals in my last semester of college, 3am in the computer lab you know).

2. Friend to Friend is difficult. I have a really hard time with calling people up; it's like if you were at a party where, even though you were constantly keeping up momentum and interest, nobody felt obliged to be nice. Face to face (Friend to Friend) people tend to listen more; at least give you the benefit of the doubt. Not over the phone. Sometimes I get a really cute kid on the other line and then mom comes on and she's friendly, but then she won't commit to a time and I have to e-mail her...who knows if I'll hear back. The good news is that despite the difficulties I'm averaging 1 person per Friend-to-Friend evening, which is 2 a week, which is about 6 sendouts to non-members. So I do think that by the end of the summer we'll have new members.

3. I'm pondering options for a blog/myspace/facebook. No, not for me. I have enough of those damn things. This is for ACA/V. But how do you blog for an organization? I've been doing some research to find out, and it turns out that lots of nonprofits do blog. Most of the ones I've looked at include events past and present, causes, pictures etc. But to be honest I haven't found any nonprofblog terribly interesting because there's no contriversy in events, causes, pictures etc... So the catch 22 seems to be that you need contriversy to get attention, but as a nonprof it's really not in our best interest to broadcast cards on the internet. There are a lot of issues out there, especially in Alaska, but it's difficult to write about them in any meaningful way if you're not taking sides. So I guess that's why most nonprof's stick to what what's already public: dates, times, snapshots.

Does that mean we have to have a dull blog/myspace/facebook? Well...maybe not dull, just more informative than subjective. For a nonprofit, the point seems more about getting the word out about upcoming events/issues than sparking meaningful discussion. A blog's just one part of that effort. But maybe something more can be done; tomorrow I have a meeting about it, we'll talk about these fine lines there.

Okay, so that's my research focus for the day: BLOGS! In the meantime, as this is my shared blog in which I'm pretty sure I know what to say, I'll post photos from the solstice weekend:

Friday 11:50pm

12am: Taking pictures of Denali from the porch at Snow Goose.

12am: Denali is that little bump over the woods on the right. This overlooks Ship Creek.

8am Saturday: Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon start.

8:30am: Yours Truly ready to run 13.1 miles.

Saturday 9pm: Heading up Flattop for the sunset.

10pm: En route.

10:30pm: It was crowded!

10:30pm: Betsy taking photos.

10:30pm: AJ

10:30pm: David and camping stuff.

10:30pm: Me, dreaming.

Low flowers

View from the other side of Flattop

12am: Sunset (Denali again, on the right)

12am: Fourteen of us came up!!

12am

12am: gettin' down

A cab came for us at 1am. Fantastic weekend.

Opening up federal land and its effects on oil prices

2008-06-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

The debate over whether or not to open up federally protected areas, such as the Arctic Refuge here in Alaska, and allowing more offshore oil drilling is really starting to pick up. Both President Bush and John McCain--though McCain has been a lifelong opponent of offshore drilling until this year--are advocating opening up anywhere that has natural gas or petroleum. Meanwhile democrats such as Harry Reid and environmentalists are questioning the value of opening up these areas. So what are the economical benefits of opening up this land?

Well according to the Energy Information Administration (which is a government agency) opening up the Arctic Refuge would lead to oil prices being 75 cents less...per barrel...in 2025. Also according to EIA is that opening up offshore drilling areas would lead to to an increase of 1.6% by 2025 in domestic oil production, which would lead to an "insignificant" price in oil prices. These are reports put out by a government agency; not environmental groups.

The only people who would benefit from opening up these areas are oil companies. There would be no significant change in cost to the consumer. I don't have the knowledge to predict what a barrel of oil will cost in 2025, but I think we can assume it will be high enough that 75 cents isn't going to make a difference to most people. In fact a general rule of thumb is that a dollar change in the price of a barrel of oil corresponds to a 2.5 cent change in a gallon of gas.

Over the past two years domestic oil and gas production has outpaced domestic consumption fourfold. There just is no correlation between domestic production and the cost of gas for Americans. Oil is an international product and its price is determined on the international market. The oil that is in American soil is sold to international companies.

Another point that needs to be made is that oil companies already have more leases to reserves than they are using. As Peter Lehner of the National Resource Defense Council points out: in the past four years the BLM has issued 10,000 more permits to oil companies than they have used. There is six times more oil currently available for drilling than is located in the Arctic Refuge. As for offshore drilling, there is currently 7,740 active leases, of which 1,655 are in production. There is four time more natural gas in those leases not in production then in the areas protected by the offshore ban.

All that said, energy independence is very valuable. However, oil and natural gas are not the answer. The easiest and most cost effective route is to be more energy efficient. Smart building practices can significantly lower energy demand, to the point that, with some small scale renewable energy systems, zero energy buildings are currently possible. Sweden plans to be completely off oil by 2020. The United States has the ability to become a leader in the renewable energies market, which as oil prices soar will become a very lucrative market. Any plan that is centered on increased oil production is bound to fail. The impact that drilling will have on the economy is minuscule, in fact oil prices will continue to sky rocket no matter what. Renewable energy sources will always be available, so why not develop them?

Two cents for environmentalism

2008-06-17T14:14:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting interactive map of the North Slope of Alaska once you figure out how to use it. I found the easiest way is to right click on the map and hit 'zoom', then move the map around manually with the mouse to see different parts. You can also just hit the zoom button at the base of the map and decide which features you want to enable/disable - there are wildlife layers; oil development layers. I found that with all the layers activated it's all too confusing.

Here is a primer on the discovery of oil in the North Slope - its bias is pro-development, but I figure mine is pro-conservation so between us there's a pretty solid set of facts. Remarks on the careful insulation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and housing built on permafrost are interesting to me. The article stresses that the insulation was used to prevent heat transferrence from the pipeline and homes to the foundational permafrost. The thing is, while no heat may have been lost on the ground in the early days (and it is quite impressive that the pipeline withstood a magnitude 7 earthquake) no mention is made in this article about what happens now that the earth which supports that pipeline is melting. And that it's melting because of what happens to the stuff in the pipeline later on in its lifecycle; the same oil that is so carefully insulated in its debut run down from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. It's been pointed out several times before, probably in this very same blog, but one of Alaska's big ironies - kinda like an L-shaped pipeline across its forehead - is that the same resource it hustles to make a quick buck off is exactly what warms it up - and disproportionately faster than the rest of the world. This state is an oil addict and is choking on its own fumes.

Ok, so strong statement. I've had many conversations and been privy to many meetings where the topic of conversation is basically 'so now what'. Well, on a political level I think it's a tremendous problem that Alaska as a state is so reliant on oil industry for its income. A main tenet of Alaska Conservation Voters is that 'a sound economy and a healthy environment go hand in hand' and this is going to be a crucial frame of reference if any sustainable development is to happen. I do not think, given our dependence on oil, that the solution will happen overnight. I do think that given the opportunity planning/development does not always occur in forward motion, and that given insane schemes such as the Alberta Tar Sands there need to be stringent guidelines and economic incentives in place which prevent highly emissive, energy inefficient, and overall environmentally catastrophic development from taking place.

But you know, these words are almost meaningless to most people now. Even as I write them, 'environmentally catastrophic' seems like it would be best illustrated by a set of pictures, or superhot days with terrible air quality, or even being stuck in bad traffic. 'Environmentally catastrophic' means not being able to afford food, or being forced to work crappy jobs, or not having a place to live. Once you start to examine one part of our culture, such as the reliance on oil, the rest starts to unfold fast. One massive get-rich-quick scheme, such as the Alberta Tar Sands or even oil extraction in general, works for a few, but for the rest of us it causes a steady erosion of our surroundings. We can't even see that this cumulative effect of our day-to-day lives is the environment, so that if we decide to use less gas; if we decide to put our money where our mouth is, if we decide to vote/letter write/demonstrate/at least think we can make a marked difference in our personal lives that has potential to contribute to a greater whole. So, on a personal level, the reasons for getting out of oil addiction, or just bettering the world in general, have to conjur up a whole lot more personal incentive in order for the political side to work.

Now people (ok Alaskans) tend to think 'extreme environmentalists'. Well, I don't consider myself extreme. I just want a nice life for everyone...even those 'damn republicans'. When I think 'environment' I think whatever it is we all live in, day-to-day.

So, on a personal level, I think environmentalism is really just a steady consideration of what's right around you - how much effort you put into it, what feedback you get, how involved you are. Here, we're riding our bikes everywhere - bing, connection to the road and we're not paying $4.19/gallon at the pump (we run on bagels). We're nice to folks and listen and try not to cram an opinion in their ears, and hopefully then there's room for conversation. And yeah, whoever it is at the office who hasn't yet removed the plastic bag they stuck in the dish drier (that's been there since the start of my internship) could maybe be called an 'extreme environmentalist' but I think it's cute. It's better than the opposite. And I like that it's still there; it means no one else would just throw it away.

Now if only I could get myself to make my bed every morning I could certainly stop global climate change.

Ok, lovely tangent, now back to poking around the North Slope..

Alli + Alaska ?

2008-06-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

So I want to come back here. To live. After one more year of living it up in the urban jungle - and I will live it up, leaping hurdles such as my best friend's wedding, a 26.2-mile skip through NYC, and, like, graduation - I am sure I want to declare residency in this fine state. Probably in Anchorage.

However, in the name of weighing my options (a process I rarely go through because I find it boring and time-consuming), I am posting a little photo-journey through some pros and cons of moving to Alaska. Your input is welcome. Loudly cheering and/or angrily protesting especially encouraged.

Okay, so first a potential con:

"Winter in Downtown Anchorage". This daylight could last maybe three hours. And it's probably somewhat chilly, like in the negative somethin' somethings. Depressing? Well, what about:

See, that looks nice! A full moon gives you enough light to do all sorts of fun stuff, like cross-country ski, snowmobile, snowshoe...

and the winter doesn't prevent people from biking either. Just Add Spikes.

AND IN THE SUMMER THERE ARE ENORMOUS VEGETABLES. This is cabbage.

+ road trips. This man is, as the postcard highlights, on the road to Tok.

The Alaskan idea of outdoor recreation - running 3 miler up 3,500 feet and back! It's called the Mountain Marathon, and Karen - who I live with - is training for it. Ooooooo.

Downtown has some pretty cool hangouts as well.

Hmmmmmm.

Brief this, hit on that, it's a rap.

2008-06-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

Other than writing up info on Alberta Tar Sands (which I hope I cleverly duped you into at least skimming) and connecting the dots (well, pipelines) 'tween Alaska and there, I've been working on Friend to Friend this week. I go to work between 9-3, take a 2 hour break, then call Anchorage residents legislative district by district in the evening. It's a nice schedule and of course getting out in the evening here has no bearing on my post-work planning at all seeing as it's basically light all the time. The other night I biked home at 12:45am without breaking out so much as a squint. And to think I brought my headlamp to Alaska...

Anyway, the idea behind my making all these phone calls is that at least some of these folks will come in, scan lists of other voters in the area, recognize a couple and write them a note telling them about ACV. Then we can expand our membership and have a more solid constituent base for big elections this year. I think it's a compelling reason/argument so it's not too hard for me to try and sell people on it (unlike those times when I was 18 and, say, peddling eyeliner at the Body Shop. So glad times have changed).

A quote from my phone rap:

"Hi, is ___________ there? Hi, this is Alli from Alaska Conservation Voters, how are you tonight? Great! First, this is not a fundraising call, I'm calling because 2008 is going to be a critical year for conservation, and to prepare we need your help. Is this a good time, I can be brief...

...I’m calling to see what times you can come in and take a quick look at some of our lists of voters and ID friends and family who support conservation in Alaska. We have several times during the evening next week when other voters from your district will be here, and of course we’ll provide snacks and refreshment. Are you available next Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday between 5 and 7pm?"

Then when they come in, I'll deliver a spiel:

"...As you are undoubtedly, unfortunately aware, the political corruption scandal has been long and difficult, and it’s opened up an intense examination of Alaska’s politicians and their relationship with industry. It has felt like every other week someone new is under investigation. As always in politics, opinions on who is responsible and what should be done vary however there seems to be one major consensus – change is necessary. More and more Alaskans are recognizing that a healthy environment and strong economy go hand in hand and that value needs to be reflected in our public officials so that more bills, like HB 125 [a bill that will provide $250 million a year in renewable energy support], can be passed. This year we have a unique opportunity to draw from this sentiment and elect ethical candidates. ACV is doing everything we can to put such candidates in office, and a major part of this work is based on expanding our voter network.

Questions?

The Friend-to-Friend program is based on studies that have shown the most effective way to get people involved with a group or to vote is to have their friends contact them. Think about how often you respond to solicitation from a group you don’t know. If we e-mail, call, meet it’s one thing, but if you write your friend a letter and let them know that ACV is doing great work and they should get involved, the number of respondents is much greater. That’s why we asked you to come in today!

On the table you’ll find lists of registered voters from your district. Take a few minutes and look over the lists, identify anyone you know who you think should be involved with Alaska Conservation Voters. Make a note of this person’s name and write him/her a letter letting them know about ACV and encouraging them to join. Even if you wouldn’t classify them as a conservationist, maybe they like to hunt or fish, you could tell them about ACV’s work on protecting clean water and wildlife habitat. That’s just an example, but ACV’s activities can connect with just about anybody. We’ve provided envelopes, paper, pens etc..."

I have a lot of respect for what this organization does as far as coordinating what are often portrayed as conflicting interests (basically, development vs. conservation) in order to establish common ground. So, luckily, I believe in what I'm saying.

That said, maybe I could benefit from acting lessons. It's kinda hard to cold-call anybody, even if it's not a fundraising call. However I feel myself getting more confident in the whole rap-delivery thing as I go along, and tonight is the first night I actually play host. I have a feeling there won't be a big turnout but it'll be good practice (this will be going on for the rest of the summer and I expect that as I get better at the 'rap' and call more people, we'll have higher turnouts).

IN other news, I am officially accepted into the NYC Marathon (!!!) but in the meantime I am extremely tempted to do this and just call it a long run. Extremely tempted. It could be a really bad idea (recent injury, tight budget). But it could be really fun...

I've perfected the balance of groceries and/or beverages that clink, on handlebars. And I saw a moose this morning (they are very nonchalant, knobby lookin' creatures...well, when they're not angry, like David's moose). Also, I wonder should I purchase bear bells for trail running? I don't want to be one of those morons who I used to make fun of up in N.H. But I don't want to be one of those morons who got attacked by an ornery grizzly, either.

FINALLY, here's a great link for those of us who are car-less and looking to go hiking/kayaking/what-have-youing: Anchorage Adventurers Meetup Group. Carpooling with Alaskans. Takers?

Pretty pictures from Alaska!!

2008-06-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Just kidding.
This is just a little somethin' I've been working on.

http://randsco.com/_img/blog/0602/tarSandMap.jpg

Alberta Tar Sands Fact Sheet

Definition:

Alberta’s Tar Sands (also known as Oil Sands) are found primarily in northeast Alberta, Canada. Altogether the sands occupy 140,000 square kilometers, a land mass a) three times the size of Switzerland; b) the size of Florida.

The sands are a mixture of sand/clay, water, and a very heavy, viscous, tar-like substance called bitumen. Bitumen is extracted from the sand through processes that are extremely water and energy intensive.

The bitumen can be removed from the sand one of two ways. If the sands are close to the surface of the earth then strip mining is used. Basically, the top layer of the landscape is removed in order to dig up the sands underneath. “Great machines mow down trees (and all their supporting creatures such as boreal songbirds and woodland caribou), roll up acres of muskeg, drain entire wetlands, and reroute rivers” (http://www.onearth.org/article/canadas-highway-to-hell). Then enormous shovels dig and transfer the sand into massive trucks which bring it to cleaning facilities.

However, 82% of the tar sands are too deep to strip mine. In these cases industries use a technique they call in situ mining. In Situ is latin for ‘in place’. The bitumen is heated up while it’s still underground by steam drills so wells can be dug and it can be extracted in a manner more closely resembling the techniques used for conventional oil.

Overall, ‘oil sand producers move enough overburden [layers of sand, gravel, and shale which covered oil sands before mining began] and shallow oil sands every two days to fill Yankee Stadium’ (http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OilSands/790.asp).

There is an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels of crude bitumen in the sands. If this figure in fact represents a viable oil reserve, Canada comes in second only to Saudi Arabia as the country with the most oil. In fact, Canada is the only place worldwide with large scale oil sand development (oil sands in Utah and Venezuela have not been developed due to political setbacks). Production of bitumen-derived oil comprises 40% of Canada’s oil output now; this figure is expected to increase very quickly.

History:

Natives first used tar sands to fix their canoes by warming the asphalt-like substance then applying it as a patch. However commercial development of tar sands through strip mining didn’t begin until the 1960’s near Fort McMurray. Such development grew minimally through the ‘90’s. It was, and is, universally recognized that the tar sands are one of the dirtiest forms of oil so large scale development was never deemed economically viable until recently. Then, under increasing pressure to develop oil, the National Oil Sands Task Force, a partnership between Canadian government and oil industries, developed a 25 year plan to mine the sands. Part of this effort included ‘re-branding’ the tar sands as oil sands to eliminate negative connotation. “Production
of oil from Alberta’s tar sands has doubled over the last 10 years to approximately 1.1 million barrels per day in 2005.” (http://www.nrdc.org/energy/drivingithome/drivingithome.pdf). This output is expected to reach 3 million barrels per day by 2015. (http://news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=306539)

Subsequently, Fort McMurray’s population has grown from 36,000 to 64,000 in ten years. The overall cost of living is the highest in Canada and the population spike is often cited as the cause of drastic increases in housing prices and crime. The market has been flooded by the 30,000 workers mining bitumen, and infrastructure hasn’t had the chance to catch up. Long term residents describe the difference of the landscape now vs. then as staggering. One example of the change is that since mining the tar sands is very water intensive, river and lake levels have decreased noticeably. Moreover, highly toxic tailings ponds – manmade ponds where post-mined sand and refuse water is deposited – are located on migratory bird paths and have already killed 500 geese who landed there (http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/tarnation.htm). The health implications of living downstream from the Tar Sand Mine residue doesn’t bode well for humans either - “residents of Fort Chipewyan, a community of about 1,200 people 300 kilometers downstream of Fort McMurray, have been diagnosed with a high number of illnesses, including leukemia, lymphomas, lupus, and autoimmune diseases” (http://www.nrdc.org/energy/drivingithome/drivingithome.pdf).

Today, $125 billion in U.S. dollars is committed to developing the sands in the next decade through multi-national oil industries. Additionally, U.S. reliance on Albertan oil is fairly outstanding; amounting to about 16% of our total oil consumption. However, the 2007 Energy Bill contains a highly contested section stating that the U.S. may not use any oil derived from a ‘non-conventional petroleum source’. The provision was initially written because the U.S. Air Force was intending on using coal-to-liquid fuel for its fleet. However, oil derived from tar sands also falls indisputably into the category of ‘non-conventional petroleum’. This restriction against U.S. ‘non conventional’ oil purchases, which will arguably disproportionately affect Canada, raises questions about whether these circumstances violate WTO guidelines. For more information: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=58310
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=50551&sn=Detail

Ownership:

Alberta owns the tar sands; industry purchases mineral rights to own bitumen. Industries that are currently mining and developing bitumen include Suncor Energy Inc., Syncrude Canada Ltd., Albian Sands Energy Inc, and several others (for a complete list of these companies as well as others which have proposed projects, see http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com/oil_sands_story/pdfs/projects.pdf).

Energy Usage:

The open-pit mining process – otherwise known as strip mining – accounts for 18% of tar sand development. Strip mining employs large hydraulic and electric powered shovels to transfer oil sands into trucks, each of which weighs 400 tons and stands one and a half stories tall. The wheels alone are 14 feet wide.

The bitumen composition in the sands accounts for only 10-12%, and a mere 75% of this is recoverable through processing. Once the sand is transferred to a facility it’s washed with hot water to isolate the bitumen. It takes two tons of sand to produce one barrel of oil.

Natural gas fuels the bitumen extraction process. The amount of natural gas needed per barrel depends on whether the bitumen has been extracted via strip or in situ mining. In strip mining each barrel of oil requires 250 cubic feet of natural gas. The remaining 82% of the time 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas is needed per barrel of bitumen steamed up from the ground. “Altogether, the tar sands industry consumes enough natural gas every day to heat roughly 4 million American homes.” (http://www.nrdc.org/energy/drivingithome/drivingithome.pdf)

Plans for a Mackenzie Natural Gas Pipeline, running 758 miles from the Mackenzie Valley in Northwest Canada, are in the works. Nuclear energy has also been proposed as a way to fuel the tar sand development. The Canadian government recently estimated it might take 20 nuclear reactors to replace natural gas as the fuel source by 2015 (http://www.onearth.org/article/canadas-highway-to-hell?page=2).

Producing oil from tar sands creates three times more carbon emissions per barrel than the process of extracting traditional oil.

Water Usage:

During strip mining each barrel of bitumen extracted from the sands requires 2-5 barrels of water. In situ mining uses 2 ½ - 4 barrels of water per barrel of bitumen.

“About 90 percent of the water withdrawn from the Athabasca River for mining ends up behind massive tailings dams or dykes. Covering an area of 30 square miles, nearly a dozen man-made impoundments line both sides of the Athabasca; the largest of them covers more than 7,400 acres.

“Every year the tar-sands operations withdraw 250,000 Olympic-size pools of water from the Athabasca [River]. That's enough water to service a city of two million people.” (http://www.onearth.org/article/canadas-highway-to-hell?page=3).

“As the Alberta government continues to approve all proposed tar sands projects (no proposal to date has ever been rejected), Alberta is looking at having tar sands tailings lakes which combined will cover an area greater than five Sylvan Lakes (a lake the size 42.8 square kilometers)” (http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/tarnation.htm).

Net Carbon Emissions:

“In 2000, the tar sands industry released 23.3 MT of GHG emissions (3 per cent of Canada's total). By 2015, tar sands GHG emissions are expected to rise to between 57 and 97 MT--which would make it the single largest contributor to GHG emissions growth in Canada. This would also virtually guarantee that Canada would fail to achieve its Kyoto Protocol targets” (http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/tarnation.htm).

(Potential) Relationship to Alaska:

TransCanada, whose proposal for the Natural Gas Pipeline in Alaska is supported by Governor Palin, has already constructed all of the major pipelines tied into the Tar Sands. The Mackenzie Gas Project, which is the natural gas pipeline slated to run from Northwest Territories in Canada directly to the Tar Sand region of Alberta, is a TransCanada project. The Keystone oil pipeline (currently under construction), which is also TransCanada, is what will bring both Tar Sand-derived oil and natural gas to Midwest Markets. Given the planned pipelines and the projected energy needs of the Tar Sands, the potential connection between Alaska’s natural gas and Alberta’s Tar Sands is significant.

for a bigger version:

http://oilsandstruth.org/2030-proposed-pipelines

‘Proposed, existing and conceived infrastructure related to the Tar Sands gigaproject set to exist as of 2030’ (http://oilsandstruth.org/2030-proposed-pipelines).

Organized Protest:

http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/tarnation.htm

References:

http://www.environment.alberta.ca/documents/Oil_Sands_Opportunity_Balance.pdf Alberta-commissioned fact sheet published by ‘JWP Publishing’ ie ‘Canada’s Oil and Gas Publisher’.
http://www.junewarren.com/publications/oilsands.asp a magazine devoted to covering the ‘issues, challenges, and triumphs of the unconventional oil industry’
http://oilsands.alberta.ca/
http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/photos/index.cfm#tarsandphotos some pictures
http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands/index.cfm primer on ‘tar sands’
http://news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=306539 Canada is the US’s top oil/natural gas provider.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article2148631.ece July, 2007 article on Shell’s huge profits off oil sands
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=50551&sn=Detail April 2008 article about a 5-month-old ban (Section 526 that was added to the 2007 Energy Bill) that prohibits, among other fuels, tar sand-derived oil sales in the US. Repeal was made by the US Air Force and the Canadian Gov’t – Air Force argues that we should be buying oil from our neighbor instead of potential terrorists, Canada argues that they don’t label tar-sand derived oil as an alternative fuel. ‘Radical’ environmentalists say that carbon output of tar sand oil is double that of traditional petroleum.
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=58310 March 2008 article detailing the bill and its caveats.
http://www.cos-trust.com/news/news12140701.aspx 2008 projected budget for Canada Oil Sands.
http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com/oil_sands_story/pdfs/projects.pdf Projects/companies invested in development.
http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OilSands/790.asp Fact sheet.
http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com/oil_sands_story/pdfs/enviro_protection.pdf Claims that, post-mining, regions can be re-established as wildlife areas.
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/tarsands/threats/water-depletion Environmental concerns.
http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/tarnation.htm Calls on Canadian residents to take action.
http://www.onearth.org/article/canadas-highway-to-hell Great article from National Resource Defense Council’s magazine On Earth detailing the whole Tar Sand process. Scary pictures.
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/drivingithome/drivingithome.pdf NRDC report on US consumption of petroleum products, includes a detailed section on the Tar Sands.
http://alaska-gas-pipeline.blogspot.com/2008/04/alaska-gas-canadian-tar-sands-do-math.html Tar Sand blog.
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/alaska-gears-its-own-royalty-battle tar sands watch
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=f4919288-4301-4d48-af9c-ebb0ea5f71e7 Keystone Oil Pipeline construction begins.
http://oilsandstruth.org/2030-proposed-pipelines Maps of proposed pipelines.

Moose are big and frightening creatures

2008-06-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday fellow intern Winnie and I came across this moose (whom we have decided to call "Groucho"). It was the first bull moose I have seen and was quite large. Now here's a fun fact about moose: More people are injured and killed by moose in Alaska than they are bears. Obviously no one is getting eaten by moose, but they can be temperamental and have bad eye-sight. This leads to them charging at people--especially dumb tourists who think they are cute and want to pet them. Now I've already told you that we decided to call the moose "Groucho" and mentioned that moose can be temperamental, so you may see where this is going...

"Groucho the Moose"

As you can see in the picture Groucho was taking a swim in a pond along a bike trail, and eventually he exited the water on the opposite shore from us. At this point we figured the moose was gone and headed a little further down the path to a little hill. At the hill we pulled out a map from my back to figure out where we were, and then suddenly a moose that was very, very large and running very fast directly at us rounded the bend. I was a bit tangled up with my book bag, so I quickly through it to the ground, jumped over my bike, and headed toward some bushes across the path, all the while hearing an angry snorting sound and loud hoof stumps. Luckily the moose decided not to chase us, but it was more than a little frightening.

Anywho, here are some other random photos that I've taken over the past week.

Sunsets here happen real late at night. The start at about 11:15 and don't finish until nearly midnight. It never really gets any darker than twilight as the Sun just dips below the horizon.
Here are two eagles that I saw a few mornings ago sitting on the mudflats. I've seen three bald eagles in total.

David is overwhelmed with awesome

2008-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

So here's the problem with having a really awesome week and blogging: When having a lot of fun there is little time for blogging. Later, when it comes time to blog, you become overwhelmed with all of the amazing things that have happened and can't really condense everything into one post without writing a short book. I'm not in the mood to write a short book, so I'm going to try to condense the past week as much as possible.

Wednesday morning I saw not only my first moose, but my first moose family:Wednesday was also the first internship orientation day, which meant that I got to meet all of the other ACF interns--all of which are super cool. Later in the day we went to a potluck hosted by Nick Harding, who is the director of ACF, where we ate such Alaskan cuisine as salmon, halibut, and moose. On my way home from this event I actually managed to see two more moose, bringing my daily total to five!
Thursday was hiking day! If you've read Alli's blog entry you know about this already, and if you haven't read Alli's entry you should. Honestly though, this was an amazing day. It was just so much fun and while I was the first to the top, proving that people from NYC can indeed climb mountains (which might have something to do with my dislike of elevators...), I felt it was necessary to stop every ten steps to take everything in. The view from the top was stunning, though Anchorage is not the most well laid out or designed city, which truly is a shame since it has the potential to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Some fellow hikers cresting the ridge.
More fellow hikers climbing the last snow patch.
A view from little O'Mally

One the way back another intern, Pat from Wisconsin, and I decided to veer a bit further up the slope:

Those little dots are fellow interns
There's Pat.
A view from the upper ridge.

Pat actually is working in Homer this summer and makes it seem like a real great area, so one of my hopes this summer is to get a chance to get there.

Friday was some more orientating, which included leadership training! Also it was the first sunny day in over a week so I laid in a park for a large amount of the afternoon, after being in the office for a bit counting Denali Green Tags (only about 1,ooo of them) and getting a little sick from the glue fumes. Friday was also the kick off of the Salmon in the City Festival, which was kind of tacky and involved a band called the Carhartt Brothers--who weren't actually brothers, but were all named Bob.

After a bit of watching a band of interns, which included me, began to roam in search of food. This led us to discover First Friday, which is where local restaurants and galleries serve free food and display local artwork. After going to about 6 of these events we were filled up on hummus, spinach dip, cheese, crackers, and various forms of Alaskan art.

Saturday was the Oceans Festival, where REAP has tabling. I helped man the table from noon to 8, and was pleasantly surprised by the positive response to our cause. A lot of people were interested in buying our T-shirts as well. Once everything was packed up alt-country band Son Volt took the stage and performed to the crowd of Alaskans who were willing to get a little wet in the rain. Mercifully the rain ended just before the show was finished and right when Son Volt really started to rock out to a know super enthused audience and some dancing was had by ACF interns.

Of course the after party started afterwards around 10:45 and was held at the Organic Oasis. The food was really tasty, and even more so because it was free, while the local band was a lot of fun and much more dancing took place. I was a little sad when everyone had to clear out at 2.

Now it's back to the office for me, which means I'm back to looking up some LEED stuff. I actually have just discovered that the expansion of the Anchorage Museum is going to be LEED certified, which is exciting, but more on that later.

I Am Not a Motor Vehicle

2008-06-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

What did the Alaskan sourdough in a beatup pickup truck with a cigarette wagglin' around in his mouth say to the bleary-eyed Northeast-born cheechako squeaking along on her bicycle at 7:30am this morning?

YOU ARE NOT A MOTOR VEHICLE. Get off the road!

Hey, I'm glad he decided to use his words (and not wheels) to make his point. Me n' old bones...hardy a pair though we may be...are probably no match for angry old Alaskans in big cars.

IN OTHER NEWS: David and I have been dutifully attending what is probably the most kickass series of orientation events we'll ever have the privilege of participating in. There were great speakers, there was free food, really cool other interns AND WE GOT TO GO HIKING. Some photodocumentation: We walked up the middle where the snow is and hung a left, onto Little O'Malley.

Anna, Anchorage native, is interning with Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA). We went to their fundraising event after hiking, which was a hoot and a holler and a whole lotta wet/smelly interns socializing, eating salmon and having fun.

Anyway here we are, starting our hike at Glen Alps trailhead (also gets you to Flattop) on the Power Line Trail.

David, with his 'I'MA BE FIRST ON TOP OF THAT BIG HILL' grin (he was first GO NEW YORK).
They say when you're attacked by mud you're supposed to raise your hands up high and yell in a low voice and move around and otherwise make yourself as big as you can. Here, I show off my madd mud survival skillz.

This is one of the dogs who bravely hiked with us, and also the 800-ft hill we later cruised down. Apparently the fancy French word for sliding down on one's butt is 'glicade' (pictures later!).

Congregated at the top of the hill - notice the tiny hikers in the background hiking along the ridge, that's the way we went.

A view of the dog crew from the ridge toward Little O'Malley. Amazing perspective up here.
You can see Anchorage in the middle right, and Mt. Susitna across the sound.

Le Intern Mountaintop Luncheon.

That island out on the sound is Fire Island where the wind energy is at.

Here we are playing a game called 'Big Booty'. Yes. Yes, we did.

Here we are preparing to glicade.

HERE WE ARE GLICADING.

Here is Jess, post-glicade.

Aaand, in case there was any doubt, this is brown bear country.

More updates later...

David searches for and finds green buildings in Alaska

2008-06-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

So part of my job this summer is to help plan for a renewable energy fair that REAP hosts at the end of the summer. Today I tried to find as much information as possible on green buildings in Alaska and the architectural firms that build them. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the amount I found.

As far as LEED certified buildings go there are currently three such buildings in Alaska. The first one I came across is the Evergreen Building in Juneau, which is the first LEED certified in Juneau. It was designed by MRV Architects, and also acts as their new office. There are also three 'upscale' apartments on the top floor and there is another office area in the building. From the Alaska Public Radio piece that I listened to it sounds as if they attained the certified rating through using local materials, reusing old materials whenever possible, and because of the close proximity to jobs, grocery markets, and other amenities. What was really surprising/amusing/somewhat saddening to me was an interview with a contractor who mentioned it was difficult to subcontract out parts of the job behttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifcause of the "greenie" association with the building, as if working on the building would somehow turn them into commie, tree-hugging lefties or something.

The Homer Public Library is also LEED certified, and garnered a Silver rating. It also used local materials to help reach LEED status. Interestingly, the movement to remake the Homer Library was largely community driven, and stemmed from a prior incident in which the library was fined by the EPA for violating the Clean Water Act.

The last, which was also the first to be built, is actually the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer. Not only was this the first LEED building in Alaska, but it was also the first NOAA, National Weather Service, and Commerce Department building to be LEED certified.

There are some other really interesting building currently in the works as well. Aurora Square is being built in Eastern Anchorage and advertises itself as "lux-eco-modern townhomes" and seems to be an interesting project that I want to find out more about. The development is supposed to have energy efficient appliances and there is a rain garden. They also advertise that there are lawns on the roofs, whether this means that they are green roofs and add to the efficiency of the building I'm not sure. I plan to email them sometime to find out some more.

There will be at least one more LEED building in Alaska as the Augustine Energy Building is on track to be LEED certified silver. It is going to be a twenty-one story retail/office building in Downtown Anchorage, but that is about all I've been able to find out about it so far.

David Again

2008-06-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Anchorage—in bullet form:
Pros
-Beautiful views
-Good coffee
-Extremely nice people
-Very nice weather
-Lots of light
-Decent bus system

Cons

-Expensive
-Difficult to get around without a car
-Lots of light
-Very Expensive
-Did I mention that food is seriously expensive?

I can’t stress enough how expensive Anchorage is. People told me to expect New York prices, but these prices blow New York out of the water and make Whole Foods look like Sam’s Club. The cheapest loaf of bread I could find was $4.39. So even a diet consisting of peanut butter and bread isn’t all that cheap. I only hope that as oil prices rise over the summer the prices don’t skyrocket even more (yeah, right). Hopefully after I’ve been here a few weeks I’ll know where to purchase some cheap food, other then semi-cheap, extremely delicious falafels. Coffee isn't too badly priced. Kaladi Brothers Coffee is the local purveyor of the life sustaining liquid, and a 16 oz cup costs a reasonable $1.75 and is delicious. Still, I better start home brewing soon or I'll be broke extraordinarily quickly.

That said what I have eaten has been good. Alli and I went to a restaurant called Humpys two nights ago (I use the word "night" very loosely), and I was happy to find out that a Humpy is a pink salmon. However they do not serve pink salmon, because they are sacred fish, so you can not get a humpy at Humpys. However they do serve red salmon, so I got a salmon burger (12 dollars), while Allie ordered a salmon Caesar salad. Both of us were pleased with our meals, though frightened of the prospect of eating out too often. We may, though, go back Monday (tomorrow) because they have an open mic night, which should be amusing at least.

Also I got a bike yesterday. It’s a nice mountain bike that is owned by someone on the board of directors of REAP (free bike!!!). It’s a little small for me, and I still miss my bike, but I’m happy to be riding again. Anchorage is actually a flat city, so getting around on bike shouldn’t be too hard—no Williamsburg Bridge to go over twice a day. The only problem is the very large area that Anchorage takes up. There are great trails throughout the city which are completely separated from the street system to ride on, though, which is great because the roads here are not conducive to bike travel. In fact most people ride their bikes on the sidewalks instead of the road. This doesn't seem all that safe to me, since the sidewalks are fairly narrow, hopefully it won't get too crazy once the tourist season really picks up.

Anyway, tomorrow is my first real day as a REAPer, so I'm pretty excited to get a more concrete idea of what my summer responsibilities will be!

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

2008-05-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-29T18:05:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-05-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-05-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

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. !!!!

2008-05-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

David and I are going to Anchorage, Alaska for 12 weeks this summer through Eugene Lang College's Tishm an 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.