Background Articles

Residents of the Southwest Alaska village are hauling water from the Kuskokwim River, collecting rainwater and drinking donated bottled water as officials seek a viable option.

Barnehage, sjukeheim, rådhus, legesenter, barneskule, vass- og avløpssystem, eit bustadfelt og ei av hovudfartsårene inn til Gjerdrum er sett ut av spel.

Residents of Seyðisfjörður in East Iceland have been returning home this weekend, and it will become clear today whether people from the part of the town that was first evacuated will also be allowed to return home now that the intense rain that caused devastating mudslides in the town, destroying or damaging a dozen houses and completely changing the appearance of the town and the fjord, has passed.

The National Police Commissioner has raised the level of alert for the town. After a week of extreme rainfall, devastating landslides have hit the town of Seyðisfjörður in east Iceland.

Dozens more homes in Haines were evacuated Thursday night as rain continued to saturate the mountainsides near residential neighborhoods.

The region is prime landslide territory and a changing climate - trending toward warmer, rainier winters - is likely to increase the frequency of slides in the future.

Environmental campaigners stressed the need for the incoming Biden White House to put in place permanent protections for Alaska's Bristol Bay after the Trump administration on Wednesday denied a permit for the proposed Pebble Mine that threatened "lasting harm to this phenomenally productive ecosystem" and death to the area's Indigenous culture.

A spill that dumped thousands of tons of diesel fuel into the Russian Arctic earlier this year was caused by violations during construction and operation of a storage tank, not permafrost melt, according to a preliminary investigation. 

Eugene Asicksik, the mayor at the time, had watched Shaktoolik’s shoreline erode for years. After the September 2013 storm threw tree-sized driftwood dangerously close to the homes, Eugene knew something had to be done to protect the community. He turned to beavers for inspiration, designing Shaktoolik’s first storm surge berm based on the impressive beaver dams upriver.

The Red Dog Mine announced last week that it was able to start the use of a new waste water treatment system to purify water after record-breaking warm weather in 2019 caused the sediment levels to rise in the Ikalukrok and Wulik Rivers.

Glaciers are melting, permafrost thaws and buildings are sagging. What scares the scientists most is studies of decomposing carbon from beneath the ground being emitted to the atmosphere as CO2 or methane.

Some biologists think the trend is related to the reduced hunting pressure from Outside hunters this year.

Radiation, chemical and biological forces tackle two million tonnes of toxic chemical waste with huge mercury stockpile and oil poisons.

“People assume that we’re entering this new Arctic, when in reality we have faced adversity for thousands of years. We’ve always been able to adapt and be resilient.

A group advocating for the conservation of wild Atlantic salmon says the number of adult salmon returning to North America rivers fell to near historic lows last year.

Jan Egil Bakkeby had to flee for his life when he suddenly heard it start to crack in the cabin. Soon after, he witnessed the entire building being washed up on water.

Melting permafrost, land erosion, and heavy rains are causing these villages to flood and sink

Alaskans can help the National Weather Service monitor rivers during a potentially dangerous breakup this year through a University of Alaska Fairbanks citizen science project.

In big and small ways, a pandemic has altered what Anchorage feels like to live in, from coffee to court to riding the bus.

BRUNY ISLAND, TASMANIA (WASHINGTON POST) - Even before the ocean caught fever and reached temperatures no one had ever seen, Australia's ancient giant kelp was cooked.. Read more at straitstimes.com.