Background Articles

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

On Friday 13 March, the Directorate of Agriculture paid out NOK 2 million from the emergency preparedness fund. The funds go to the Middle and Eastern Zone in Western Finnmark reindeer grazing area. 160 000 animals within the Sami reindeer grazing area have now been affected by the grazing crisis.

With the number of COVID-19 cases outside of China increasing 13-fold, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global pandemic on Thursday, urging governments “to take urgent and aggressive action” to stop its spread.

More than once, Alaska has been called ground zero for climate change. Here are three reasons why.

Many communities in the Northwest Territories are worried about the impacts climate change is having on their cemeteries.

Many mushers have seen high numbers of moose while training, spurring them to pack guns during this year’s 1,000-mile race to Nome.

The monthly temperature for the entire country in February was 4.0 degrees above normal, and the month became the 7th wettest in the series dating back to 1900.

Clouds of the insects can stretch for miles, devouring vegetation and destroying crops. Locust experts say time is running out to get the swarms under control because they multiply so quickly.

The Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave of 2019 was the second longest-lasting and second-largest such event recorded over the past 39 years, according to NOAA.

It was warmer and wetter last year than national averages, the Finnish Meteorological Institute reports.

Just at a time when crab stocks in the central Gulf of Alaska are taking off, likely in part due to crashing cod populations, a new study funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that ocean acidification is damaging the shells of young Dungeness crab in the Pacific Northwest, an impact that scientists did not expect until much later this century.

A biennial NOAA survey in 2018 estimated the population of the white whales at 250 to 317.

Looking at each snow layer tells a story about the winter.

Anglers will be banned from taking their catch home on more than 100 rivers in Scotland this year - as wild salmon stocks reach 'crisis point'.

An ocean heat wave off the U.S. West Coast from 2014 to 2016 drove humpback whales into a narrow band of cooler water, leading to a dramatic increase in whale entanglements with crab-fishing gear, according to a new study.

Bark beetle experts say a recent cold snap has likely killed some spruce beetle infestations in northern B.C.

According to Haines Borough Police Chief Heath Scott, the department received 182 bear-related calls in 2019. That is more than double the number of bear-related calls they received the previous year. Said Fish and Game bear biologist Anthony Crupi, “With really low returns of pink salmon and coho salmon this year, bears are really searching out any opportunities they can find” .

Scientists sampling ice cores from a glacier in China discovered 28 viruses that had been frozen in time for as long as 15,000 years, and were not previously known to mankind.

New research shows the marine heat wave that spread from California to Alaska starting in 2014 caused common murres to starve to death.

The average statewide temperature for the year was 32.2 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday. That breaks the previous record for the warmest year statewide, set in 2016 at 31.9 degrees.