Background Articles

Communities and conservation groups have raised concerns about the project. Researchers said they won’t move forward with field testing until it’s deemed safe.

State officials said that king salmon runs are not showing signs of improvement and that conservative measures are needed to ensure future fishing opportunities.

Alaska's peregrine falcons are among the world's greatest long-distance migrants, flying deep into South America. Peregrines from Northern Alaska have been documented wintering as far south as Chile and Argentina. After a few months in the grasslands and pampas of South America, they return to the north, a round trip journey of more than 17,000 miles.

The endangered population continues to slip and calf numbers are few, but no single factor has been identified as the cause.

After growing up in Sweden, Anna Liljedahl moved to Alaska to study hydrology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She now lives in Homer, where she conducts research as an associate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, focusing on how climate change is impacting water in Arctic ecosystems.

The destructive, invasive green crabs showed up in Metlakatla last summer. Stumpf explained a few key tells for a crab that doesn’t belong. “They have the five spines on either side of the eyes and then the three bumps in the middle,” he said. “So we’ve been teaching people with guides how to identify the crabs.”

Two regional tribal organizations, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, have each cited different reasons for parting company with AFN.

An incurable disease found in deer, elk, and moose is spreading across Alberta, according to new provincial surveillance results — and certain populations have reached a 23 per cent positivity rate. 

What scientists are most worried about now are regional changes that tip into global catastrophes. Timothy Lenton, chair in climate change and earth system science at the University of Exeter, refers to “tipping elements” — systems of glaciers, forests and coral reefs whose collapse could trigger a form of global warming that feeds on itself. He said the extreme events making the news this summer might represent an early warning sign he calls flickering — a brief visit to the other side of a tipping point. “A complex system can sometimes start to sample a different regime or state before it takes a more permanent shift into that state.

Waking to the smell of a wet ashtray (which, as a Child of the Seventies, I can still remember), I knew the wind had shifted. Wildfire smoke hung in the neighborhood.

The small Swedish town of Fagersta, Västmanland County, has been at the epicentre of the recent outbreak of African swine fever.All activities in an area of forest around 1000 square kilometers in the counties of Västmanland and Dalarna have been off limits since Friday following the discovery of dead wild boar.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the presence of red tide on the upper coast was first confirmed at a red tide monitoring station near Freeport about 3 weeks ago. 

Twenty-two sea lions have been found dead on beaches in California, with many more found sick.

Fred Sangris said there isn't a big population of wolves in the area of Yellowknife, Ndilǫ and Dettah — but sightings are happening more often because they're hungry and venturing near communities in search of food.

An official with the Giant Mine remediation project and a local researcher aren't worried the low water in Yellowknife Bay is exposing people to more arsenic in areas along the shore line. 

Cases of TBE have fallen slightly, but in Kustavi on the west coast, the number has been growing steadily.

Northern territories ‘will become arable farmland in 20-to-30 years', and will have to adapt - fast. ‘Every such region understands what's coming to it in 20, 30 years. It’ll stop being northern (climate-wise), or it will suddenly turn into a clearly agricultural’, Alexander Kozlov said in an interview to Russian business news outlet RBC.

The United Nations panel on climate change told the world on Monday that global warming was dangerously close to being out of control — and that humans were “unequivocally” to blame. Already, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades if not centuries.

During the summer of 2006, Fairbanks Alaska experienced its first two known cases of fatal anaphylaxis as a result of Hymenoptera stings, presumably from yellowjackets. Statistically significant increases in patients seeking medical care for insect bite and sting related events are observed throughout the state, with 5 of the 6 regions experiencing at least a 6 degree Fahrenheit increase in winter temperature since 1950.

In June 2010, researchers discovered Didemnum vexillum — also known as “rock vomit” — in Whiting Harbor near Sitka. This species, which can cover large areas of the seafloor, is an aggressive invader and a potential threat to shellfish farms, groundfish fisheries, fish spawning and other resources. The council is also concerned about the European green crab which can potentially travel in the ballast water of oil tankers and be released into Prince William Sound.