Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Interviews with Alaskan natives, Yup'ik hunters and elders, in the Yukon River Delta are providing observations of climate change that, integrated with scientific studies, will be used in the development of adaptation strategies. "Many climate change studies are conducted on a large scale, and there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding how climate change will impact specific regions," said Nicole Herman-Mercer from the United States Geological Survey. "This study helps address that uncertainty and really understand climate change as a socio-economic issue by talking directly to those with traditional and personal environmental knowledge."

Issues raised during the interviews included safety, given unpredictable weather patterns and dangerous ice conditions, and changes in plant and animal ecology as well as reduced availability of firewood. Warmer temperatures had been observed in recent years, most notably in the winter months. Cold spells had been brief in contrast to the month-long cold bouts experienced historically. Thinning of the ice on the Yukon and Andreafsky Rivers is limiting winter travel on snow machines or sleds, affecting the ability to trade goods between villages, visit friends and relatives or reach hunting grounds. Lower spring snowmelt flows had resulted in fewer logs flowing down the local rivers, limiting wood available for heating and building materials and increasing reliance on fossil fuels and alternative timber supplies.

As of September 9th, the extent of the Arctic ice had dropped to the second lowest level since the satellite record began in 1979, reports the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States. The lowest extent was recorded in 2007. NSIDC cautions that the estimate is preliminary and changing winds could close up the ice resulting in a yet lower figure for the seasonal ice minimum.

German researchers at the University of Bremen, using a different record, claim that the ice extent in early September was already at an historic low. As happened for the first time in 2008, the Northwest and Northeast Passages are ice free simultaneously. Estimates of total ice volume from the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington in the United States indicate that the total amount of ice is at a record low for the second year running.

Al Gore's internet climate reality campaign launched September 14/15th with "24 Hours of Reality", an online multimedia presentation delivered in 13 languages over the course of one day. The presentation showed how extreme weather events like floods, fires and storms are linked to climate change. It had 8.6 million views.

The campaign also aims to highlight how money motivates climate scepticism. "Around the world, we are still subjected to polluter-financed misinformation and propaganda designed to mislead people about the dangers we face from the unfolding climate crisis," Gore said. Gore praised some countries for their efforts to tackle the climate problem, citing China and wind energy, solar photovoltaic cells in Sierra Leone and the Vatican. "The Vatican has the goal of being the world's first carbon-neutral country," he said. "They have two advantages: They are very small, and God is on their side."