Во время войны Аляска превратилась в военный лагерь. На 1 июля 1943 Г. На Аляске насчитывалось 150,8 тыс. Солдат на 75 тыс. Человек гражданского населения.

 

 

 

КЛИМАТ

9.

An Alaska Senator Wants to Fight Climate Change and Drill for Oil, Too

Senator Lisa Murkowski was unequivocal when asked recently about rising global temperatures: “Climate change is real,” the Alaska Republican told an audience in Anchorage.

Yet her stance on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is just as clear. Senator Murkowski, who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has long argued that it must happen, for the economic prosperity of her state and the security of the country.

Her views — contradictory to some, a pragmatic balance for others — will take center stage on Thursday when the committee holds a hearing on opening part of the refuge to drilling, an effort to raise revenue for the federal government as part of a planned tax overhaul.

For supporters of drilling in the Arctic refuge, the tax plan represents the best chance in decades to realize the dream of drilling for oil beneath the tundra.

The debate’s importance, though, may ultimately go well beyond the fate of the Arctic refuge. Analysts say Senator Murkowski’s stance symbolizes a fundamental challenge of climate politics: how to bridge the gap between moderate Republicans from states reliant on fossil fuels on one side and Democrats and environmental activists on the other.

“To move on the climate front in Washington, you’re going to need to bring a nontrivial number of Republicans into a coalition, which means there has to be compromises,’’ said Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank. “We’re going to have to address conservative concerns and policy demands.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/climate/murkowski-alaska-anwr.html

Правительство Аляски хочет бороться с изменением климата, но при этом не переставая добывать нефть.

В данной статье повествуется о том, сенатор из Аляски признает, что изменение климата очень существенно. Тем не менее ее позиция по бурению в Арктическом национальном заповеднике дикой природы так же ясна. Сенатор, возглавляющий сенатский комитет по энергетике и природным ресурсам, уже давно утверждает, что это должно произойти для экономического процветания государства и безопасности страны.

Для сторонников бурения в арктическом регионе налоговый план представляет собой лучший шанс в течение десятилетий реализовать мечту о бурении нефти под тундрой.

Однако важность дебатов может в конечном итоге выйти далеко за рамки судьбы арктического региона. Аналитики говорят, что позиция сенатора символизирует фундаментальную проблему политики климата: как преодолеть разрыв между умеренными республиканцами из государств, которые зависят от ископаемого топлива с одной стороны, и демократов и активистов-экологов - с другой.

10.

 

ALASKA’S PERMAFROST
IS THAWING

 

 

Alaska — The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, and even here in sub-Arctic Alaska the rate of warming is high. Sea ice and wildlife habitat are disappearing; higher sea levels threaten coastal native villages.

But to the scientists from Woods Hole Research Center who have come here to study the effects of climate change, the most urgent is the fate of permafrost, the always-frozen ground that underlies much of the state.

Starting just a few feet below the surface and extending tens or even hundreds of feet down, it contains vast amounts of carbon in organic matter — plants that took carbon dioxide from the atmosphere centuries ago, died and froze before they could decompose. Worldwide, permafrost is thought to contain about twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere.

Once this ancient organic material thaws, microbes convert some of it to carbon dioxide and methane, which can flow into the atmosphere and cause even more warming. Scientists have estimated that the process of permafrost thawing could contribute as much as 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit to global warming over the next several centuries, independent of what society does to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels and other activities.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/23/climate/alaska-permafrost-thawing.html