Thursday, January 20, 2011

'Early Warming' takes new approach to climate change

Michael Armstrong in the Homer News (Alaska): …Counterpoint Press released "Early Warming: Climate and Response in the Climate-Changed North" last week. Friday, Lord heads to Fairbanks for the start of a short book tour. Traveling with Marybeth Holleman, who wrote "Heart of the Sound," about Prince William Sound, Lord and Holleman do talks about environmental writing and their books. After presentations in Fairbanks and Anchorage, they speak at 7 pm. Jan. 28 at Kachemak Bay Campus.

…In "Early Warming," Lord travels around Alaska and Canada looking at how climate change has begun to affect people. In some places the changes have been subtle, such as on the Kenai Peninsula, with warming salmon streams. In other places the changes have been dramatic, such as coastal erosion in Shismaref and Kaktovik. Lord can document the changes, citing facts like an increase in erosion along one section of the Arctic coast from 22 feet a year in the 1960s to 45 feet a year in the 2000s.

….The people of the north, the ones on the front lines of change, also can be leaders in adapting, Lord said. Alaska Natives in particular have shown a resiliency of culture in adapting to other change. "These cultures are highly adaptive, highly innovative and creative. Let's see what they doing and learn from them," she said…

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