Six pictures. Unalaska Island, Aleutian Islands. Photos taken between March 1 and March 10 for six years, of the same general area. 2013 is how it has always been. Climate change is not a conversation; it is happening here.






It changes our subsistence cycles. The water is becoming warm which impacts our fish species, numbers, and quality. Our plants, both edible and medicinal, are just as confused as the human beings. Twenty years, folks. We have to make a difference. Go solar. Go wind power. Ban plastics. Farm responsibly. Save the earth for those generations not yet seen.
Scientists have ice core samples showing that our climate has changed a number of times over the millennia. It is just the first time that intelligent humans were alive during that change and I do not know how much difference we can make no matter what we do.
Not to be preachy, but….We have gone through cycles of climate change. I’ve learned that some aspects of the current climate change are not unusual, but others are. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached a record high relative to more than the past half-million years, and has done so at an exceptionally fast rate. Current global temperatures are warmer than they have ever been during at least the past five centuries, probably even for more than a millennium. If warming continues unabated, then climate change within this century would be extremely unusual in geological terms. Past climate changes were normal and natural in origin, whereas most of the warming of the past 50 years is attributable to human activities.
And I would hope that we all can agree that we can do something about it. We can control methane leaks, encourage greener farming, build cleaner and greener power plants, set tougher emission and efficiency standards, encourage private sector participation and action, and encourage geopolitical standards and actions. Above all we can take local action. If we could ruin this place in 50 years, we have to have the resolve to correct it in the next 20 years.