Pebble Mine will cause "Complete Loss" of fish habitat in Bristol Bay, Alaska

The copper-and-gold mine planned near Bristol Bay, Alaska, known as Pebble Mine, was blocked by the Obama administration's EPA after scientists found that the mine would cause "complete loss of" the bay's fish habitat.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/09/us/epa-alaska-pebble-mine-salmon-invs/index.html

The Future of Human migration: Siberia, Canada, Alaska, Antarctica

If you look at what is happening in India you realize that poor people without access to ice or air conditioning if they do not migrate are going to die more and more over the years. Also, the tundra areas of Siberia, Canada, Alaska and Antarctica are going to slowly or relatively quickly melt out (depending on many Factors). Therefore you are going to see more and more people migrating to all these areas over time as the equator areas of the world become more and more uninhabitable during some times of the year.

So, this is what is happening on earth the rest of this century and probably beyond. If places like India and Pakistan are a problem now with people dying from the heat you have got to know that August in places like Hawaii is also going to kill people eventually over the years if they don't have air conditioning because of the combination of heat and humidity.

That doesn't mean that October to the end of March in Hawaii wouldn't be wonderful still, it just means only the locals who are used to heat in the summers like this with humidity will be able to stand it there in August eventually. And this is true of every place near the equator that is at lower altitudes with high humidity and heat during some times of the year.

So, poor people will either migrate or die if they live in really hot humid places eventually one by one. Or they are going to die on the days when the weather is bad one or the other.

It is very similar to people who leave really cold places if they are poor because they cannot survive there either. It has always been like this. It's just that now weather is changing worldwide and there will be people who adapt to the changes (colder or warmer) who survive and those who don't adapt (anyway they can) and die.

Avalanches cut road travel to Valdez, Alaska

CNN

- ‎45 minutes ago‎

(CNN) -- Avalanches have blocked the only highway to Valdez, Alaska, cutting off all motor traffic to the coastal town of about 4,000 and leading town officials to urge voluntary evacuations of residences.

Snow way out: Avalanche blocks the ONLY road leading to the Alaskan port city ...Daily Mail

Alaskan port cut off from road traffic after avalanchesTrustLaw

Avalanches cut road travel to Valdez, Alaska

By Ralph Ellis and Joe Sutton, CNN

updated 7:30 AM EST, Mon January 27, 2014

Avalanches at Snow Slide Gulch in Keystone Canyon in Alaska have closed a portion of Richardson Highway.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Officials urge evacuations after only highway is shut down
• Water has begun to accumulate behind the snow and debris created by the avalanches
• The Richardson Highway is expected to remain closed for about a week
• A shelter has been established in a high school and teen center for people who evacuated

(CNN) -- Avalanches have blocked the only highway to Valdez, Alaska, cutting off all motor traffic to the coastal town of about 4,000 and leading town officials to urge voluntary evacuations of residences.

The Richardson Highway will probably remain closed for about a week, officials said on the town website. The first avalanches started Friday, and more occurred Saturday.

Valdez officials urged voluntary evacuations over the weekend because water started to accumulate behind the snow and debris created by the avalanches.

A shelter was established in the high school and teen center for people who evacuated. It's unknown how many people moved out of their houses.

According to the town website, Valdez has plenty of fuel on hand, but food and fuel can be brought to the town port by barge if necessary.

Valdez is about a 300-mile drive from Anchorage, Alaska's largest city.

Grandson of Vail co-founder killed in Colorado avalanche

Avalanche buries, kills snowmobile driver in Montana

end quote from:

Avalanches cut road travel to Valdez, Alaska

 

the weather in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee on Monday will be colder than in Anchorage, Alaska

Record-breaking cold possible across much of U.S.

By Holly Yan and Steve Almasy, CNN

updated 12:05 PM EST, Sun January 5, 2014

Basketball fans brave the cold and snow as they cross to the United Center in Chicago on Saturday, January 4.

HIDE CAPTION

Wintry weather strikes Midwest, Northeast

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: iReporter in Indiana says most people are staying home, churches are closed
• More than 2,200 flights have been canceled for Sunday, many at Chicago's O'Hare airport
• NFL fans, players in Green Bay will face wind chills of minus 15
• At least 13 deaths have been linked to the weather

(CNN) -- This is the definition of rare air.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that much of the United States will see this week the coldest temperatures in almost 20 years as an arctic cold front descends on 140 million people.

"A piece of a polar vortex, the coldest air in the Northern Hemisphere ... is coming," CNN Meteorologist Alexandra Steele said.

And in addition to the cold, there will be heavy snow in the eastern Plains and Great Lakes, as much as a foot Sunday.

Temperatures will be 30 to 50 degrees below average Sunday from the Plains to the Upper Mississippi Valley, forecasters said.

By Wednesday, nearly half the nation will shudder in temperatures of zero or lower, forecasters said. Even the Deep South will endure single-digit or sub-zero temperatures.

Sunday's weather will have a huge impact on travel, with more than 2,200 flights originating in or heading to the U.S. canceled, according to flight-tracking website flightaware.com.

John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York closed after an incident involving a regional jet, Delta Flight 4100 from Toronto.

Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico said the plane, carrying 32 passengers, skidded into a snow bank while turning onto a taxiway after landing safely. No injuries are reported. The aircraft was towed to the gate, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Flight operations were suspended for about two hours.

Traveling to or through Chicago was causing many headaches.

There were arrival delays at O'Hare airport of more than one hour on average, and at least 1,100 cancellations of departing or arriving flights. At Midway airport there were 140 cancellations.

Here's what to expect across the country this week:

Midwestern snow and one freakishly cold game

Snow was falling across the Midwest. In Brownsburg, Indiana, more than 4 inches had fallen during the morning hours, said Bill Byrd.

"Most people are staying in their homes, and church services are canceled," he told CNN.

iReport: Watch heavy snow create a beautiful scene in Indiana

In Wisconsin, more than 70,000 hardcore Green Bay Packers fans hoping to see their team get closer to the Super Bowl will have their loyalty tested Sunday as they endure temperatures between 4 and 8 degrees in Wisconsin. With the wind, the air could feel as cold as minus 15 degrees to the sold-out crowd.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Packers fans could suffer hypothermia or frostbite

The Packers will give free hand warmers, hot chocolate and coffee at the game, which is scheduled to begin at 4:40 p.m ET, spokesman Aaron Popkey said.

Packers running back Eddie Lacy said he didn't think there was much he could do to prepare for a game this cold.

"It's definitely going to be a different experience," he said Saturday, according to the team website. "It's mind over matter."

And it'll get worse, overnight temperatures are expected to fall to minus 15 degrees.

In Embarrass, Minnesota, residents wondered whether they might see their record-cold temperature of 64 below zero, set in 1996, snap like an icicle.

"I've got a thermometer from the weather service that goes to 100 below," resident Roland Fowler told CNN affiliate KQDS. "If it gets that cold, I don't want to be here."

The Deep South

The arctic blast threatens to sweep subzero lows as far south as Alabama and plunge much of the Deep South into the single digits.

To put things in perspective, the weather in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee on Monday will be colder than in Anchorage, Alaska, Steele said.

Freezing rain is also possible along the Appalachians all the way up to New England over the next couple of days, the National Weather Service said.

Deadly conditions

The low temperatures and wind chill are a dangerous recipe for rapid frostbite or hypothermia.

"Exposed flesh can freeze in as little as five minutes with wind chills colder than 50 below," the National Weather Service's Twin Cities office in Minnesota said.

Over the past week, at least 13 people have died from weather-related conditions.

Eleven people died in road accidents -- including one man crushed as he was moving street salt with a forklift.

One man in Wisconsin died of hypothermia. And an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease in New York state wandered away from her home and was found dead in the snow in a wooded area about 100 yards away.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence encouraged residents to do more than check on friends and relatives.

"In preparation for the inclement weather, I encourage Hoosiers to assemble an emergency preparedness kit with plenty of nonperishable food and water, fill any necessary prescriptions, ensure they have a safe heating source, avoid unnecessary travel and be careful if they must be outside." he said.

Travel nightmares

The already dreadful stream of stranded passengers and canceled flights will only get worse.

8 tips to ease winter travel woes

FlightAware.com, which tracks cancellations due to weather, mechanical and other problems, said more than 2,200 flights have been canceled for Sunday. That's after 4,500 flights were called off on Friday and Saturday.

In Chicago, a plane headed to Las Vegas slid off the taxiway at O'Hare International Airport on Saturday night. None of the passengers on Spirit Flight 245 were injured, an airlines spokeswoman said.

Other cities like Cincinnati; Lexington, Kentucky; Louisville, Kentucky; and Memphis will see temperatures crash Sunday, and precipitation could lead to dangerous, icy driving conditions.

Roads will worsen Sunday night in Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; and Knoxville, Tennessee, forecasters said.

This, too, shall pass

If there's any good news about the biting cold snap, it's that much of it should be over for the Midwest by Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

In the meantime, those in the western third of the country can skip all the fuss. Most of the West can expect relatively pleasant weather through Monday.

CNN's Todd Borek, AnneClaire Stapleton, Julia Lull, Jareen Imam and Erica Fink contributed to this report. 

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The good old days ...

... before a polar vortex threatened

The snow in the last few days was bad, but much of the U.S. is about to see the coldest temperatures in almost 20 years. FULL STORY

Alaska

I was watching something on TV today about Alaska. It was about families living off the land in northern Alaska. In the winter they can use their ATV's (4 wheeler 4wd vehicle or snowmobiles for transportation because there aren't really roads much that far north just trails and places to land boats and small airports.

They were trying to cross a river after the ice broke up on rivers near them and one family got their ATV's and dragged 1 to 2 foot 50 foot long logs across a river using chains and ATVs with pulleys. (A father and his sons likely 23 to 35 year old sons) with 3 ATVs. Then they put two in place and locked them in by notching 1 foot log anchors on either side of the river so they wouldn't roll sideways in the wind or from the terrain as the rain and snow came down and changed things there. Then they put a 3rd 50 foot long in place in between the other two by using the Egyptian method of taking smaller logs and using them as log wheels across the other two in place. But then, they had to eventually cut the rolling logs into the river so one of them had to climb out on the 3 logs and cut the underside of the last rolling log in the center under the river. In the lower 48 in the spring or summer this might not have been as dangerous as this situation but even in spring and summer often that far north the temperatures are not above the 40s during the daytime and the waters of rivers usually doesn't go above 34 degrees at most. So doing this was very dangerous for the man with the chain saw on many levels. But he succeeded and didn't cut himself or have his hands or feet cut and didn't fall off or get crushed.

Another family had less people to work on the problem so instead they using large fishing floats tied to the air vents on the ATV's wheels where the hubs are. This worked (unbelievably) but for safety they put a float not only on each of the 4 hubs but also one in front and one in back for safety in case one of the wheel floats came off mid stream. The man didn't want to be caught under his ATV at the bottom of the stream.

These sort of things remind me a lot of my life from the mid 1970s to about 1985 when I first helped friends build their houses in the Mt. Shasta Area and then had them help me build my own in the wilderness 10 miles from the nearest gas station and three miles from the nearest paved road.

I can remember one day (we were so remote) that everyone wanted to go on my motorcycle ( a 1974 Honda 250 XL and we all got on it including our dog and drove it up dirt roads up to 10,000 feet up Widow Springs Rd I believe  then until we reached the snow (I can't keep straight Widow Springs Drive from Widow Springs road now. One parallels around the mountain and one goes up the mountain and both then were dirt roads and likely still are or are crushed rock roads now. It was about late June or early July likely of 1981 or 1982 when we were there all summer. My wife and I were about 32 or 33, our kids were 5,6,8 and our dog Muffin a large ( Australian Terrier) beige terrier long hair the color of a muffin road on the handle bars when she got tired running alongside us. We never saw one person or car or truck the whole journey because we were so remote. I drove mostly under 10 miles per hour for safety but it was great fun back then to be young and alive and experimental and living in the wilderness far from everyone.  (I think the old pioneers settling the west experienced a lot of amazing things too if they weren't dying from one adversity or another.)

We also home schooled our 3 children from 1980 to 1985 when the oldest was 12. He informed us he wanted to go back to school at that point. So, we moved to the San Francisco Bay area and bought a business there where he graduated from High School there and became a fireman and now is a Fire Captain. All three kids have at least one college degree now too. This time living remotely made them all self starters and very resourceful and polite. We constantly got comments at how well behaved and nice they were to adults while they were being home schooled. It was a really good idea for all of them to do this and to have this kind of experience. It was amazing for all of us.

I felt more at home living that lifestyle from the 1970s to about 1985 then any lifestyle I have lived since. But, it is a lot of work living in the wilds and staying alive and having fun doing it. So, it is better if you are young and strong and extremely adaptable when you are doing this.

Tsunami Debris showing up in Yakutat, Alaska

Yakutat is a series of offshore Islands in Alaska. And what is showing up is floats and foam insulation from houses which would blow the fastest across the ocean on the winds from Japan. So, what is hitting now is the leading edge of light fishing floats, foam insulation. mostly empty plastic bottles and containers of almost anything partially empty made of plastic or foam. The problem is that it is killing wild life there, for example, cormorants and other birds. Possibly ocean life has also consumed debris also along the way and has died as well. The islands are remote and the only way there is by boat or helicopter. Since it is the leading edge of debris that moves the fastest there is a lot more where this debris came from coming behind over the next couple of years. Exactly where it will hit is anyone's guess. But because a lot of it is hitting here it is likely more might come to this series of offshore islands in Alaska. The exact location that they land during this broadcast is Montague Island, Alaska with their helicopter. So far they haven't found any radiation. However, much of what has landed is toxic to all life there. Also, there is debris at Yakutat Fishing village.

My source is Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room on CNN TV broadcast at 7:34 PM ET in the U.S. today Saturday May 26th 2012.