Alaska Institute for Climate & Energy
ADVANCING solutions to the interrelated social justice, climate and ecological crisis through collaborative research and project development.
ALICE fosters cutting edge climate mitigation and adaptation solutions best suited to Alaska through broad based, collaborative research and project development.
Rapid warming in Alaska is the result of interrelated global climate, ecological and sociopolitical forces. Responding effectively to the challenge requires vision, bold leadership, deep expertise, flexibility and a collaborative, holistic approach.
We bring together diverse, interdisciplinary teams of science, Indigenous, agency and private sector experts from inside and outside of Alaska to identify solutions to our most pressing problems.
Drawing inspiration from Project Drawdown, Natural Solutions, Bio4Climate, Bay Area Smart Energy, and other innovative approaches, we research and develop collaborative shovel-ready projects capable of being rapidly scaled up.
An example of our work is the Railbelt Pumped Energy Storage Concept laying the groundwork for a renewable energy-based economy that will create thousands of new jobs, reduce greenhouse emissions and lower the cost of energy for every Alaskan.
Other projects in the works include:
- A statewide assessment of rural Pumped Energy Storage (PES) potential and design of 30 or more fully PES/renewable energy powered electricity generation systems that will move rural communities off expensive diesel and heating fuel once and for all.
- Development of an Alaska Climate Solutions Hub to facilitate greater, more effective collaboration between scientists, energy experts and affected communities.
- Comprehensive research and review of holistic solutions with the greatest potential for success and rapid pilot-project development. Ideas currently being explored include marine permaculture, peatland restoration, using Pumped Energy Storage to mitigate warming salmon streams, and green hydrogen production.
ALASKA’S NEW ENERGY FUTURE
Since 2014, ALICE has been working to move Alaska towards a 100% renewable energy future in partnership with a revolving working group of Alaska renewable energy experts and advocates.
Climate Action Planning
An actionable outline to implement climate solutions on a community-wide political level.
Oil and Gas Accountability
An investigation into the current state of Alaskan oil and gas emissions
Utility Member Action Campaign
Some simple steps that Alaska’s Electric Utility Coops and Boroughs can take this year to save money and significantly reduce our individual and collective greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions.
Happening Now
National Park Service begins embracing a new way of doing land management in a warming climate![]()
Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) - Climate Change (U.S. National Park Service)
www.nps.gov
The National Park Service and several federal land management agency partners recently published a report titled Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD)—A Decision Framework for the 21st-century Natural Resource...
Please share and stay well!We're starting the year off on a strong foot- thanks to the tireless efforts of our supporters and the community, the team at FCAC is growing!![]()
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Now Hiring: Part-Time Administrative Assistant.![]()
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FCAC seeks a dynamic and highly motivated individual to administratively support FCAC to advance local and statewide processes and solidify structures. This new position in FCAC will help with administrative support across the movement towards a Just Transition in Alaska, working in close partnership with the FCAC Executive Director. This work includes a wide variety of administrative support requiring independence, judgment, initiative and attention to detail. This position has the potential for growth to full time within FCAC and would be a part of a supportive, passionate, and dynamic team.![]()
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For full description and details to apply, click the link below:![]()
docs.google.com/document/d/1mQHgUqdFwl_8X-N7eB67QLrzaAkP7J_PZIN-gRwI3G4/edit?usp=sharing
In academia? Let us know what you think! ![]()
www.amacad.org/publication/climate-change-demands-activism-academy
Less Talk, More Walk: Why Climate Change Demands Activism in the Academy
www.amacad.org
As climate scholars, it is our professional responsibility to engage in climate politics. First, we need to engage in radical scientific analysis: we must ask questions that get at the root of climate...
🤓 NEW PAPER ALERT on the subject of carbon pricing for the policy nerds among us. "Four findings stand out. First, though carbon pricing has dominated many political discussions of climate change, only 37 studies assess the actual effects of the policy on emissions reductions, and the vast majority of these are focused on Europe. Second, the majority of studies suggest that the aggregate reductions from carbon pricing on emissions are limited – generally between 0% and 2% per year. However, there is considerable variation across sectors. Third, in general, carbon taxes perform better than emissions trading schemes (ETSs). Finally, studies of the EU-ETS, the oldest emissions trading scheme, indicate limited average annual reductions – ranging from 0% to 1.5% per annum. For comparison, the IPCC states that emissions must fall by 45% below 2010 levels by 2030 in order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – the goal set by the Paris Agreement (IPCC 2018). Overall, the evidence indicates that carbon pricing has a limited impact on emissions.![]()
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abdae9/meta
Does carbon pricing reduce emissions? A review of ex-post analyses - IOPscience
iopscience.iop.org
If you have a user account, you will need to reset your password the next time you login. You will only need to do this once. Find out more.
The 4-year siege is over. Next up: revoke ANWR leases. ![]()
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www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/18/president-elect-biden-kill-keystone-xl-pipe...
President-elect Biden to kill Keystone XL pipeline in fight on climate change
www.washingtonpost.com
Biden is expected to soon reverse the efforts of the Trump administration and end a project proposed more than a decade ago.
"The scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its lifeforms – including humanity – is in fact so great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts”![]()
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Humanity Is Hurtling Into a 'Ghastly Future' It Doesn't Comprehend, Scientists Warn
flip.it
The emergency is not invisible. But that doesn't mean we can see it.After decades of inaction and ineffective action on biodiversity decline, climate change, and pollution, civilisation stands on the ...
Today, four major lines of research exist: One involves cross-breeding corals to create heat-tolerant varieties, either by mixing strains within a species or by crossing two species that would not normally interbreed. The second enlists genetic engineering techniques to tweak coral or algae. A third tries to rapidly evolve hardier strains of coral and algae by rearing them for generations in overheated lab conditions. A fourth approach, the newest, seeks to manipulate the coral's microbiome.![]()
Researchers embrace a radical idea: engineering coral to cope with climate change
www.sciencemag.org
Australia to move ahead with field tests of new hybridsThis content isn't available right now
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WOW What a great story! ![]()
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Linda Zall is disclosing how she toiled anonymously within the intelligence agency to help scientists intensify their studies of a changing planet.![]()
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“Spies had little use for sweeping Arctic and Antarctic images. But they dazzled environmentalists because Earth’s poles were fast becoming hot spots of global warming and melting ice.” — 2009
Inside the C.I.A., She Became a Spy for Planet Earth
www.nytimes.com
Linda Zall is disclosing how she toiled anonymously within the intelligence agency to help scientists intensify their studies of a changing planet.
"[Trump's failure to sell off one of America's last untouched swaths of wilderness to fossil fuel companies](www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953718234/major-oil-companies-take-a-pass-on-controversial-lease-sale-in-a...). It’s one of the most significant failures of his administration's entire anti-climate agenda—and the first significant win of 2021 for the global climate movement.... after all that waiting, only two very small oil companies showed up. Industry expert Larry Persily [told NPR](www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953718234/major-oil-companies-take-a-pass-on-controversial-lease-sale-in-a...) it was “a bust.” The director of the Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign, Desirée Sorenson-Groves, called it “[a joke](www.alaskapublic.org/2021/01/06/long-awaited-arctic-refuge-oil-lease-sale-attracts-little-interest/).”![]()
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heated.world/p/a-climate-win-amid-the-chaos?fbclid=IwAR1K3Rt2fHUo7C5U2evvt3o0blzq_nqBv0yPQ1f6xOmP...
heated.world
The fossil fuel divestment movement achieved another big win last week, adding to its long list of successes of 2020.
Polystyrene, a common plastic typically used for packaging and insulation, is costly to recycle because of its low density and bulkiness. It also commonly contains hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a flame retardant that can have significant health and environmental impacts ranging from endocrine disruption to neurotoxicity. "Mealworms in the experiment excreted about half of the polystyrene they consumed as tiny, partially degraded fragments and the other half as carbon dioxide. With it, they excreted the HBCD – about 90 percent within 24 hours of consumption and essentially all of it after 48 hours. Mealworms fed a steady diet of HBCD-laden polystyrene were as healthy as those eating a normal diet." ![]()
news.stanford.edu/2019/12/19/mealworms-provide-plastic-solution/?fbclid=IwAR0V_ghDpBDN5ycZOwEbpd4...
Mealworms provide plastic solution | Stanford News
news.stanford.edu
Mealworms are not only able to eat various forms of plastic, as previous research has shown, they can consume potentially toxic plastic additives in Styrofoam with no ill effects, a new study shows. T...
“Not only would this make it easier for polluters to escape accountability; this shady rule was written in secret without the required opportunity for public comment. As a member of @NRDems, I'll conduct aggressive oversight to stop this last-ditch effort to shield polluters.” Rep. Katie Porter![]()
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In a surprise move, the EPA today will unveil a climate rule that will effectively prohibit the future regulation of greenhouse gases from any stationary industry other than power plants POLITICO
twitter.com
“In a surprise move, the EPA today will unveil a climate rule that will effectively prohibit the future regulation of greenhouse gases from any stationary industry other than power plants t....
Sixty years ago, my grandfather, President Dwight Eisenhower, set aside the first 8.9 million acres of what today is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the remote northeast corner of Alaska. Twenty years later, President Jimmy Carter signed a law doubling the refuge’s size and strengthening its protections.![]()
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Now, despite the refuge’s bipartisan history, the departing Trump administration has scheduled a last-ditch oil and gas lease sale for Wednesday that could lead to drilling in one of the country’s last great wild places.![]()
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The sale targets about a million acres in the refuge’s 1.5 million acre coastal plain, which lies between the highest peaks of the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean. Its rolling tundra, lagoons and barrier islands were part of the original protected area established by my grandfather, and for good reason: It is the biological core of the 19 million acre refuge.![]()
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His intent was to preserve the region’s “wildlife and wilderness values,” and his administration made clear from the outset that the refuge’s use for other purposes should be permitted only “in a manner that would not impair the intent.”
Opinion | Biden Must Stop Trump’s Reckless Plunder in Alaska
www.nytimes.com
A last-ditch effort to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling is underway.#15 Pumping Heat! - Juneau Carbon Offset Fund
juneaucarbonoffset.org
Renewable Juneau is proud to announce that the 15th heat pump from our Juneau Carbon Offset Fund (JCOF) is, as our primary installer likes to say, “pumping heat!” The Davis family of the Thunder M...
Introducing the new Biden climate action team! ![]()
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twitter.com/transition46/status/1339739522159026176?s=21“This team will play a major role in supporting the communities most affected by climate change, while empowering the young people whose futures are most at stake. We all have a stake in this fight. And our administration will be ready to meet the moment. t.co/AtZzHZx09j”
Want more solar, wind and clean energy in your community? Looking for a part-time semi-volunteer job? The Matanuska Electric Association Board of Directors seat for Eagle River/Chugiak is open! If you think you might be interested in running or know anyone who might be, contact Mark Masteller at: (907) 414-0198, or [markamasteller@gmail.com](mailto:markamasteller@gmail.com) for more information. The filing deadline is February 8th.
This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.
"All but two of the bids came from a state-owned agency called the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. The agency, which develops and finances energy projects, said two weeks ago that it was considering bidding on the coastal plain so that, should no bids come in from oil companies, the option of developing the refuge would remain available. President-elect Joe Biden has been clear that he wants to see the Arctic refuge protected. His [climate plan](joebiden.com/climate-plan/) calls for permanent protections there, and his [tribal plan](joebiden.com/tribalnations/) pledges to “reverse Trump’s attacks on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”![]()
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With the change in administration on the immediate horizon—and control of the Senate shifting with two Democratic wins in the run-off elections in Georgia, there are multiple pathways to ensuring that these leases are never developed.![]()
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Four lawsuits filed by environmental and indigenous groups are pending in the courts, arguing that the Trump administration’s review of the environmental impacts of drilling in the refuge was unlawful. The groups involved in those lawsuits saw a setback earlier this week when U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason denied their effort to stop the lease sale. But the lawsuits are far from over, according to Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law School. Once the Biden administration inherits the role of defending the lawsuit, everything will change. There is a legal basis for the Biden administration to come into court and settle the case, or confess error and request a remand and cancel the leases,” said Parenteau. “I would expect them to do that.”![]()
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insideclimatenews.org/news/07012021/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-oil-leases/?fbclid=IwAR...
insideclimatenews.org
As election officials in Georgia tallied votes to determine the control of the Senate and the U.S. Capitol was rocked by violent protests Wednesday, the Trump administration quickly and quietly made g...
Every $1 you give today makes it possible for ALICE (Alaska Institute for Climate & Energy) and our growing cadre of partners, to advance the best climate solutions for Alaska in 2021.![]()
chuffed.org/project/alice
Collaborative climate & energy solutions for Alaska.
chuffed.org
The rapid change Alaska is currently experiencing is the result of interrelated global climate, ecological and sociopolitical crisis. Responding effectively to these challenges requires vision, bold l...
On gardening and climate change...
Perspective | Climate change has altered the winter season and the gardener’s sense of it
www.washingtonpost.com
All this misalignment, with plants blooming at abnormal times, might be a lovely distraction, except there is a price to be paid.
I’m dismayed by the pessimism of many who think the federal government can’t be counted on to act on climate. It needs to be pushed hard to do more, faster and not cater to business as usual, but only the power of the federal purse (our collective tax dollars) is big enough to do the job. IMO, we must engage. ![]()
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www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2021/01/04/with-biden-the-whole-climate-will-change/
With Biden, The Whole Climate Will Change
www.forbes.com
The Biden administration will change the current course and focus on climate change mitigation. The good news is that many Republicans will want to join in.
Please stand in solidarity with the Gwich’in. Donate to the Gwich’in Steering Committee. Call the Alaska delegation. Call your local representatives. Write a letter to the newspaper.
The last gasp of a dying beast? "it is especially wrongheaded at a time when the world is dangerously warming because of the burning of oil and gas. The northern reaches of Alaska, much of the rest of the Arctic, is one of the [fastest-heating areas on the globe](www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/climate-change-alaska/?itid=lk_...). Biden is unlikely to sell new leases there. He has [promised to halt oil and gas auctions](www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/19/biden-climate-change-drilling/?itid=lk_inli...) on all federal lands as part of a sweeping plan to address rising global temperatures. The Trump administration's move already facing legal challenges from Earthjustice and other groups who say they did not properly assess the environmental impact of what it wants to do."![]()
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www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/05/energy-202-trump-administration-opens-millions-more-ac...
Biden vowed to ban new drilling on public lands. It won’t be easy.
www.washingtonpost.com
President-elect Biden says he’s "banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters" to curb climate change. It won't be easy.
“The Arctic is showing more extreme indications of climate change. Sea ice is shrinking, rainfall and snowfall are changing, and Arctic tundra is turning green in some places and brown in others. Arctic animals are responding to these changes, they’re responding quickly, and that response is not equal,”![]()
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scitechdaily.com/scientists-tracked-arctic-animals-movement-patterns-for-three-decades-this-is-wh...
Scientists Tracked Arctic Animals’ Movement Patterns for Three Decades – This Is What They Found
scitechdaily.com
For animals in the Arctic, life is a balancing act. Seasonal cues, such as warmer spring temperatures or cooler temperatures in the fall, tell animals when to migrate, when to mate, and when and where...New Energy Future for Alaska
Help us ignite the power of the grassroots to launch the long-overdue renewable Energy Future for Alaska!
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