“Climate Change in Alaska’s Seas”
Climate Change & Ocean Acidification

DVD/CD Project
Sponsored by:
Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS)
Alaska Sea Grant
Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC)
Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE)

A group of scientific and educational organizations are joining together to share scientific information and traditional knowledge about climate change in Alaska’s seas.

Short interviews with ocean scientists, Alaska Natives and fisheries experts, interspersed with still images and video clips, weave together the latest knowledge about climate change in Alaska’s oceans and coastal communities.

The short stand-alone videos of each interview can be shared via the internet, and will also be woven together in DVD/CD format. Topics include:

•    Disappearing Sea Ice
•    Life on the Ice
•    Spring Bloom in the Bering Sea
•    Corrosive Waters

The videos will be available for free via the internet or in DVD or CD format, thus creating a web-based informational resource for non-scientists about climate change & ocean acidification in Alaska.

Scientists, educators & students, coastal communities, organizers/planners of educational events and media outlets, will be able to use these videos to share information about climate change and ocean acidification in Alaska.

The DVD’s and clips should be available by spring 2009.  Please check back here or go to the AMCC website at www.akmarine.org for information about how and to order or download them.

Listen Up! Northwest Program 10 features stories on our region’s wildlife. Segments include:

* Nature writer Richard Nelson is our guide on the Arctic Coast as we share the ice with 13 polar bears feasting on whale carcasses. (Lisa Busch, KCAW-Sitka)
* Alaskan Native Larry Merculieff has spent half his life in the Pribilov Islands. He explains how wildlife and humans in Northern Alaska are feeling the effects of global warming now. (Robin Carneen, KSVR-Mt Vernon)
* How would it affect environmental policy if wildlife, forests and rivers had rights of their own? We interview Cormac Cullinan on the rights of nature. (Brad Reed, KYRS-Spokane)

Click here to listen: http://www.archive.org/details/ListenUpNwProgram10

By Katie Henry
Insider staff
July 15. 2008 10:50AM

Put down the corn dog and head over to the main stage on opening day to hear Dr. Brendan Kelly, part of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council speaking tour, talk about global warming from an arctic perspective.

Kelley is no stranger to arctic life. In fact, he’s devoted his career to studying the critters who call the poles home and the rapid changes to their environment. Kelly’s current job (get ready, it’s a mouthful) is as associate vice-president for research and associate professor of marine biology with the University of Alaska. And, because he really wanted a two-sided business card, Kelly is also serving as program director during a scientific program called International Polar Year.

For the past 25 years, Kelly and his students have spent the spring camped on the Arctic sea ice with trained Labrador retrievers. The dogs kept themselves busy by finding breathing holes and birth lairs created by ringed seals, which Kelly would then study (in addition to the other marine animals). His research caught the attention of National Geographic, Harper’s Magazine and Science News, to name a few. Out of that research, Kelly decided to focus his efforts on climate change and its impact on the poles.

Long story short, you can stand to learn a lot from Dr. Kelly. You don’t spend 36 years in the field and walk away empty handed.

Kelly will also be visiting Havenwood-Heritage Heights to present a slideshow titled “The Effects of Warming and Acidification in Alaska” on Friday, July 18, at 10 a.m. The program is free and open to the public.

- Sunrise Springs Retreat – keynote speaker at 5:30pm, Wed. May 7th

WHEN: Monday May 5th at 10:00am

Come hear Larry Merculieff, born and raised in traditional Aleut culture in Alaska’s Pribilof Islands. This activist puts a human face on climate change as he describes the urgent, immediate changes that are happening in his environment now and how they affect the traditional ways of indigenous people in Alaska

Larry Merculieff (an Aleut, one of Alaska’s indigenous peoples) tells stories about his traditional upbringing in the Bering Sea, and how wise elders helped him understand the importance of addressing climate change now. Larry has decades of experience bringing together Alaska Native traditional wisdom, science, and environmental concerns, using his first-hand perspective to put a human face on this complicated issue.

In addition to climate change, excessive carbon dioxide emissions are causing ocean acidification. In the past 200 years the world oceans have absorbed half of all CO2, resulting in the surface layers of our oceans being almost 30% more acidic.

Merculieff’s visit is part of The Alaska Speaking Tour Project sponsored by the Alaska Marine Conservation Council with funding from the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Larry Merculieff is Co-founder and former chairman of the Alaska Indigenous Council on Marine Mammals; former chairman of the Nature Conservancy, Alaska chapter; former co-director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, Alaska chapter; as well as co-founder of the International Bering Sea Forum, the Alaska Forum on the Environment, and the Alaska Oceans Network.

]]> http://amcctour0809.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/larry-merculieff-to-speak-may-5th-in-portland-or/feed/ 0 amcctour0809 http://amcctour0809.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/hello-world/ http://amcctour0809.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/hello-world/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:13:52 +0000 amcctour0809 ]]> The Alaska Marine Conservation Council is proud to kick off their first Climate Change & Ocean Acidification Speaking Tour in May of 2008.

Return to this site for information about speaking locations and venues, video and audio clips, and more.

The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about warming and acidification in Alaska and implications for indigenous peoples, fisheries and the globally significant Arctic ecosystem. The storytellers will put a human face on the issues to move citizens from perceiving the problem as something either beyond their reach or not real to one that demands their positive political action.

Please visit www.akmarine.org for more information about the AMCC.

Soon, there will be streaming video or audio of our speakers as they travel around the country – instead of my daughter singing “Puff the Magic Dragon!”