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Author Chad Kister to Speak on Global Climate Change

Join the Brigham Audubon Society as we welcome author Chad Kister to speak about global climate change and its impact on the Alaskan Arctic.  

Renowned author and champion of the arctic, Chad Kister, will be the invited guest and speaker at the Brigham Audubon Society's November 14th meeting at Binder Park Zoo.  Binder Park Zoo hosts the monthy meeting of our local Audubon Chapter and welcomes Mr. Kister to speak about the impacts of global climate change on the arctic, especially the Alaskan Arctic.

Kister is the author of Arctic Melting: How Climate Change is Destroying One of the World's Largest Wilderness Areas, and, Arctic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness Area.  He also produced the film "Caribou People."

The presentation will start at 7:00 p.m. and admission is free to everyone. 

Background on the Melting Arctic

With Arctic ice continuing to decline, the US Fish and Wildlife Service predicts that the polar bear could be extinct in the wild as early as 2040, when scientists say the Arctic Ocean will likely be nearly ice-free unless massive changes are made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Kister  will be traveling nearly entirely by fuel efficient train, which gets up to 40 times better fuel efficiency per passenger mile compared to flying or driving, and a major solution to climate change.

Despite the current threat, with the change in Congress, we have a unique opportunity to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.

You can sign a petition supporting Arctic Refuge permanent protection at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/251855330

Arctic champions in Congress have introduced legislation to protect the Arctic Refuge coastal plain as wilderness, and this tour is an effort to show them support.  The tour will also show the need for the USFWS to demand a mandatory reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to save the polar bear, and so much more.  The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is by far the densest denning ground of polar bear in the world. The tour will help spread the word nationwide about the need to lobby for wilderness protection.

The presentation shows the very latest of climate change's impacts to the Arctic and Alaska, with lots of 2007-released data from the second edition updates to my Arctic Melting book.  The presentation shows the critical need to immediately begin reducing fossil fuel emissions and replace them with solar, wind, efficiency and other renewable resources.

In addition, polar bear live in 19 population groups across the circumpolar Arctic.  All are expected to go into decline toward extinction with current trends of thinning ice, with many already in serious decline.

Ice has thinned 42 percent in the last 40 years, as measured by U.S.

submarine data.  Melting in Greenland has doubled in the last 5 years according to NASA senior Scientist James Hansen.  He also said that sea levels could rise 80 feet, and that the melting is far more dynamic and fast than previously fast, and accelerating exponentially.

While some might think a warming Arctic a good thing, nearly all of the impacts have been found to be very negative.  The permafrost melting has caused billions of dollars of damage in Alaska, and is releasing more greenhouse gases.  The melting ice and snow has allowed more of the sun's radiation to be absorbed, causing more warming.

Shorelines are crumbling into the sea.  And millions of acres of forests have died because of insect outbreaks caused by climate change, and are now burning.  The list of negative impacts and their severity grows every year.

Kister’s Arctic Melting book has a chapter detailing a 2004 Pentagon report that found climate change a more serious threat than terrorism, with future wars being fought for survival over food and water resources.

Thus it is not just the polar bear who are at risk.  Recent studies found that hundreds of millions of people are expected to die worldwide because of the impacts of climate change.

 

Upcoming Birdwatching Opportunities

Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday October – March.  Meet at the Zoo Entrance when the zoo is open for the season, the Cross Administration Building when the zoo is closed.  All tours meet at 8:00 a.m.  We leave promptly at 8:05.  Free to Brigham Audubon and Binder Park Zoo Members.