Farewell to the Bears

"The bears are drowning due to the melting of the Arctic - may we hold them in our hearts as they head for extinction all the while those in Washington deny Climate Change."

-Ray of Hope

"
Light be the earth upon you, lightly rest."
-Euripides

Cheers for FedEx

We are often inundated with the "ugly truths" about the greedy corporations avoiding taxes, polluting our environment, etc. But there are the extraordinary exceptions and they deserve equal billing.

Oh, yes, there are a few out there. In time there may be more if their shareholders speak up. Thanks to the shareholders who have influenced some big businesses to help save our planet for future generations.

Here's to FedEx. Their strategy is Reduce, Replace, Revolutionize. And, they are five years ahead of their plan! FedEx Express surpassed its goal to boost vehicle fuel efficiency by 30% by 2020 starting from 2005, in spite of the fact that most of the technology needed then didn't exist at the time.

Here was their strategy adopted in 2005:

REDUCE overall mileage by travelling the minimum miles by optimizing routes.

REPLACE with more fuel efficient models and reprogramming the models to run at the optimal levels for fuel efficiency.

REVOLUTIONIZE the fleet by adopting electric vehicles, fuel cells, natural gas and hybrids. They are also focusing on hydrogen fuel cells.

Result of this plan: They have saved more than 137 million gallons of fuel since 2008 and avoided nearly 1.5 million  metric tons of CO2e emissions.

What a win-win by FedEx. They saved their stockholders money while helping to save our planet!

(Information from the FedEx Annual Report 2016)

Another Letter from Alaska

August 26, 2015

Hi Robert and Mary,

Haven't forgotten about you, it's just that Summer in Alaska is one busy time - mostly used in preparing for winter. The "preparing" gets harder all the time - partially as I am more resistant in tackling major jobs and winters are changing so much it is hard to know what to prepare for.

Normally, what we call "Break-up" (when the river's ice start to break up) is in April but this late April we had 80's and blue skies. Our river, anyway, never really looked frozen until very late January and, in fact, never did freeze enough that folks would walk on it. Lots of local trappers rely, and some who live out in the bush, rely on the rivers as mini-highways to get to trap lines or other villages.

Weather stayed nice through July but so dry that over 5 million acres burned. Mostly so rural that no one live there but a few that threatened housing. Still, since all of us down in this area live in forest, it was a worrisome time. August was rainy as usual but due to the early heat, we had a bumper crop of tomatoes, cukes, string beans and zucchini - so we are munching well on food that tastes like food......

.....This last winter was a big change - a couple more feet of snow than usual and this stuff is the wet, heavy stuff. Temps were much milder with only a couple of 40's whereas there are usually quite a few of those. And, it really didn't start until we got back so much earlier than expected at the end of Dec.......

.......We had a lousy fishing year though plenty of folks still came. For whatever reason, the salmon for centuries would swim up the sides of the very fast and powerful rivers. Only the very big King Salmon at 35-60 lbs. were strong enough to swim up in the middle. This year we had more salmon than usual but much fewer caught as they all went up the center for a very odd change.

It's been odd to figure this kind of stuff out as the oceans themselves are changing so rapidly. We have a large 'dead zone' between us and Russia which the salmon usually have to cross to return and just this summer alone have seen a large 'die-off'' of fully grown whales in the Gulf of Alaska. The 'why's' of this stuff are, as yet, unknown but the salmon we did get were a pound or so smaller.....

.........
Love,

Letter from Alaska

Feb 25, 2015

Although there is still 2' of snow on the ground, it sure looks like Winter is waning. Temperatures the past couple weeks ran from +20-+40. The last couple nights sleep has been disturbed by large sheets of the 3+ feet of snow sliding off the roof.

This is nice, no doubt but at the same time is worrisome. When I came to Alaska in 1990, Winter began in earnest near the beginning of October. I well remember answering my door on Halloween to see heavily clothed kids with their treat bags open at -30 degrees.

Other sure signs of winter included the freezing of the rivers. By mid December, my trapper friends were crossing these fast and powerful behemoths on foot and by snow machine. This year they never really froze over with any certainty. "Our" river is the fastest in Alaska, running about 25 nautical miles an hour and pushing anything in its way, out of its way with aplomb. As of this date, it still has some open water and more showing up daily.

But, as local rivers go, it is not huge - less than a hundred feet across. Barely a tenth of a mile down it empties into the Copper River which can expand to more than a mile across. Into the Copper run all the rivers from the surrounding Wrangle-St. Elias and Chugach mountains some 90 miles or so to Prince William Sound and from their to the Northern Pacific. This year it still has much open water.

Last months newspaper had an article about our permafrost melt problem and it's potential problems of not only buckling buildings and roads but releasing enormous amounts of CO and CO2 into the atmosphere that has previously been stored in the permanently frozen ground since the last ice age.

As predicted by all the old and recent climate studies, the Arctic and Northern Latitudes would warm at an early and excessive rate before it worked its way South. The rate in the last couple years is holding at 2 degrees - about twice as much as "Outside" as we call anyplace that is not here.

Hm-m - just had a flash from wa-a-a-y back, unbidden, crashing into my Alaskaness. Maine, on the other northern corner of this country call's people who aren't born there as "coming from away". When I was a child, Bangor was full of snow - as kids, we made tunnels everywhere. By the 1960's, winters were more ice and rain. This year (2014-5) is a return to the old days - with a vengeance.

Today's news had an article that the meltage that I observe by simply living here is now officially putting 1.5x the fresh water into the North Pacific as the entire Mississippi is pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. I'd say that's a pretty solid indicator as the grand old Mississippi drains 31 States and 2 Canadian provinces.

By 'just living here', well, I live on a river so I have to pay attention to its speed and height. When I first got here, there were real Glaciers that came up very close to the highway. Now you can't even see where they were - they're back in the mountains somewhere. But, for the 'gold standard' of proof, consider this. Anchorage makes millions on the start of the Iditarod - but not this year. No snow on the ground. This has happened on occasion previously, so it is no big deal to move it out to "Big Lake", about 50 miles NE of Anchorage but... no snow there either. OK , make the unheard of move 300 miles north to Fairbanks. Oops, hanging near freezing barely up in Fairbanks, where to go now? 

Spring certainly isn't here yet but it is for sure not winter. Winter could return with a vengeance but it's a wait and see game. We've had "Chinooks" before - sudden warmup even moving 50 degrees in a matter of hours but this one had no wind and it's hanging around instead of going back down as suddenly as it went up.

Up until some time in the late 1990's/early 2000's, no outside planting could be done before about June 10th due to ground temps. Most of us have greenhouses but even they needed heat in May.

I'll write again when I see the buds coming out - normally not until late April but if this keeps on, it could be March. When I came here it Winter was 7 months long - this year looks like maybe 2-3 months long. Scary stuff.

http://cowbird.com/story/107143/Everybody_Up_Here_Is_Convinced/?collectionid=1189&uiid=widget-103648681-107143

OK - been holding off of sending this as the weather is so confusing. Last week various songbirds came back and were a joy to hear - particularly about a month before normal. Then suddenly it dropped to -30 for 3 nights and is now on its way up to 'above freezing'. Hope the songbirds didn't all die off. Our bird feeders are busy but with mostly our winter Redpolls, Grosbeaks, Jays and magpies and yesterday a very hungry woodpecker.

Later, Mary

--

I returned, and saw under the sun, 

that the race is not to the swift, 

         nor the battle to the strong,

 

neither yet bread to the wise, 

                     nor yet riches to men of understanding, 

                              nor yet favour to men of skill;

                                                               

                                             

but time and chance happeneth to them all.

 Ecclesiastes 9:11

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