Apocalyptic Planet - Chapter 3: Seas Rise – Bering Sea, Alaska

Class started off with photos of both from Savoonga and Nome.  Photos showed the stark contrast of our lives and the lives of the natives of Savoonga and Nome.  The class shared their wonder at what they didn’t know or never thought of when it came to the dynamics of water movement and impact.

We didn’t actually discuss the Bering Land Bridge, but the book does discuss how unlikely it would have seemed to prehistoric wanderers that the bridge would ever have ended up submerged.

We discussed how close Russia and Alaska are to each other (50 miles) and how you can see Big Diomede Island from Nome.  I shared some of my Nome stories from my visit while working for US Fish & Wildlife and told the story of “Frosty” the polar bear cub we rescued in 1974 and who, while I was in Anchorage in 2010, learned during a local newscast had died; brought back tons of memories.  

Infant Frosty

My photos of both Savoonga and Nome depicted both villages as very poor (by our standards).  Someone checked the current populations of both villages and reported that Savoonga is 698 in 2017 and Nome 3,841 in 2017.  We discussed how both village populations are declining and it was asked “Why?”  My answer is that both locations have issues with drugs and alcoholism and as kids go off to high school or college  it takes little prodding for them to decided on the best opportunities for themselves.  This is probably for the best, as both locations are no doubt being impacted by rising waters.

The discussion turned to what the numbers looked like on a global basis regarding coastline impact.  Childs notes that 40% of humanity lives along a coast.  With a global population of 7.7 billion I did the math and came up with 2.8 billion humans will be directly impacted by rising waters.  And again he points out that things are changing faster than anyone remembers….especially the natives of Savoonga!!

Childs reports that the globe used to be laced with land bridges, that there was a time when you could have walked from Australia to North America.  He shares information that off of most coasts around the world archeological evidence is found of tree stumps sticking straight up and human encampments, evidence that water has risen and is still rising.  He explains how the Pacific and Atlantic waters, over time, have shifted and mixed changing both salinity and currents.  “When these currents switch, climates change.”

There is one dissenting voice in the scientific community as to sea levels rising, Nils-Axel Morner, a retired Stockholm University oceanographer.  He sees no significant trends.

There is evidence that deepwater is measurably heating up indicating that the deep water is warming up as well as the upper ocean.  Findings indicate that even if “we stopped global warming now, it would take more than 1000 years for the heat to be reemitted into the atmosphere.”  So, even if our climate evened out it would still take 1000 years of rise based on thermal momentum.

The class did enjoy the sharing of Childs’ trip to Savoonga with his mother.  We couldn’t help but wonder if he brought her on the trip or she brought him….we agreed that both seem well equipped for their adventures there.