Alaska

An Alaskan odyssey – Gates Cambridge

Published

3 months ago

November 14, 2025

Ben Weissenbach was in conversation with fellow Scholar Mia Bennett about the past, present and future of the Arctic this week.

Two authors of the Arctic were in conversation at Bill Gates Sr. House this week to celebrate the publication of Ben Weissenbach’s new book North to the Future.

Ben was in conversation with fellow Gates Cambridge Scholar Mia Bennett [2012], associate professor of geography at the University of Washington and founder and editor of the blog Cryopolitics who has also just co-authored her own book, Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic.

Ben [2023] is a journalist who decided to leave behind his screen-bound life and venture to Arctic Alaska at the age of just 20. His book charts his experiences and conversations with environmental scientists along the way as he comes face to face with the impact of a fast-thawing region. Mia’s book explores the state of the Arctic today, showing how the region is becoming a space of experimentation for everything from Indigenous governance to subsea technologies.

In addition to reading passages from his book, Ben spoke about how studying what is happening in the Arctic provides a window on Earth’s future. He said the Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the world which could radically compound warming elsewhere. “Models can’t tell us what that means on the ground,” he stated.

The call of the wild

Ben said the motivation for writing the book was a craving for a world he hadn’t experienced. He had spent a lot of time indoors on a screen and wanted to go out into the natural world, inspired by authors such as Jack London and John McPhee.

He did some short wilderness trips beforehand and learned through mentors how to ‘be outside and connect more to a place’. When he set off for Alaska he didn’t intend to write a book, although he pitched it as a reporting project. He aimed to learn from people from Alaska, explore how much the North is changing and how it will affect everyone and help readers think through their relationship with technology.

Mia asked him about the experts he met along the way. Ben said when he got to Alaska he asked people who he should talk to and many mentioned climate experts. They included Roman Dial, a larger-than-life ecologist with whom Ben ended up walking and rafting 1,000 miles across Alaska’s Brooks Range, tracing how the region’s trees are advancing northwards. Ben says he had not thought about forests in the Arctic before, even though the boreal forest is the world’s largest terrestrial biome, accounting for a third of all terrestrial carbon on the planet.

Ben spoke of the vastness of Alaska, the lack of infrastructure and the fact that there are fewer than one million people there which means you can walk for days and weeks without encountering anyone.

Another expert he met was Kenji Yoshikawa, a reindeer-herding, self-taught permafrost expert from Japan. His expertise relies on his own observation which means he can be sceptical of scientific modelling. Yoshikawa left Ben for 11 days in a cabin looking after his reindeer in -40 degrees temperatures. Despite his remote location, Ben said he had very good internet connection. Mia and Ben then discussed the pros and cons of connectivity, how the internet is changing the way people relate to each other and to their environment and how it can also help traditional knowledge to be shared and to survive.

Ben also met Matt Nolan, an independent glaciologist, who taught himself to fly and flew Ben to the largest glaciers in the American Arctic. He has produced maps of the area through taking photos of the landscape and is able to monitor changes over time with a good degree of accuracy. Ben said being on a glacier is completely different to looking at a picture of it. “It’s the sheer scale, the silence except for the sound of creaking, the way glaciers slide down mountains and make weird crevasses, the thing light does to them,” he said.

Why place matters

Ben also spoke to indigenous people to understand the importance of generations of intimate knowledge of the land. He heard stories of winners and losers and experienced competing narratives. He saw how some valleys were falling apart as the permafrost thawed, saying it was like viewing an apocalyptic landscape, but he also experienced some of the wildest places on Earth [including being tracked by bears] and a feeling of continuity.

In addition to speaking about how he got his book published, Ben talked about his next project and how he is interested in exploring how technology can redirect people back to the environment instead of just acting as an attentional vacuum, drawing us away from nature.

*North to the future: An offline adventure through the changing wilds of Alaska is published by Grand Central Publishing.

Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic by Mia Bennett and Klaus Dodds is published by Yale University Press.

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

5 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

17 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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Alaska

Nome brothers summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, carry Alaska flag to third major peak

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Nome brothers summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, carry Alaska flag to third major peak

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Two brothers from Nome recently stood at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, planting an Alaska flag at 19,000 feet above the African plains.

The Hoogendorns completed the seven-day climb — five and a half days up and a day and a half down — trekking through rainforest, desert, and alpine terrain before reaching snow near the summit. The climb marks their third of the world’s seven summits.

Night hike to the top

The brothers began their final summit push at midnight, hiking through the night to reach the top by dawn.

“It was almost like a dream,” Oliver said. “Because we hiked through the night. We started the summit hike at midnight when you’re supposed to be sleeping. So, it was kind of like, not mind boggling, but disorienting. Because you’re hiking all night, but then you get to the top and you can finally see. It’s totally different from what you’d expect.”

At the summit, temperatures hovered around 10 degrees — a familiar range for the Nome brothers. Their guides repeatedly urged them to put on jackets, but the brothers declined.

“We got to the crater, and it was dark out and then it started getting brighter out,” Wilson said. “And then you could slowly see the crater like illuminating and it’s huge. It’s like 3 miles across or something. Like you could fly a plane down on the crater and be circles if you want to. Really dramatic view.”

A team of 17 for two climbers

Unlike their previous expeditions, the brothers were supported by a crew of 17 — including porters, a cook, guides, a summit assistant, and a tent setup crew.

The experience deviated from their earlier climbs, where they carried their own food, melted snow for water, and navigated routes independently.

“I felt spoiled,” Wilson said. “I was like, man, the next mountain’s gonna be kind of hard after being spoiled.”

Alaska flag on every summit

Oliver carried the same full-size Alaska flag on all three of his major summits, including in South America and Denali in North America, despite the added weight in his pack.

“I take it everywhere these days,” Oliver said. “It’s always cool to bring it out. And then people ask, you know, ‘where’s that flag from?’ Say Alaska.”

When asked about his motivation for the expeditions, Wilson said “I guess to like inspire other people. Because it seems like a lot of people think they can’t do something, but if you just try it, you probably won’t do good the first time, but second time you’ll do better. Because you just got to try it out. Believe in yourself.”

Background and next goals

The Hoogendorns won the reality competition series “Race to Survive: Alaska” in 2023. In 2019, they were the first to climb Mount McKinley and ski down that season. Oliver also started a biking trip from the tip of South America to Prudhoe Bay with hopes of still completing it.

Kilimanjaro is their third summit. The brothers said they hope to eventually complete all seven summits, with Mount Vinson in Antarctica among the peaks they are considering next… all while taking Alaska with them every step of the way.

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