Alaska
Arctic Alaska House race focuses on issues that candidates say unite the remote region • Alaska Beacon
The person who represents the nation’s northernmost legislative district in the Alaska House of Representatives is tasked with achieving a special balance.
Sprawling and remote House District 40 encompasses both the oil-rich North Slope and the less-wealthy Northwest Arctic Borough. That means it has two separate hub communities – Utqiagvik and Kotzebue. While both regions are majority Inupiat, they have significant differences in their economies, histories and cultures.
The incumbent House member, who is from Kotzebue, and the two candidates challenging him, one from Kotzebue as well and the other from Utqiagvik, acknowledge that the district’s makeup creates a special challenge. But all three – all of them Inupiat — say there are ways to bridge those differences.
Properly representing the district, with all its diversity and remoteness, requires working with cities, tribes and any organizations that represent residents, said Thomas Baker, the incumbent.
“You’ve got to work with each community individually, see what their wants and needs are, and then you work bigger and then you see what the overreaching, overarching needs are,” said Baker, whom Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed to the seat in November to fill the vacancy left when then-Rep. Josiah Patkotak,I-Utqiagvik, was elected mayor of the North Slope Borough.
Despite the differences, there are common interests, said Baker, who was a Republican when appointed but is now unaffiliated. “We are the isolated north. We are the northern end of everything,” he said.
Democrat Robyn Niayuq Burke of Utqiagvik said a key difference is the wealth gap. Communities in the North Slope have the advantage of decades of oil money.
Burke, who is president of the North Slope Borough School District Board of Education, said she is keenly aware of how oil money has allowed her home borough to provide services that are unavailable in parts of the Northwest Arctic Borough. “It’s not lost on me, especially when I go to the Northwest Arctic and see that there are so many communities that don’t have water or have problems with their water,” she said.
Some of her understanding of needs outside the North Slope comes from her service as an officer with the Association of Alaska School Boards, she said.
Democrat Saima Ikrik Chase, currently Kotzebue’s mayor, also pointed to those wealth differences. That gives the North Slope communities more focus on policies, while the Northwest Arctic communities are more dependent on state-provided services, she said. Still, there are common concerns, like housing, education funding and teacher retention, she said. “They have the same issues. It’s just that they have more resources to depend on to get to where they need to get to,” said Chase, whose professional experience is in health care and emergency services.
Resource money is the obvious difference between the North Slope and the Northwest Arctic. The North Slope, site of Alaska’s big oil fields, has a vast borough infrastructure and service network built on oil money. The Northwest Arctic does not have nearly the same deep pockets, though it benefits economically from the Red Dog mine, one of the world’s largest zinc producers.
Some other differences stretch back further in history. Subsistence food gathering on the North Slope, which has shaped the culture, is largely about hunting bowhead whales and other marine mammals, while terrestrial mammals like caribou and fish, including salmon, make up the bulk of the subsistence harvests in the Northwest Arctic region, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Even though the Inupiaq language is spoken in both parts of the district, there are different regional dialects.
In the past, the North Slope and Northwest Arctic have been represented by some legendary and powerful lawmakers, like Al Adams and Frank Ferguson, both of Kotzebue.
Decades ago, each borough had its own representative in the state House. Now, they share one.
Effective advocacy for the district requires looking past whatever splits might exist between localities, corporations, nonprofits or other entities, said another of those powerful lawmakers who represented the district in the past, former state Sen. Willie Hensley.
“We need to not confine ourselves to our individual cells,” said Hensley, who is also from the Kotzebue region. Doing so in that Arctic region requires special skills. “You really need to put your best people in there,” he said.
Primary results suggest Chase-Burke contest
Results from the primary suggest that Baker faces an uphill climb. Chase and Burke finished in a near-tie at about 35% each, with Chase eking out a three-vote margin over Burke. Baker lagged with 29% of the vote. Since Burke and Chase have similar positions on the issues, ranked choice voting in this three-way contest is expected to be important to the outcome.
All three candidates noted that turnout in August was low, and that results could change considerably in November, when voters will also consider the presidential candidates. Additionally, the two Democrats also noted that during the primary election, there were malfunctions at certain outlying communities that either interfered with people’s ability to vote or impeded the vote count.
Burke pointed to three North Slope precincts that failed to open. “I had people who reached out to me and said, ‘I tried to vote for you, but I just couldn’t,’” she said. Chase pointed to delays in counting votes in some outlying Northwest Arctic precincts.
While they come from different regions in the district, Burke and Chase have similar positions — and similar complaints about Baker’s record.
Possibly topping that list is Baker’s vote in March that upheld Dunleavy’s veto of a permanent increase in the base student allocation, core of the formula that decides the per-student funding provided by the state. The override failed by a single vote.
For Burke, who had traveled to Juneau to lobby for the increase, Baker’s action on that issue was a tipping point in her decision to run for the seat.
She blasted the action in an op-ed published days after the veto override failed.
“Baker’s vote virtually assured deep education cuts that make it improbable to adequately staff our schools or provide basic materials. As damaging as his vote is for the North Slope, it is even more devastating for the Northwest Arctic Borough, which does not have our property tax base from oil infrastructure,” she said in the op-ed, published in the Arctic Sounder and Anchorage Daily News.
Chase, too, said she was upset with Baker’s position, as were many of her neighbors.
“A lot of our residents here in the north were like, ‘What?’ Because, Number 1, he comes from a family of teachers and it’s like, ‘Come on, man, your sibling is a teacher, and your grandmother was a teacher.’ So I guess his actions speak louder than his words on that,” she said.
Baker, defending his decision on that vote, said it would have been pointless to override the veto because Dunleavy would have simply vetoed the money for the next year needed to pay the increase in the formula.
It isn’t clear whether that hypothetical would have come to pass. Dunleavy ultimately signed a budget containing a one-time funding bonus equivalent to the permanent boost envisioned by the Legislature. But the failure of the bill means that there is no long-term change.
His vote on the veto override notwithstanding, Baker said he supports an increase in the BSA, which is why he voted for the final budget and its one-time $680 boost. But addressing education challenges in the far-north district will require more adjustments, he said. “The BSA does need to be higher, but at the same time, the cost of fuel needs to be lower, the cost of energy needs to be lower,” he said. “We deal with a lot of issues in rural Alaska that other parts of the state and the country don’t deal with.”
Splits with Native leaders
Another point of criticism is Baker’s attempt to rejigger the state’s subsistence policies, a subject on which he clashed with Native organizations.
Baker introduced a bill to amend the state constitution, House Joint Resolution 22, that was aimed at unifying state and federal subsistence management — but his version omitted the word “rural,” in contrast with federal law’s requirement for a rural Alaska subsistence priority. Baker’s effort got pushback from the Alaska Federation of Natives, creating an unusual situation in which Alaska’s largest Native organization, along with other prominent Native organizations within his district, opposed legislation sponsored by a Native lawmaker.
“Rep. Baker’s bill came out of the blue,” Julie Kitka, then AFN’s president, said in a March 20 hearing at the House Resources Committee.
AFN and other Indigenous organizations, though they advocated in past decades for a state constitutional amendment, have come to prefer federal management as more dependable and more supportive of Indigenous rights.
Baker, who is on the council that advises the federal government on subsistence management in the Northwest Arctic, defended his constitutional amendment idea, adding that he, too, favors a rural priority.
“The main goal with that piece of legislation was to get the conversation started because it is an ongoing issue that no one was really addressing in the legislature,” he said.
Both Burke and Chase criticized Baker’s effort as ill-conceived and lacking proper consultation with affected people and organizations.
The proposed constitutional amendment lacked support from any other Native lawmaker, and it died in committee.
Election legislation is another area where Baker split from Alaska’s other Native legislators.
Those members staunchly supported a legal change that would have removed the requirement that absentee voters secure witness signatures from designated officials. That witness-signature requirement has proved to be impractical and burdensome in rural Alaska and effectively discriminates against Native voters, said lawmakers who favored the change.
In floor debate on May 15, Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, defended the elimination of the witness-signature requirement. Hoffman referred to the high rate of rural mail-in votes that were invalidated during the 2022 special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat. “Because of the witness verification provision, I’ve had 15 percent of my voters – 15 percent of my voters — their votes were thrown out. Imagine how you would feel if that happened in your district,” he said.
But when the Senate-passed bill came to the House floor, Baker voted against taking it up, splitting from the other Native House members. The tally was 20-20, so Baker’s vote on the matter was criticized as the decision that killed a bill with a provision important to his own rural constituents.
Months later, Baker said the amended version of the bill was rushed, and he remains unsure of his position on it. “I can’t say that I would have supported that bill because there was no time to review it,” he said.
He also noted that it reached the floor after the midnight adjournment deadline, making it possibly invalid even if it has passed. Dunleavy vetoed several other bills that passed the Legislature after midnight, saying they were unconstitutional.
Burke, in contrast, has been adamant in seeking changes to help rural voters. The current system is plagued with problems, like the lack of polling place access experienced in the primary, she said. And Alaska Natives pay the price, she said in another op-ed essay published in the Anchorage Daily News.
“Barriers to voting in rural Alaska are persistent and glaring, including limited access to early voting tablets, the inability to translate official election information into Alaska Native languages, and the failure to receive absentee election materials before the voting window opens,” she said in the op-ed.
Party affiliations and trends
Baker has another distinction from other legislators representing predominantly Native districts.
He was the first Republican in more than six decades to represent his district or any part of it. The only other Republican representing the Northwest Arctic region was John Curtis, who served one term in the first legislative session after statehood.
After the legislative session, Baker switched his registration to nonpartisan, something that he said was spurred by his experience in the House representing the district. Party allegiances can get in the way of serving the district, he said. “Sometimes there’s going to be a more conservative way to tackle a District 40 problem. Sometimes there will be a more liberal way to do it,” he said. Seeing how much work goes into the job “that was the reason — becoming someone that could work in the middle of the road.”
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Chase said she too sometimes feels like she doesn’t belong to a political party, though she generally sides with Alaska Democrats.
“I feel like I’m always teeter-tottering, with kind of being a Democrat or going, kind of, towards independent,” she said. That is especially true this year, “when the presidential election is happening, and people are so extreme on both sides.”
By extreme, she said, she is referring to policies on mining or other resource development. Extreme Democrats, she said, are “very against any mining or any resource development that could possibly, you know, tarnish the land,” she said. Republicans are extreme in the other way when it comes to mining and other resource development, she said. “That’s all they want to do,” she said.
Burke, who has served on the board of the pro-oil organization Voice of the Arctic Inupiaq, said she remains a loyal Democrat, but of the Arctic Alaska variety.
“You can’t be a Democrat from the North Slope without being pro-resource development,” she said. “So I would probably consider myself a little more moderate.”
Hensley said the region used to be overwhelmingly Democratic, and the meaningful contests were the primary elections.“If you got through the primary, basically, you were in,” he said.
However, the Republican Party label may not be as much of a detriment as it used to be, at least in half of the House district.
While most of rural Alaska remains solidly Democratic, there has been a shift within the North Slope Borough over the last few presidential cycles, according to results from the Alaska Division of Elections.
That is evident in results from the North Slope’s major population center, Utqiagivik, even as voters in the Northwest Arctic’s major community, Kotzebue, remain heavily in favor of Democrats.
In the 2012 election, voters in Utqiagvik’s two precincts preferred President Barack Obama to GOP challenger Mitt Romney by a 2-to-1 margin. Four years later, the majority of the presidential votes in those precincts went to Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump, but the margin was narrower, under 12 percentage points.
In the 2020 election, Trump received 52.6% of the vote in the two Utqiagvik districts.
Hensley attributed that trend to the North Slope’s increasing dissatisfaction over national Democrats’ oil development positions and policies.
“Without oil production, they’re toast,” Hensley said. “That is what fuels their entire economy.”
Burke said it would not surprise her if the North Slope Borough tilted to Trump in this election. However, she would not be part of that trend, she said. “I can’t vote for Trump,” she said.
Baker, as of early September, said he had not made up his mind about how he would vote in the presidential election.
“The concern for me is who is going to do what they can to support the Alaskan economy, who is going to support our Alaskan way of life and who is going to make sure that their administration listens when a community says, ’This is what we need, please work with us this way,’” he said.
In another example of the diversity within District 40, Kotzebue, the other hub community, remains a Democratic stronghold in presidential elections, similar to the patterns in most parts of rural Alaska.
Alaska already has glaciers, whales, old gold-rush towns, wild seafood, and mountains. But Princess Cruises is taking the year by storm with something bigger than a standard summer schedule. The line is sending eight ships to Alaska, adding new North-to-Alaska programming, and giving travelers more ways to turn their trip into a full land-and-sea adventure.
Princess Is Going Bigger Than Ever
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The 2026 Alaska season gives Princess its largest presence in the region to date, with eight ships, 180 departures, and visits to 19 destinations. Travelers are not boxed into a narrow route or one small batch of dates. The ship lineup includes Star Princess, Coral Princess, Royal Princess, Ruby Princess, Grand Princess, Emerald Princess, Discovery Princess, and Island Princess. For anyone comparing Alaska cruise options, that much capacity means more itinerary choices.
Star Princess Gives The Season A New Headliner
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Star Princess is the newest ship in the Princess fleet. This matters because Alaska cruising can easily feel like a trade-off between destination and ship experience. Princess is putting one of its newest vessels into one of its most important regions. Star Princess also hosts the new Après Sea experience inside The Dome, a high-positioned venue designed around big views.
Glacier Days Get The Full Main-Event Treatment
Credit: Getty Images
Glacier viewing has always been one of Alaska cruising’s biggest draws, but Princess is giving it extra structure through “The Glacier Experience: A Signature Princess Day.” On select Glacier Bay sailings, guests get close-up glacier views, live narration, and Park Ranger commentary from the bridge and open decks. There are also theater presentations and Junior and Teen Ranger programming. VIP viewing areas and bowfront access add another layer for guests who want the best possible look at the ice.
The Trip Can Extend Deep Into Alaska By Land
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Princess has long built part of its reputation around cruisetours that combine time at sea with inland travel. A seven-night sailing can deliver a strong Alaska trip in itself. However, inland travel opens the door to scenic train journeys, Princess Wilderness Lodges, and routes to places such as Denali, Kenai, and the Mt. McKinley lodge area. The 2026 season continues to lean into sea-and-land travel.
North To Alaska Makes The Ship Feel Local
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Princess first introduced its North to Alaska program in 2015, and in 2026, every Princess ship sailing in Alaska will carry the new programming. The whole idea is to bring local culture, food, personalities, and storytelling on board so guests learn something about Alaska between ports. This includes Native Alaskan speakers, naturalists, enrichment presenters, and destination-focused events that connect the trip to the place outside the ship. Names in the speaker series include Tlingit voices, Alaska Native educators, writers, and photographers.
Alaska Seafood Gets A Bigger Seat At The Table
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Princess is leaning into Alaska’s food identity with “A Taste of The Great Land.” The 2026 specialty restaurant offerings feature sustainably sourced, wild-caught Alaskan seafood created with regional suppliers. Crown Grill offers dishes such as Wild King Salmon, Alaskan Jumbo Lump Crab Cake, and Jumbo Lump Crab paired with Butter-Broiled Lobster Tail. Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria also brings Alaskan fish into an Italian-style setting.
The Entertainment Has Alaska In Its Bones
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
This season also features “Candlelight Concert Series: Fire & Ice,” with Alaska singer-songwriters performing in a candlelit setting twice per voyage. This gives the onboard entertainment a stronger sense of place than a generic music night. Returning favorites add a livelier side, including Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show elements with axe-throwing recruits, trivia, and timber-sports storytelling tied to Ketchikan. Select sailings also feature Deadliest Catch captains and crew members sharing Bering Sea crab-fishing stories. The lineup draws from Alaska’s labor, music, weather, and folklore.
Families Get More Than A Pretty View
Credit: Tripadvisor
Younger travelers are getting special attention, not a watered-down version of the adult trip. Glacier Bay Junior Rangers let kids complete activity books, attend presentations, and earn a badge and certificate through a partnership with the National Park Service. Gold Rush Adventures pulls families into a shipwide Klondike-style search, while Great Alaskan Expedition offers youth and teens a three-hour team-based experience across land, sea, and air. As puppies in the Piazza also return on ships visiting Skagway, guests get to see Alaskan Huskies and sled-dog culture.
Après Sea Gives Alaska A Stylish Cooldown
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
After a long day outside, Princess is adding a dedicated wind-down ritual through Après Sea. The setup is inspired by après-ski culture. Guests can expect warm drinks, happy hour, and panoramic views after they return from exploring. On Star Princess, the experience is in The Dome, and it provides a strong visual setting at the top of the ship. A relaxed lounge concept gives the evening its own personality, and guests don’t have to jump straight from adventure into dinner.
MedallionClass Keeps The Whole Trip Moving Smoothly
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Alaska days can get busy fast, with early excursions, glacier viewing, dinner plans, family meetups, and plenty of time spent moving around the ship. The Princess Medallion Class setup helps cut down on small hassles. The wearable Medallion supports contactless boarding, keyless stateroom entry, onboard ordering, contactless payment, ship navigation, and locating travel companions through the app. When the day already includes ports, wildlife, ice, and dinner reservations, fewer friction points onboard can make a real difference.
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Let’s kick off the week with a quick roundup of some science news you may have missed.
First, you may have seen some headlines last week about an outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship. Here to tell us more about what happened is Tanya Lewis, SciAm’s senior desk editor for health and medicine.
Tanya, thanks so much for coming on to walk us through this.
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Tanya Lewis: Yeah, no, thanks so much for having me.
Feltman: Why are we talking about hantavirus and this cruise ship? What happened?
Lewis: Just to catch people up, this outbreak was first noticed about a week ago on a ship called the MV Hondius, which was a cruise ship departing from South America, Argentina. And the people that were sickened and unfortunately passed away, two of those individuals were a married couple who had been traveling—it was a Dutch couple—we think were infected in Argentina and then boarded the ship. And then subsequently, multiple other people have been infected. As of May 7 the number of people on this cruise ship who had been infected with hantavirus was eight people. So that probably could still change.
But you might not have heard of hantavirus before, but it is a virus family that people have been sickened with before, and it’s generally spread by rodents, like rats or mice. And this commonly happens in places where people are exposed to the feces of these animals.
And it causes pretty severe disease. It can cause anything from respiratory distress and fluid in the lungs to some forms of it can be more of, like, a hemorrhagic fever, kind of like Ebola. But the kind that we’re seeing on this cruise ship is more the respiratory kind.
But yeah, this is a virus that, while it is fairly rare to be infected with it, it’s quite lethal. The estimates of its lethality vary, but anywhere from, like, 30 percent to even 50 percent of people infected have died of it.
Feltman: Right, well, and like you said, it, it’s usually spread through rodent feces. But unfortunately, the specific virus we’re talking about, with regard to this cruise ship, is one of the rare instances where it is technically possible to spread from human to human. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Lewis: Basically, these individuals on the ship were thought to be infected by human-to-human transmission. At least, that’s the working hypothesis right now. And the reason has to do with the exposure routes.
As I mentioned two of the people were a married couple, so we’re talking about, like, very close contact. This is not something like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, where it’s, like, in the air and wafting around for hours or something. This is something that you would probably need to be, like, breathing very closely, in the same space. And of course, cruise ships are, like, kind of the perfect petri dish for that.
Feltman: Yeah.
So I think there are two things to talk about. There’s, one, why experts are not immediately super concerned about pandemic potential from this specific thing, but also why it is reasonable that I think so many of us, when seeing this news, went, “Uh-oh. We’re—this is a reminder of public-health paradigms I do not wanna be reminded of.”
So let’s start with the good news: Why are experts not freaking out about this?
Lewis: Yeah, so we have to remember that this is a virus that is very different than a lot of the pathogens that have caused respiratory pandemics in the past. In order for a pathogen to be a major pandemic concern, it needs to be very transmissible, and that is something that we have not yet seen with this hantavirus.
I should say, this particular strain is the only strain that has been shown to transmit human to human; it’s called the Andes strain. Most hantaviruses are not thought to spread that way. So the good news is, it’s kind of rare. The bad news, maybe, is that it does appear to have spread, at least, you know, in a limited way, between people.
But yeah, in terms of why experts are not, like, immediately concerned that this will spark a larger epidemic, I think the reason is just that this type of virus and the way it spreads is not conducive, as far as we know, to that type of outbreak. And it’s also happening in a very contained space, so although there have been reports that several of the people on board the ship have disembarked and we are still following that closely, at this point there is no indication of wider community spread, which is what we call it when people are getting infected who have not had direct exposure to the infected individuals.
Feltman: Is there any concern that the time that this virus spent, you know, in such a perfect petri dish may have given it the opportunity to mutate and be better at jumping from person to person?
Lewis: I think what virologists would tell you is, like, the more opportunities a virus has to jump between people, the higher the risk of it developing, like, a concerning mutation that makes it more transmissible.
That said, we’re still talking about a relatively small number of individuals. I mean, eight people sounds like a lot, but, you know, when you’re talking about this being very close quarters on a ship, this is not like, oh, you’re walking into a giant city like New York City and infecting everyone around you or something. So I think that is a little bit reassuring, perhaps, at this point.
But that said, we’ve been humbled before, and I think if there’s one lesson we can take from the COVID pandemic, it’s that we shouldn’t panic, but we should definitely pay attention. And at least scientists wanna know and learn more about this virus and understand it better.
Feltman: I think a lot of people are getting a little freaked out by this news. [Laughs.]
Lewis: Yeah, and I mean, I would be the first to say, like, something like this you hear about, it’s, like, instantly puts you back in that fearful space of 2020. And of course, there was the famous cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, where some of the early COVID cases happened. So that is always concerning.
On the other hand, you know, we have to sort of put it in perspective and remember this is a rare virus and it is something that people have been infected with in the past, so it’s not a completely new virus, unlike SARS-CoV-2, which we had never seen before. So we do have some idea of how this virus works, and while we don’t have any specific treatments for it, we do at least have experts who study it. So that should hopefully give some reassurance that, like, this is not a complete unknown. We are not starting from square one.
Feltman: Thanks for that, Tanya.
Now, listeners, keep in mind we had this conversation on Thursday, May 7. But you can always go to ScientificAmerican.com for more up-to-date science news.
Now for new research on micro- and nanoplastics—but this isn’t the health story you might be expecting. According to a study published last Monday in Nature Climate Change, these tiny bits of broken-down plastic could be contributing to our planet’s warming temperatures.
For starters, just in case you are blissfully unaware: yes, there are, unfortunately, microplastics in the sky. According to a study published in 2021, some of these particles swirl up into the air from the road, where tires and brakes frequently shed small pieces of plastic.
Now, the idea of microplastics permeating the air and even seeding clouds into existence is creepy enough, in my opinion. But this new study suggests they can also have a warming effect on the atmosphere.
Here’s how that would work: if you’ve ever spent time on a patch of blacktop on a sunny summer day, you know that black material absorbs heat. Conversely, white material reflects heat. The same thing happens when you scatter bits of dark and light plastic into the atmosphere, which is what humanity has inadvertently done quite a bit over the past few decades.
Unfortunately, according to this new study, any cooling effects we might get from light microplastics are probably vastly outweighed by the warming effects of dark microplastics. While the estimated effect is a small percentage of the warming fueled by soot from coal power plants, the results are still worrying.
As Jackie Flynn Mogenson reported for SciAm last week, we don’t actually know the concentration of micro- and nanoplastics currently in our atmosphere. But the authors of the new study argue that global climate assessments should do more to factor in these tiny plastic bits. And their findings serve as a great reminder that when we talk about the downsides of plastic, we should recognize that there may be impacts far less concrete and obvious than creating growing piles of trash in landfills.
Now I’ll turn the mic over briefly to SciAm’s chief newsletter editor, Andrea Gawrylewski. She’s gonna tell us about the science behind a tsunami that caught Alaska by surprise.
Andrea Gawrylewski: Thanks, Rachel.
Last summer, in August, a small cruise boat called the David B spent the night in an inlet about 50 miles from Juneau, Alaska. They were supposed to be at anchor nearer to Juneau in this beautiful fjord called Tracy Arm, but bad weather had forced them to pick another place to stay. And it turns out that detour may have saved their lives.
In the morning, from where they were anchored, the boat’s owners noticed seawater rolling over the nearby [sandbar] and shoreline. It was weird because the tide was supposed to be out at that time, and they had no idea why the water was so high.
When scientists heard about the strange sea-level rise, they began examining seismic data, they looked at aerial footage and satellite images, and determined that a massive landslide had occurred at the top of the Tracy Arm fjord.
So what had happened?
The South Sawyer Glacier at the top of Tracy Arm has been steadily shrinking and retreating for the last 25 years. In the spring and summer of last year the ice retreated inland several hundred feet, exposing so much bare rock that it ultimately caused a landslide.
That big slide hit the water and sent a tsunami racing through the fjord—like, so much water that the tsunami surged more than 1,500 feet up the sides of the fjord and sloshed back and forth, like in a bathtub.
That event also produced a seismic signal equivalent to a magnitude 5.4 earthquake. Scientists found smaller seismic events in the data that had occurred at least 24 hours before the big one, and they were increasing exponentially in intensity in the six hours before the landslide.
So now the question is: Could these early seismic signals be used as a warning system? One scientist at the Alaska Earthquake Center has been testing a landslide detection algorithm, and so far it’s detected 35 landslides in near real time. Sending out warnings within three to four minutes of big events could make all the difference to people who live in the area, so scientists are working to improve tools like these.
If you want more updates like this, sign up for my free daily newsletter, Today in Science, at SciAm.com/#newsletter.
Feltman: That’s all for this week’s science news roundup. We’ll be back on Wednesday to talk all about protein. Why is it everywhere all of a sudden? We’ll cut through the hype so you can just enjoy your tofu in peace.
Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!
As former mayors of Anchorage, we each had the responsibility of leading Alaska’s largest city through moments of challenge and opportunity. While our administrations differed in time and approach, one priority remained constant: ensuring that Anchorage and Alaska have access to reliable, affordable energy.
Energy keeps our homes warm through long winters, powers our schools and hospitals, and fuels the businesses that employ our neighbors. It literally fuels every aspect of our economy and our quality of life. When energy becomes uncertain or unaffordable, the consequences are felt immediately by families, employers and communities across the state.
Today, Alaska faces a generational energy challenge. Cook Inlet natural gas production has been declining for decades. Like the frog in a pot on the stove, the problem around us has slowly grown but is about to reach a raging boil. Declining supplies of inexpensive Cook Inlet gas, rising demand and a lack of long-term certainty jeopardize the stability we rely on. Without action — right now — we will lose control over energy costs and availability.
We have faced moments like this before. During his tenure as mayor, Dan Sullivan recognized early the urgency created by declining Cook Inlet gas production. He convened an Energy Task Force that brought together industry leaders, policymakers and stakeholders to confront the issue directly. That work helped lay the foundation for the Cook Inlet Recovery Act, which the Legislature passed quickly to spur new investment and extend the life of the basin. It showed what is possible when Alaska acts with focus and urgency. It also showed the legislature can move fast when aligned on policy.
This is not a new conversation. For years, studies commissioned by both the Alaska Legislature and multiple administrations have identified the need to modernize Alaska’s tax structure and energy policies to remain competitive for large-scale investment and infrastructure projects. Again and again, those reviews reached the same conclusion: If Alaska wants to attract and keep transformational projects, the state must provide a stable, competitive framework that reflects the realities of modern energy development.
The Alaska LNG project is the only viable path to meet that need. It would deliver a stable, long-term supply of natural gas to Southcentral Alaska, helping ensure that homes, schools and businesses have dependable energy at predictable prices. It would also create jobs, strengthen the economy and generate revenue that supports essential public services.
For Anchorage and the entire Southcentral region, the stakes could not be higher. As the economic center of the state, Anchorage depends on dependable energy to sustain growth and opportunity. Utilities, employers and families all need certainty to plan ahead.
If the Legislature fails to pass meaningful property tax reform for Alaska LNG, this opportunity will slip away like other projects have done. Alaska’s property tax system was not designed for a megaproject like Alaska LNG. Because of that, tax reform legislation was introduced in March that will lower our energy bills and speed the delivery of natural gas from the North Slope. Our legislators must act quickly on a targeted solution and avoid making changes that raise energy costs or slow this project. Otherwise, Anchorage and all Southcentral Alaska will be forced to rely on imported gas for decades.
That outcome exposes us to higher and more volatile costs, shrinks our economy, prevents job growth and sends billions of dollars out of state.
Every day of delay increases that risk. As our electric and gas bills made clear this winter, costs are already rising. Without fast action, consumers should be prepared for increases of 30% to 40% or more. Our state will become an even harder place to start a family or a business.
A project of this scale requires careful consideration and responsible decision-making. But waiting carries its own consequences. The longer Alaska delays, the fewer options remain and the more expensive those options become.
As former mayors of Anchorage, we each had unique approaches to problem-solving. But now we speak with one voice: State leaders and legislators must act with urgency and purpose to enact tax changes that propel this project and unlock the revenue, economic, energy security and other benefits from our North Slope natural gas. Decisions now will shape the state’s economic future for generations.
George Wuerch (Anchorage mayor from 2000-2003) previously served as governmental affairs manager for the Northwest Alaskan Gasline, was founder/president of Fluor Daniel Alaska Engineering and served as vice president of corporate affairs for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.
Mark Begich (Anchorage mayor from 2003-2009 and U.S. senator from 2009-2015) is a strategic consulting adviser hired by Gov. Dunleavy’s office to help advance the Alaska LNG project.
Dan Sullivan (Anchorage mayor from 2009-2015) previously served on the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority board.
Dave Bronson (Anchorage mayor from 2021-2024) is a candidate for governor of Alaska.
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