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[Blue_In_AK]

Phil Munger has an excellent post at ProgressiveAlaska regarding the Yukon River salmon run - the collapse of which last summer was one of the causes of the western Alaska fuel/food crisis that is finally getting some national attention. Phil addresses the root cause of the problem, global warming.

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/01/salmon-habitat-quality-questions-in.html

I. One of the results of focus since January 12th on the food and fuel crisis in villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta has been some attention revisited upon the long-term health and viability of Yukon and Kuskokwim salmon stocks. A significant part of this winter's crisis is a result of poor fish returns in 2008 to the Yukon River. The Kuskokwim also saw very low returns of most species. In the Yukon, returning fish who make it upriver have recently been afflicted with a disease related to global warming, called “white spot disease.” It is caused by a microscopic parasite called Ichthyophonus hoferi. It renders the fish inedible.

First noticed in Yukon King populations in 1988, the disease's identification was botched at first by Alaska state-run labs, but the Center for Fish Disease Research at Oregon State University came up with the parasite's identification in 1989. Since then, the problem, experienced upriver from the delta, has gotten more serious, year by year. Coupled with the low numbers of Chinook, Chum and Coho entering the river, the subsistence economy for some Alaska Natives living upriver has been at least as devastating as it has been for communities like Emmonak in the delta.

Much written about the problem this winter in communities like Emmonak has focused on short-term solutions. Food and fuel have been flown in. Money is being raised for village infrastructures. The State of Alaska is finally contemplating competing with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to provide fuel vouchers for needy rural families in Westward Alaska. But little has been written about the long-term relationship the Yupik of the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim share with the rapidly declining salmon stocks in their rivers.

<snip> ... much more.

This is a long post, but very informative and well worth reading. We are facing some serious problems up here, and I'm not sure the governor is up to the task.

[JeffR]

1. It seems more and more obvious that Palin is not up to the task.

Worse still, she doesn't seem to care.

If the damn media would spend a fraction as much time scrutinizing how this ditz "governs" as opposed to her kids, her RNC-provided wardrobe and her ability to kill animals from the air, her political career would be over, and not just nationally.

[bertman]

3. It's NOT that she doesn't care. It's that she IS AGAINST DOING ANYTHING.

[JeffR]

4. True

but isn't she against action because she just doesn't care?

[bertman]

5. I think there's a difference between not caring, and being against something because

you disagree with it. She thinks global warming/climate change is a fiction. Go figure.

[JeffR]

6. I forget how much of a rigid ideologue she is.

You make a very good point. There's actually a philosophy at work here, however twisted.

[chknltl]

2. KnR nt

[pleah]

7. K&R n/t