Climate change experts gather in Anchorage

Submitted by Amy Hartley
Phone: (907) 474-5823
09/22/04

Experts on climate change in Alaska and the Arctic will gather in Anchorage on Friday, Sept. 24 to give presentations on thinning Alaska glaciers, melting permafrost, and the possibility of shipping routes through the Canadian Arctic in the near future.

Ten scientists will present talks on current changes to the northern landscape at the Egan Center in Anchorage, Friday, beginning at 8:20 a.m. and continuing until noon. Titled "Arctic and Environmental Change," the session is part of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, which has attracted scientists from all over the world.

Among the speakers in the Arctic change portion are Keith Echelmeyer of the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute, who led a team that discovered drastic recent melting in most of Alaska’s glaciers; and Vladimir Romanovsky, a permafrost expert at the Geophysical Institute who has measured the warming of Alaska’s permafrost using a series of boreholes throughout Alaska.

Chairing the session is Hajo Eicken, a sea ice and global change expert from the Geophysical Institute, who said the talks will be like a live version of the Scientific American Frontiers television feature "Hot Times in Alaska" that aired earlier this year on PBS.

CONTACT: Amy Hartley, Geophysical Institute Information Officer, (907) 474-5823