Ice and Fire
Listen to climate change in Alaska through place-based narrative.
Ice and Fire is a podcast that uses audio storytelling to share cryosphere change as the global climate warms. The cryosphere is all of Earth's frozen surface water including frozen freshwater lakes, glaciers, permafrost and sea ice -- frozen saltwater.
It only takes a small temperature increase for water to melt or thaw from solid into liquid form, yet a cascade of impacts result when we lose ice to fastly flowing liquid.
Season one emphasizes the significance of glacier melt, and connects listeners to distant glaciers rapidly responding to anthropogenic climate change through dialogue with researchers, traditional knowledge-bearers, and by sharing audio of ice-melt in real time.
Season two, available now, is all about permafrost thaw.
Ice and Fire
usteq
In this episode, we learn the Yup'ik term for climate change-induced catastrophic land collapse, which occurs due to permafrost thaw, erosion, and flooding: Usteq.
We hear several definitions of the term, utilized by researchers and the government, and learn how these land changes are impacting communities in Western Alaska, in real-time.
topics and purpose: the long observed changes to the land described by the Yup'ik people, and related stress in present times
terms defined: usteq, land subsidence, divestment
notes: Learn more about climate friendly financial investments at ClimateSmart and get involved in the movement: Stop the Money Pipeline. Here is a link to the Alaska State Hazard Mitigation Plan, and to Dr. Bronen's research about Usteq. This episode was funded, in part, by a grant from the Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources.