161 VERSUS 183 - A FIELD TEST

Nordic skate skiing is one of my favourite pastimes here in Interior Alaska. However, it has some drawbacks, as opposed to the traditional, classic cross-country skiing (which I also greatly enjoy). First, you need a relatively flat and at least partially groomed surface, without more than a few cm of loose snow on top. Second, the trail must generally be about two metres wide, and third, to get effective glide for efficient, fast, and fun skating, the temperature really needs to be warmer than -20C (-4F), and preferably, warmer than -15C (+5F).

Then, our nordic ski trail systems around Fairbanks, groomed for skating, don't allow canines on them, even if they are assistant editors and research assistants for prestigious on-line reviews. And, the local rivers (Tanana and Chena) can have high amounts of fast snowmachine traffic on weekends, posing a hazard for Homer and Mattie. So, when I was in my latest ski class last week (your lead editor is a professional ski student, been taking lessons for six years now, with no end in sight!), a very knowledgeable local expert, Jim Lokken, told me about some short skate skis on clearance at our local sport shop.

They are called "jibskate" skis, Fischer brand. On Fischer's web-site, it says they are for free-style skating and acrobatics. Jim said he got some a few years ago and has been able to skate on narrower trails than with his regular skate skis. Here you can see the difference. My regular skate skis are 183 cm long, the Fischer jibskates are only 161 cm. The are a little on the heavy side, but they have great camber, which  helps make up for their short length, by absorbing most of the energy of your push, with each skate stride, and transferring it to the snow surface.

So, I got these last weekend, for a fraction of their normal price. This past tuesday then, I  decided to test them out on some narrower, canine-friendly, but not too heavily used (at least on a weekday) snow-machine packed trails.

First stop was a portion of the Yukon Quest trail, near Chena Hot Springs, about 90 km east of Fairbanks. The Yukon Quest is the toughest, coldest, mushing race in Alaska, from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, Yukon, every February. It's usually much colder during this race, than for the Iditarod, which is currently ongoing, from near Anchorage, to Nome.

We drove out to the Chena Dome trailhead, which is about 10 km west of Chena Hot Springs. The Yukon Quest trail intersects it, only a few hundred metres in. Unfortunately, a large area of overflow ice was in our way, right off the bat.

So we had to carefully edge around that, as I did not want to ice up the gliding surface of the skate skis, which would then collect snow, and really slow me down. It was about -13C (+12F) when we started around 1030 in the morning.

As you can see, the trail was pretty narrow, only about a metre wide. With my regular skate skis, it would have been difficult, to impossible, to execute the main technique for skating on the flats, the V2 stride. Which is where you push off with both poles to each side, with each kick that you make. It almost does look a little like ice skating, but with longer implements on your feet, and poles in your hands.

However, with the shorter skis, I was actually able to V2, not fully, as the trail wasn't quite wide enough, but partially. This alone, helped me to go quite a bit faster, than if I was on my classic skis, kicking each one straight ahead, and poling with the opposite hand. There were a few short gentle uphill sections though, in the 16 km section that we skated out on. Unfortunately, one metre trail width is not wide enough to V1, which is the uphill stride. Where you lean further out over each ski as you kick uphill, and plant your poles on just one side, leaving the other side just a kick, without a pole push. You have to have your skis in a wider stance to do this. So, I ended up having to really use my arms alot to keep from sliding back, while I tried to V1 in a faster tempo. Not ideal for long distances. Jim L. said he sometimes puts grip wax on the kick zone of these skis, so he can use a classic stride to go uphill. But it does slow down the skating somewhat on the flats and downhills he said.

After about 16km, or just over 90 minutes (1.5 to 2X faster than if I had been on classic skis), I had to turn around. The trail was getting too narrow for any skating at all. If I was on some kind of race or back-country outing, at this point I would have to put grip wax on, and go into a classic stride, if I would want to continue. However, I wanted to solely test the skating properties of these skis, so I didn't do that.

We got back to the trailhead after our just over 3 hour 32km outing (including a 15 min. lunch stop), wanting more time out. It was getting colder as well, a mini-"Arctic Front" was coming through, with light snow and west winds bringing colder air in. The temperature had dropped to -17C (+5F) when we finished, and I could tell my glide was not quite as good, since my glide wax was for warmer conditions. Mattie and Homer too, were itching for more trail time.

So, we drove through some near white-out conditions to the Elliott Highway, which we then took 50 km north, to the main trailhead for the BLM White Mountains National Recreation Area.
http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/nlcs/white_mtns.html
This is the NRA that has several cabins on an extensive trail system, that people can reserve and stay in, after skiing, snowmachining, biking, or hiking in. When we got to the Wickersham Dome trailhead at 1600 in the afternoon, the temperature had dropped to -19C (-2F), and there was a couple of cm of stiff new powder on the trail.

These trails are a little wider, packed down by more snowmachine traffic. About 1.5 to 2 metres wide. I've skated on my 183 cm skis here before, but had to actually take them off and walk, on narrower, uphill sections. On the gentle uphill slants like this, I was able to execute a decent V1, and keep up a regular pace. Even with the reduced glide from the colder temperature and stiff new powder.

But when we got to a steeper uphill section, about 8 km in, I couldn't keep up my V1, the trail just wasn't quite wide enough. So I had to duckwalk, or herring-bone up, which is very slow and awkward. That is when we decided to turn back.

Most of the 8km back to the trailhead were flat or downhill, which made for a very fast return. All in all, this was a great test, of these new skis. And we would recommend them for anyone who wants to be able to skate on narrower trails.

Our next step, is to "hybridise" them, by applying grip wax to the kick zone on the ski base, and see how well that works to allow us to do a classic stride uphill, and if, or how much, this will slow our skating, on the flats, and downhills. We'll give you a full report after we complete that test. Cheers.

VERS UNE AMERIQUE DU NORD GENTER 2040

The title of our article today, translated from the French, is "Toward a gentler North America, 2040". It's in French, because we here at the Alaska Progressive Review, admire Canada, as a healthier (but by no means perfect), gentler country, than the U.S. A Social Democracy, with universal health coverage, and more strictly regulated capitalism, in general. Which is why their economy is much healthier than ours now, they have strict regulations disallowing banks to venture into risky, destructive, loaning and investing programs, unlike those in the U.S.

Growing up in the 1970s, in San Diego, I suppose some people from other parts of the U.S. would think that my junior and senior high school education would have been very "liberal", biased with "revisionist" history. But that really wasn't the case, I think. The history and social studies curriculum did change quite a bit in the 1970s, all over the U.S., as our society liberalised, in general, to teach slightly more about the real history on this continent, concerning for example, what happened with the indigenous people. But not nearly enough.

I didn't read historian Dee Brown's shattering compilation of stories from indigenous peoples on this continent, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", (first published in 1970) until 1990, when I was 25.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781402760662-1  It brought tears to my eyes on many occasions, documenting the broken treaties, forced relocations, battles, and massacres that occurred from 1492 until 1890 (the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota). This massacre occurred when troops fired on a fleeing defenseless band of Lakota Souix people, killing over 300, well over half of whom where women and children. 

As we have mentioned before, if all the treaties with indigenous people that the U.S. government ratified through Congress, and signed by the President, but were later broken, were forced to be honoured, the U.S. would cease to exist, as we know it. And indigenous people in the U.S. are still suffering, with the highest infant mortality rates, unemployment, and lowest life expectancies, of any group, on their reservations.

In fact, one of the World's most well-known political prisoners, Leonard Peltier, resides in Leavenworth Federal Prison, where he was framed for the murders of two FBI agents, on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation, in 1975. http://www.leonardpeltier.net/newsroom.htm  He has garnered support from people and well-known figures world-wide, such as Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and the Dalai Lama. Yet he has been denied parole every year since 1980, and will probably die in prison. His story makes for heartbreaking reading.

Another book we were never exposed to, growing up, is USMC Lt. General Smedley Butler's shattering expose of the wars and subversions the U.S. was involved in when he was in the prime of his career from 1905-1930. "War is a Racket". http://www.powells.com/biblio/18-9780060838652-0  This should be mandatory reading for every U.S. citizen, as should be "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". Butler's book documents how all the invasions and subversions of many Latin American countries he was involved in, were for corporate interests, and how they all profited. He also documented how the corporate world and politicians benefitted from World War I as well. It makes for sad, but eye-opening reading. The publisher's description reads:

"Smedley Butler took his Constitutional vows seriously, repelling threats to America both without and within. Shortly after retiring from a lauded career, the popular Marine brought down a Fascist corporate plot to sieze the White House. Concerned for the future of Democracy, Butler began to speak out against the venal motives behind many of this country's military actions. Written during the Great Depression, War is a Racket pulls no punches against a corrupt military-industrial complex, eager to murder both foreign and native-born  children for the sake of profit. This edition includes two other anti-intervention screeds written by Butler, in addtion to photographs taken from the astonishing 1932 antiwar book, The Horror of It. Adam Parfrey's introduction reveals names suppressed from a Congressional investigation that verified the right-wing coup plotted against President Franklin D. Roosevelt by corporate bigwigs."

And unfortunately, nothing has really changed, since this book was written, as several of our previous articles will attest.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/capitalisms-dirty-warssecrets.html

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-out-like-bandits.html

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2010/01/remembering-what-he-died-for.html The current Democratic, Obama administration, is in every way, just an extension of the previous Republican Bush administration, with a more eloquent speaker at the head, the only substantive difference. Consider. Obama's administration is packed with the same banking/financial criminals who through their greedy, short-sighted actions nearly derailed not just the U.S., but the global economy, and who continue to receive "bail-outs" from the government. The insane U.S. defense budget, which is over $700 billion annually, over 8 times that of the next largest country's, China's, continues to rise every year. The immoral, and illegal invasion and occupation of the sovereign country of Iraq, in which over a million innocent civilians have died, continues apace, with no apologies or acknowledgement of the crimes committed, including torture. And, further escalation in the empire-destroying country of Afghanistan also continues, for no real reason (except corporate profits and political gain). Both of these imperial actions are costing hundreds of billions of dollars annually, with no end in sight.

When "health-care reform" was to be a highlight of the new administration, what has come out has been a capitulation to the greedy, deadly, health insurance companies, whose sole purpose in existence seems to be denying coverage whenever possible to people in need, to maximise profits. And, no recision of the unconstitutional Patriot act has been attempted, or even criticism of previous officials of the Bush Administration, when they tried to justify it, and tortures committed as part of the Iraq and Afghanistan misadventures.

Since both the Democratic and Republican parties are thoroughly under corporate domination, and the corporate media won't allow third parties any significant exposure, nothing seems likely to change in the U.S. Which means that at some point, it will bankrupt itself, or other countries will be forced to work together to force it to change. Which could easily be done economically. If China were to stop supporting our economy by investing in our currency, and if the global oil market were to switch to pricing in Euros, instead of Dollars, this country would be destitute, and would be unable to support it's bloated military and imperial actions. Much like what happened to the Soviet Union, in the 1980s.

This probably will happen at some point. Because the greedy corporations and oligarchs who actually control U.S. policy are not going to change, and the U.S. population is just too misinformed, apathetic (some say lazy, but we at A.P.R. think that is not entirely the case), and splintered into mistrustful ethnic/class groupings to come together and force real changes.

We think this will happen within three decades, if not sooner, helped along by people like this:

I think this satirical political sticker says it all, about her and her supporters, don't you?

To prepare you for this eventuality, for the past few weeks, we have been working on our vision of what a kinder, gentler North America will look like, by 2040, after the forced dissolution of the U.S., brought about by it's unsustainable greed and exceptionalist mentality, and concerted actions by the rest of the World.

We will tell you the story of this future history, how this continental realinement comes about, and describe each of these interesting, and some very different, smaller nations, in future articles. Stay tuned. Cheers.

WHEN IT'S MAY IN FEBRUARY [and] GOING WITH THE (chinook) FLOW II

WHEN IT'S MAY IN FEBRUARY

We had an interesting warm spell over the past week, here in Interior Alaska, so much so, that we feel the need to examine it in some depth.                                

Warm spells occur here every winter of course, and give us a welcome break from temperatures of -20 to -45C. This winter has been quite mild, our cold spells have been very short, only 3-5 days in duration, generally, separated by two to three week periods of much milder conditions, brought on by a weather pattern, like this, to the left. When a strong high pressure ridge builds north along the west coast of North America, and mild subtropical air flows north, all the way through Alaska to the Arctic.

This chart, above, shows a strong ridge that did just that, over the past 10 days, and brought very mild air north over Alaska. On Friday and Saturday, 19-20 February, surface temperatures reached 8-14C (46-58F!) over much of Interior Alaska, including here at the Chena Ridge Research Center, where we reached 8C. These temperatures are 15-20C (27-36F) above average for this time of year.  This chart, to the right, is the temperature and wind-profile, from the twice-daily radiosonde balloon release, in Fairbanks, from friday afternoon, 20 Feb. These are done in thousands of places world-wide, at 00 and 1200 Greenwhich Mean Time. These "soundings" provide the backbone of the data set for the supercomputer-based weather forecast models, which provide meteorologists with forecast charts for different atmospheric parameters and levels, going out as far as 10 days ahead (though accuracy rapidly diminishes after 3 days, and much more so after day 5). 

What the above upper-air profile is showing, is a very pronounced bubble of above-freezing air in the lower atmosphere here over Interior Alaska. The thick black line, on the left, is the temperature, measured by the balloon, as it ascends. You can see that it remains to the right of the light blue 0C line, up to about 2200 metres (7200 ft.). Meaning, that the free-air freezing level at this time, was around 2200 metres! This is unprecendented, in my experience, forecasting here in Fairbanks. And why, on this day, surface temperatures were so warm. This atmospheric "sounding", in fact, looks more like one we would see in May, than mid-February. The black temperature line, decreasing with height, shows a sharp break at 11,300 metres. This marks the top of the troposphere, the lower layer of the atmosphere where active weather occurs. This "tropopause" (height where the troposphere transitions into the stratosphere) height of 11,300 metres, is almost 3000 metres higher than average, for this time of year, in Alaska. Meaning, the troposphere is much deeper, because the air-mass is so much warmer, throughout its depth.

What was it about this ridging pattern that made it so warm here? This infrared satellite image from fri. afternoon 19 Feb. tells the story. You can see the clear skies over British Columbia and the Yukon, under the high pressure ridge. Over the Pacific and Gulf of Alaska, two low pressure systems are present. As these lows move north, in the southerly flow on the front side of the ridge, they transport very mild air northward, in their wake, after their passage. And reinforce the mild air. The longer this pattern remains, the warmer the airmass becomes, over Alaska.

Interior Alaska is locked in a drought pattern, caused by frequent occurrences of this pattern, since last spring. The period from last July, to mid Feb., is the fourth driest since accurate precipitation records began, here in Fairbanks (around 1920). Only 11.5 cm of precip. has occurred (of which, only 53 cm of snow has fallen, about a third of average). March and April are typically the driest months in Interior Alaska, so the odds are not in favour of any relief from this. And hence, when our Boreal Forest awakens from it's winter dormancy this May, it will have much less moisture to work with, for new growth and general health. If a dry pattern continues into May, June, and July, another very bad fire season will occur here. We hope this won't happen!

In our last article, while we were discussing the nightmarish environmental conditions produced in China by their embracing of unrestrained Capitalism (in a supposedly Socialistic country!), we mentioned it's pollution travelling across the Pacific, to the western U.S. Well, here's a good article that came out today describing the latest research on that issue.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/21-2

It seems like we are always at least a week ahead of other sources providing you with insightful and important information, here at the Alaska Progressive Review! Stick with us...

GOING WITH THE (chinook) FLOW II

A.P.R.'s favourite adventure and travel companion, Erik, and I had decided back in Dec., that we would like to ski in, if possible, to the Maclaren lodge, 67km west of Paxson, on the Denali Highway, in mid-February, but only if it was "warm" (above about -15C or so), because we wanted to skate ski, which is faster than classic skiing. The Denali Highway is closed to automobile traffic in winter, unmaintained by the Alaska DOT. But, the Maclaren lodge usually grooms it with a snow-groomer, providing a wide, level track for snowmachiners and skiers. Because there is alot of high-speed snowmachine traffic on the highway, Mattie and Homer had to stay back at the Chena Ridge Research Centre. We didn't want to jeopardise their safety, as sometimes snowmachines can be speeding along at 130-150 kph!

When we saw the warm spell coming together around 08 Feb., we finalised our plans. We'd meet the next fri. night in Paxson, stay the night there, then ski out to Maclaren sat., stay there sun. 2/14, and ski back out monday. Things went according to plan, we spent a nice night in a Denali Highway Cabin http://www.denalihwy.com/, then got up and hit the highway at 0900, on our skate skis.

Unfortunately, I had not called ahead about the highway conditions. After only about a half-km on our skate skis with our 20 kg packs on, we realised, this wasn't doable on the narrow, bumpy track, that wasn't groomed. Had we known, we could have brought our classic skis, and made it in just fine that way, though it would have taken several hours longer.

But, Erik is very resourceful, and forward-thinking. He brought along his little 25 year old Skidoo snowmachine, named Patrick. Very simple mechanically, with a small 300cc or so engine, no gages, and only a pull-start. Yet Patrick always starts on the first pull. So, we went back to Erik's truck, and loaded all our packs and skis onto the back of Patrick, started him up, and headed out. He ran smoothly the whole way. We had to go fairly slowly, with our precarious load, on the sometimes narrow, bumpy, and curved route, only about 35-50 kph.

It was fairly mild at the start, -10C or so, and after about 12km, we had to stop and readjust the load, at this beautiful point, with expansive views of the Alaska Range back to the east and north. I was starting to get a little cold though, mainly because I neglected to bring my insulated glacier pants, since I'd thought we'd be skiing. My knees began to get quite cold.

By the time we got to this point, at the top of Maclaren Summit, about 10 km from the lodge, my knees were numb and I could barely walk. We had to stop a few times to warm up. It was a little colder here, probably -15C or so (+5F). The warmer air aloft hadn't fully mixed down to the surface yet. Still, the view north here to Maclaren glacier, emanating from 4217 metre Mt. Hayes (13,832 ft.) in the distance, was sure beautiful.

We got to the lodge at noon after about a two-hour trip on Patrick, with three stops to warm up and readjust our shifting load of packs and skis.  Erik's skillful pilotage of the machine kept us safe and level on the sometimes bumpy track (he used to be an avid snowmachiner many years ago, and it showed).   We rushed right into the lodge and warmed up next to the big woodstove to thaw our cold hands, feet, and knees. Maclaren lodge is open year-round. When the highway is open to cars and buses, alot of tourists stop in, and hunters, in the fall, looking to take a caribou from the large Nelchina herd, that roams the vast expanse of open tundra.  

We had just missed the tail-end of the Denali Double 200 dog-mushing race. Teams departed from Paxson, went down the highway to Cantwell, then back to Paxson. So the staff at the lodge were very tired, from serving the mushers and helping out with the dog teams.

I inquired about the highway grooming situation. It seems their groomer, here, a very expensive and large one, acquired from the Whistler Ski Area in BC (yes, the Whistler, of Olympic fame), is down for the moment mechanically. But, their also isn't really enough snow anyway for it, it needs close to a metre or more of snow depth, and there was only about half that on the highway.

We had reserved a little cabin, but were a little taken aback by the fly situation. It was infested with blackflies. I would leave the door open to freeze them out, then sweep them up and throw them outside. But after that, in a few hours, a new batch appeared! Finally I gave up, and we just endured the two nights with them in there. It would require opening up the cabin for a day or two with temperatures of -30C or so, to freeze all of them and their eggs, out of every nook and cranny.  

After warming up and unpacking, a couple hours later, we decided to at least see how skiing would be on the highway from the lodge, without packs on. I put on my skate skis and pushed out just about 13 km west on the highway, then headed back. It was quite bumpy and narrow in sections, so I knew we had made the right decision to snowmachine in. Erik met up with me on my way back to the lodge, and snapped this as I headed up a short hill. Skating is my favourite form of nordic skiing, because you can go so much faster, and further, with less energy expenditure, once your technique evolves, and when conditions are good. 

 On the way back to the lodge, as the sun began to set, I was rewarded with a view of Mt.Hayes pink in the rays of the setting sun. Had to stop for a picture of that! Sunday the 14th dawned cloudy and cool at the lodge, still only about -15C or so.

After a leisurely breakfast and a few hours of reading and relaxation, we decided to run back east up the highway, to Maclaren summit, 10km, and further, if we felt up to it, then back. Since skiing conditions weren't the greatest. Once we got on the valley slope 100 metres or so higher, the warmer chinook winds were blowing, and it felt much warmer. 

The Denali Highway is the second highest roadway in Alaska, because of this, Maclaren Summit. The only higher one is on the Dalton Highway (of Ice Road Truckers fame), Atigun Pass, at 1463 m (4800 ft). Running on the loose-packed snow on the highway was extremely taxing, like being on beach sand, so I only ran up 11 km, then turned back. Erik though is used to this, running in Valdez, which gets so much more snow than Fairbanks, so he was able to go out 14 km, before heading back. As you can see here, south of the Denali Highway is a vast expanse of open semi-tundra; swampy country, broken up by hills and low mountain ranges, for over 200 km, until you get to the higher Talkeetna and Chugach mountain ranges, and then the milder, wet coast along the Gulf of Alaska.  

We enjoyed another nice evening in the lodge sun. after being out part of the day. The food there was pretty basic, as you might expect in a place that has no auto traffic for half the year. But not bad, considering. The other guests, 5-10 or so, had all snowmachined in as well, so we talked with them. There is a full bar there, but I was able to discipline myself, and not cut loose too much, though it was tempting. 

Sunday night, the chinook winds came up in full force through the valley, and shook the cabin, waking me up around 0300. It warmed up to about -2C, so when we packed up for the ride back out to Paxson, at 0900, we knew it would be an easier, more comfortable trip. 

This time too, we decided to wear our packs, with both sets of skis strapped to mine, rather than bundle everything up on the small rack behind me. On the way in, my lower back got quite bruised from bumping the metal rack. This way, it was protected, and we didn't have to stop to readjust the load. 

It was definitely the way to go. We were both much more comfortable, in the warmer conditions, and my back wasn't getting battered. During our trip back, other snowmachines heading west would sometime zip past us so fast, by the time I noticed them, they had passed! They must have easily been going at least 130 kph! Near Tangle lakes, about 35 km east of Maclaren, we stopped and watched as some of the Nelchina herd of caribou crossed the highway. We saw hundreds of them here in August, 2008, when Mattie and I packed around for a few days north of Maclaren Summit, near Sevenmile Lake.  

This was the trip when little 20 kg 15 month old Mattie ran off a 150 kg large bull caribou nosing around our camp, unhappy at our presence in "his" area. Before I could stop her, she charged after him, running up and around him, barking. He could have dispatched her with one kick, but fortunately decided to run off. Mattie is not as large, or imposing, as Homer, with his wolfy presence, but our intrepid assistant editor has a strong, courageous heart, and epic endurance. 

So, even though we were not able to skate ski in to the Maclaren Lodge, like we had hoped, we had a nice weekend getaway to a beautiful place in the Alaska Range, where few people travel. Had we known beforehand we probably would have brought our classic skis, and skied in to the lodge. Because then we could have skied in to near the Maclaren glacier, here. It pays to call ahead!

The mild weather of course, greatly helped our enjoyment of this trip. But we know, it is coming at a price. More frequent mild chinook/southerly flow patterns like this are allowing our more of our permafrost to melt, releasing more CO2 and methane, positive feedbacks to global warming, and not allowing the Arctic sea ice to freeze as thick each winter. Leading to increased melting each summer. Which will lead to ice-free summer conditions in the Arctic Ocean, within a decade. Another positive feedback. Cheers.

ICE ROAD SKIING [and] FORWARD TO 1900?

ICE ROAD SKIING

February through mid-April is our favourite time of year here at the Chena Ridge Research Centre. The higher sun angles gives us longer, warmer days, with ample good-quality snow for our nordic ski outings. Just the view alone of the bright light through our windows lifts our spirits, after the dim times from early Dec. to mid-January.

Everyone thinks of Alaska as nearly roadless, and vastly "undeveloped", which it is. Every so often, state politicians and the local news media hype about building new roads across the state. A road to Nome from Fairbanks. A road to connect Juneau to the Alaska/Canada road system.

What many, especially in the lower 48, don't realize, is that we have multitudes of roads, at least in the interior, South-Central, and Southwest/West portions of the state, for almost half the year. These are our frozen rivers. By December, there is usually 25 to 80 or more centimetres of ice on all of the large interior rivers.  Such as this, on the Copper River, near Copper Center, early this past January.

We are fortunate in Fairbanks to have the large, Tanana River, on the southern edge of town. Just about 8km down from the top of Chena Ridge, a nice park/boat launch area allows all manner of access to it, throughout the year. We usually start skiing on the Tanana in late November or  December, but just for skating. Which requires, generally speaking, -20C or warmer temperatures, to be enjoyable, along with a packed-down surface, in this case, by snowmachine traffic. Along with a day off, that meets those criteria. This year that didn't happen until last week, but the ice is even twice as thick now, especially since our snow-cover is very skimpy this winter; we've only had 30% of our average snowfall so far.

The Tanana is very large in this area, sometimes easily 500 or more metres across. It runs very swiftly in summer, so ice safety is essential, to fall through would be fatal, as the swift current would sweep you under it. So we stick to proven snowmachine trails as often as possible out in the middle of the river. Which is what we want anyway, for skate skiing.

It really is a highway, mushers can run their teams between villages, for hundreds of kilometres, if they wish. Similarly, people on snowmachines can visit different villages this way, along the rivers, and across country that is brutally swampy in summer, but smooth and packed, in winter, with hard snow. Ideal for snowmachines, dog teams, skiers, and snowshoers. If we ever had the time and funds, we would ski from Fairbanks to the Bering Sea, preferably in March/April, when the days are longest, and conditions not as cold. It would be at least 900 km, but doable in a month or so. Some cyclists with winterised mountain bikes have done so before, and probably skiers, but we aren't sure.

We decided to hit the Tanana River road this week, on a day when it warmed to about -19C (-2F) in the afternoon. As you can see, the river is quite wide here, over 500 metres, just a few km down from the parking area. And the trail, very wide, about 10 metres in spots, from all the snowmachine traffic. It had just snowed a much-needed 1 cm, the day before, so that helped freshen the surface.

Even though Mattie is half husky, since she grew up on Kodiak, and came from the pound, we don't think she was ever a "real" sled dog, in the sense of serving on a team, and learning the commands, etc.. So she's very curious when she sees the teams running down the river, or on different trails in the region. But she doesn't get too close, I think because she is very independent, and would't want to be in harness.

Homer on the other hand, remembers his days in the harness, and always stays well clear!  The weather was beautiful and sunny, but as usual in mid-winter, a down-drainage breeze was present. Cold air drowns down through the river system to the Bering Sea all winter, in the absence of any opposing general winds from weather systems. If the general wind flow is aligned with the river drainage/canyon, they can get quite strong and nasty. It was about a 15-20 kph breeze that day, and the snow quite stiff, as it hadn't warmed much from the colder morning.

Which meant we only went down 8 km or so before turning back. With the very diminished glide, and cold breeze, not a very pleasant ski. When temperatures are -15C or warmer, and the snow surface suitable, one pushoff in skate skiing can propel you 10 metres or more. Which then allows us to cover vast distances in a much shorter time, with the same energy expenditure or less, as would be needed, for a much shorter run. We were only getting about a third of that glide this day.


FORWARD TO 1900?

Since the Ray-gun days of the 1980's, a focused assault on worker's rights and conditions in this country has been undertaken by the corporate world. Starting with the firing and blacklisting of the PATCO air traffic controllers by Reagan in 1981, and accelerating during the 1990s, as outsourcing to countries with no labor protections (allowing for deadly low pay and long hours in often unsafe conditions, along with little or no environmental regulations) began in every major manufacturing, and software development firm. Countries like India, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and of course, the giant of them all, China. Conditions for factory workers in these countries is very much what it was like in this, or European countries, in 1900. Which is to say, dismal. There was no workmen's compensation. An on-the-job injury from unsafe working conditions gets you fired, with no medical or wage benefits. Labour organisers are frequently beaten, jailed, or murdered. The workweek is always 60 hours long, or more, at least six days a week. The pollution from all unregulated industrial activities poisons the air and water over vast areas; China's incredible air pollution from it's thousands of coal-fired power plants and factories churning out our consumer items now reaches the west coast of the U.S., in significant, and sometimes unhealthy concentrations.

This is the World that will return to this country, within a few decades, unless organised labour reinvigorates, and all people look in their hearts, and support causes and politicians who will actually work to regulate Capitalism, and humanise our political/economic system.  We came across this article yesterday, it puts things in good perspective.

http://counterpunch.org/macaray02102010.html

A Dagger in the Heart of Labor

Congress Nixes Becker

By DAVID MACARAY

Just when organized labor had entered the seventh and final stage of the grief cycle—after having witnessed the death of the EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act), they’d already passed through shock, denial, anger, bargaining, guilt and depression—they get dealt another crushing blow, this one in the form of Craig Becker, Obama’s nominee to the NLRB, being denied confirmation by a hostile congress.

The Becker rejection could hurt even more than the EFCA (“card check”). Why? Because Becker’s chances were infinitely better than those of the EFCA, which, beneficial as it would have been, remained broken down in the driveway. In truth, the ambitious legislation never really got any momentum behind it. By contrast, the Becker nomination appeared to be running on all eight cylinders.

True, the Republicans had played games by stalling the vote for five months, but the Democrats had the 60 senators necessary to avoid the procedural roadblock of a filibuster and, once over that disgraceful parliamentary hurdle, had more than enough votes to carry the nomination. At least they did until Massachusetts elected Scott Brown, a Republican.

Then, to make matters worse, Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced that he would join the Republican filibuster, killing Becker’s chances. Say what you will about Martha Coakley, Brown’s Democratic opponent, she wouldn’t have joined the Republican filibuster. And without the filibuster, Becker gets confirmed.

So what made Craig Becker so unappealing to the Republicans? He was unapologetically pro-labor, an old-fashioned labor advocate. He was a champion of America’s working class, of its struggling middle-class, and of its impoverished bottom-class.

In other words, Becker was all the things you would expect in an NLRB member, all the things the position called for going back to 1935, when the New Deal agency was invented, and all the things that had been missing in the NLRB under eight years of the Bush administration. And, of course, it was precisely these qualities that the Republican party and U.S. Chamber of Commerce objected to.

Despite the Republicans’ attempt to demonize him, Becker, a lawyer for the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), is a recognized labor expert. Becker earned both his law school and undergraduate degrees from Yale University, and has either practiced or taught law for the past 27 years.

On Tuesday I asked the IBT (International Brotherhood of Teamsters) what their thoughts were on the Becker rejection. The Teamsters were instrumental in lobbying for passage of the EFCA, and were very much in favor of Becker filling one of the vacancies on the Labor Board.

James P. Hoffa, General President, IBT, replied: “The President ought to be able to appoint who he wants to sit on the NLRB. Politics should not stand in the way of a well qualified appointee. Craig Becker has impeccable credentials and has devoted his professional career to the field of labor law….Blocking his confirmation is, in reality, just a cynical strategy on the part of people who don’t believe in the statute to prevent it from being enforced.”

How cynical? The Republican minority is using stalling tactics and bogus parliamentary techniques to deny the Democratic majority the goals they were entitled to pursue by virtue of having been elected. The Republicans may have lost the election fair and square, but they are determined to thwart the administration at every turn, which includes not allowing Obama nominees to be voted upon. If you don’t have the votes to get elected, and don’t have the votes to defeat a measure, you embark upon the only strategy left to you: governing via paralysis.

Incredibly, three of the NLRB’s five seats still remain vacant. Becker was supposed to fill one of them. The only thing these three vacancies continue to do is postpone indefinitely hundreds of important labor cases—cases that deserve to be heard. Which is perfectly fine with the Republican minority because that is precisely how they intend to govern.

David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright and author (“It’s Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor”), was a former labor rep. He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net

Labour unions and the struggles (and often-times injury and death) they endured from 1850 to 1940 brought us everything we take for granted in our working experience. The 40 hour workweek. Time-and-a-half overtime. Paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave. Worker's compensation for on-the-job- injuries. Inspection and regulation to prevent injury and fatality from unsafe working conditions.

It's quite clear by now, that if we wish to hold onto these just and beneficial aspects of working experience, we must support labour unions, and oppose any politicians that don't. The Democrats have expressed only tepid support since the 1990s, and their support of NAFTA in 1992-94, decimated the U.S. industrial base. The Republicans of course, are really fascists, who overtly work to bring back 1900s conditions to our society. Both parties still actively support countries like Colombia (which is the only South American country now that will allow a US military base on it) that intimidate, jail, and murder labour organisers. That is why we support the Green party, primarily.  http://www.gp.org/index.php

To that end, we at A.P.R. do not support or recommend, generally speaking, supporting or voting for any Democratic politician, unless they meet stringent pro-labor, anti-war, and environmental support criteria. Those that "make our cut" are very few in number, like Congressman Dennis Kucinich, of Ohio, or Senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont. 

We definitely try to avoid purchasing products from companies that are documented as being particularly sociopathic in their drive for short-term profits.

http://www.greenamericatoday.org/programs/responsibleshopper/learn_hub.cfm

And of course, we have divested ourselves competely from the profit-driven financial sector. All our financial transactions and loans are with non-profit credit unions.

Everyone should read "The Peoples History of the United States",

http://books.google.com/books?id=P8V7J5qm5-YC&dq=people's+history+of+the+united+states&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=1QN1S-r0EovisQPptPDKCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false

which documents the struggles of workers and indigenous people that is not told about in our schools. It is very eye-opening. It's author, celebrated historian and peace activist Howard Zinn, passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 87, a great loss to this country, and for progressive people everywhere.

http://howardzinn.org/default/     Thank you for your inspiring work Howard!

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

SEEING THE LIGHT [and] THINKING AHEAD

SEEING THE LIGHT

Sometimes we at A.P.R. come across an article in our daily news-scans that just brings things into focus, about major issues. One major issue is the U.S.'s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which is going badly, like all imperial "adventures" have in that country for the past 3000 years. Ostenstibly started in 2001 to apprehend the perpretrators of the 9/11 attacks, and punish their supporters, the Taleban, it is in it's tenth year now, with no end in sight. Thousands of innocent civilians have died in that country, and hundreds of U.S. troops. We saw this article today (naturally, not in the US corporate media) , and found it very revealing. See what you think...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/01-6

Afghan 'Geological Reserves Worth a Trillion Dollars'

Karzai exclaims 'very good news for Afghans', but perhaps history tells us that regular Afghans should be very cautious of such news

KABUL - Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, is sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one trillion dollars, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Miners work in the Anyak copper mine in Afghanistan. While Afghanistan is not renowned as a resource-rich country, it has a wide range of deposits, including copper, iron ore, gold and chromite, as well as natural gas, oil and precious and semi-precious stones. (Afghan Government photo)The war-ravaged nation could become one of the richest in the world if helped to tap its geological deposits, Karzai told reporters.

"I have very good news for Afghans," Karzai said.

"The initial figures we have obtained show that our mineral deposits are worth a thousand billion dollars -- not a thousand million dollars but a thousand billion," he said.

He based his assertion, he said, on a survey being carried out by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), due to be completed in "a couple of months".

The USGS, the US government's scientific agency, has been working on the 17-million dollar survey for a number of years, Karzai said.

While Afghanistan is not renowned as a resource-rich country, it has a wide range of deposits, including copper, iron ore, gold and chromite, as well as natural gas, oil and precious and semi-precious stones.

Little has been exploited because the country has been mired in conflict for 30 years, and is embroiled in a vicious insurgency by Islamist rebels led by the Taliban.

More than 100,000 foreign troops under US and NATO command are battling the insurgents, with another 40,000 due for deployment this year.

China and India have bid for contracts to develop mines, with the Chinese winning a copper contract. An iron ore contract is due to be awarded later this year.

In 2007, China's state-owned metals giant Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) signed a three-billion-dollar contract to develop the Aynak copper mine -- one of the world's biggest -- over the next 30 years.

First discovered in 1974, the site, 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Kabul in Logar, is estimated to contain 11.3 million tonnes of copper.

The Hajigak iron ore mine in Bamiyan province, north of Kabul, is currently under tender, with one Chinese and half a dozen Indian firms bidding.

The contract is for exploitation of almost two billion tonnes of high-grade ore, involving processing, smelting, steel production and electricity production.

© 2010 Agence France-Presse

There were alot of good comments, in the comment section, at the end of the article, on the Commondreams Web-Site. Here are a some of our favourites:

"I suppose the U.S. is in Afghanistan to stabilize what might otherwise be its shaky mineral and petroleum wealth. And that wealth would become unstable if the Chinese took an interest in it."

"Wow, Afghanistan is worth something, imagine that!
Too bad the current residents don't do something with it, you know the world needs cheap copper!
Labor is cheap in Afghanistan, so I imagine U.S. companies are lined up too.
If only the people of Afghanistan had a say, if only the people of the U.S. had a say... how their resources are being stolen."

"i thought imperialists were supposed to make money off their wars. can we do anything right?"

Yes, this article was definitely enlightening. Just as much as our rapidly brightening days here in Interior Alaska, where the sun is blazing at 9 degrees above the horizon now at mid-day.

THINKING AHEAD

Another interesting article that came across the A.P.R. laptop the other day, was this. Give it a read, and then we'll provide our analysis.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/31-3

Pentagon to Rank Global Warming as Destabilizing Force

US defense review says military planners should factor climate change into long term strategy

by Suzanne Goldenberg

The Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilizing force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The Quadrennial Defense Review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning.

"While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world," said a draft of the review seen by the Guardian.

A fisherman in the dried reservoir of Lam Takhong Dam, Thailand, a consequence of global warming.

The Pentagon says climate change does not cause conflict but it could act as an accelerant. Heatwaves and freak storms could put increasing demand on the US military to respond to humanitarian crises or natural disaster. But troops could feel the effects of climate change even more directly, the draft says.

More than 30 US bases are threatened by rising sea levels. It ordered the Pentagon to review the risks posed to installations, and to combat troops by a potential increase in severe heatwaves and fires.

The review's release coincides with a sharpening focus in the American defense establishment about global warming - even though polls last week showed the public increasingly less concerned.

The CIA late last year established a center to collect intelligence on climate change. Earlier this month, CIA officials sent emails to environmental experts in Washington seeking their views on climate change impacts around the world, and how the agency could keep tabs on what actions countries were taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The CIA has also restarted a program - scrapped by George Bush - that allowed scientists and spies to share satellite images of glaciers and Arctic sea ice.

That suggests climate change is here to stay as a topic of concern for the Pentagon.

The Pentagon, in acknowledging the threat of global warming, will now have to factor factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

Military planners will have to factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia..

"The leadership of the Pentagon has very strongly indicated that they do consider climate change to be a national security issue," said Christine Parthemore, an analyst at the Center for A New American Security who has been studying the Pentagon's evolving views on climate change. "They are considering climate change on par with the political and economic factors as the key drivers that are shaping the world."

Awareness of climate change and its impact on threat levels and military capability had been slowly percolating through the ranks since 2008 when then Senators Hillary Clinton and John Warner pushed the Pentagon to look specifically at the impact of global warming in its next long-term review.

But the navy was already alive to the potential threat, with melting sea ice in the Arctic opening up a new security province. The changing chemistry of the oceans, because of global warming, is also playing havoc with submarine sonar, a report last year from the CNAS warned.

US soldiers and marines, meanwhile, were getting a hard lesson in the dangers of energy insecurity on the battlefield, where attacks on supply convoys in Afghanistan and Iraq inflicted heavy casualties.

"Our dependence on fuel adds significant cost and puts US soldiers and contractors at risk," said Dorothy Robyn, deputy Undersecretary of Defense for the Environment. "Energy can be a matter of life and death and we have seen dramatically in Iraq and Afghanistan the cost of heavy reliance on fossil fuels."

She told a conference call on Friday the Pentagon would seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions from non-combat operations by 34% from 2008 levels by 2020, in line with similar cuts by the rest of the federal government.

In addition to the threat of global warming, she said the Pentagon was concerned that US military bases in America were vulnerable because of their reliance on the electric grid to cyber attack and overload in case of a natural disaster.

The US air force, in response, has built up America's biggest solar battery array in Nevada, and is testing jet fighter engines on biofuels. The Marine Corps may soon start drilling its own wells to eliminate the need to truck in bottled water in response to recommendations from a task force on reducing energy use in a war zone.

But not all defense department officials have got on board, and Parthemore said she believes it could take some time to truly change the military mindset.

Parthemore writes of an exchange on a Department of Defense list-serv in December 2008 about whether global warming exists. It ends with one official writing: "This is increasingly shrill and pedantic. Moreover, it's becoming boring."

© 2010 Guardian/UK

Again, the first thing to notice about this article, is that it is not from any US corporate media source. Isn't it interesting, that the US military, which is the globe's largest greenhouse-gas emitting single entity (not counting actual countries, but militaries and industrial sectors), is recognising the threast global warming  poses to all countries, peoples, and ecosystems? How are all the brownshirts (Teabaggers, Limbaugh/Palin/Beckites) going to fit this into their world-view? Now, if only the US military could be acting to counteract global warming, rather than exacerbating it. Dreams are the beginning of new realities.  

OK folks, time to lay it out again. I know we tend to harp alot on climate change. But your lead editor has acquired some expertise in this area, and we feel comfortable in presenting the state-of-the-science research results about it. And the news is not good.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-seems-likely-based-on-what-weve.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23-0

What the latest research is saying, is that the last time the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was 390 ppm, which is what it is today (up from 280 ppm 60 years ago), 128,000 years ago, sea levels were 18 to 25 feet (5 to 7 metres) higher than they are today. [higher than most of Florida]

This was due to naturally occurring volcanism, it is thought, and it is unknown how rapidly they rose to this level. But what would this mean, a sea level, that much higher? If it were to occur relatively quickly, say within 20-30 years (or even 10), could humanity adapt? Because all the major seaports and their infrastructure would be underwater, which is where and how the bulk of the global food and energy is distributed. Would all the different countries be able to rebuild all the transport and distribution facilities on higher ground that quickly? If not, shortages of food and energy would cause great hardship, and could lead to societal collapse, in many areas. It's not inconceivable that this rapid of a sea-level rise could occur.

Research is also showing that the Greenland Ice Cap is shrinking rapidly, especially on the coastal margins. And that large areas of it could collapse quite quickly, within a matter of a few years, which could raise sea levels on it's own, by a few metres. Which would quickly drown many areas like Bangladesh, and low-elevation island countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cheers.