Street Notes 1: The Climate Catch 22 In the Arctic Circle, Alaska
by Sonam Velani & Lyn StolerOil fields on the left, wind turbines on the right, and melting glaciers straight ahead.
It doesn't get more frontlines than this.
Actually putting climate solutions to work is easier said than done. Throughout our interviews, we've come across a lot of barriers to implementation — permitting, staffing shortages, funding, policies, you name it. But nothing struck us like what we found in the Arctic Circle in Alaska.
We wanted to start our Street Notes in the Arctic Circle because it is at the heart of climate change, literally:
Glaciers are melting faster than anywhere else in the world, and the National Park Service signposts are a visceral, in-your-face reminder of the rate of change.
Permafrost is rapidly thawing, releasing carbon into the atmosphere and buckling the roads that connect remote cities and provide access to tourist attractions like Denali National Park.
Warmer air and ocean temperatures have decimated sea ice, changing environments for thousands of marine animals and leading to the disappearance of billions of snow crabs this season.
Native villages like Newtok and Shishmaref along the coast are being forced inland to flee rising seas, but lack funding and infrastructure to do so. These impacts are so severe that climate activists have started suing the state.
Since 2005, Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park has melted 2,300 ft. That’s the length of two Empire State Buildings. Most science is in millimeters, centimeters, or inches. Here it’s in feet. And a lot of them.
So you'd think that of all places, Alaska would be the first to mobilize for climate action. But frankly, it’s lagging behind. This makes it the perfect place to study why solutions are stuck in PDF reports, rather than being put to work in our streets and neighborhoods.
A Climate Catch-22
Alaska is oil country. The state doesn't have income, sales, or property tax, so the dominant industry — oil and gas — accounts for the majority of the state's tax revenue. Sure, oil and gas are driving GHG emissions and climate change, but they also fund Alaska's schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.
Stats: State of Alaska
The industry accounts for 85% of state tax revenue and supports 25% of all direct jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity. The cherry on top: it even contributes to the Alaska Permanent Fund, which pays every Alaskan a royalty of up to $3,000 per year based on the amount of oil extracted from Alaskan soil.
Oil and gas are the financial and political backbone of Alaska. Just this week, Governor Dunleavy is auctioning 8 million acres of state land for oil drilling (4x what's currently leased out to oil companies by the state). This presents us with a climate catch-22:
And this dichotomy isn’t just theoretical. We've already seen it bring climate action in Alaska to a halt. Alaska has launched countless government task forces and written several strategy documents on how to respond to the climate crisis. Most of these focus on climate adaptation rather than mitigation, because oil and gas literally fuel the state's economy. It would be financial and political suicide to turn off that tap.
The catch-22 hasn't just trapped Alaska — it's an international issue.
This is about the Arctic Circle more broadly, a ‘race to the pole’ with trillions of dollars waiting at the finish line. For Arctic nations — the US, Canada, Denmark (by way of Greenland), Norway, and Russia — the melting of the Arctic Circle is a significant economic opportunity: a brand new ocean to use, extract, and monetize.
The Arctic holds 30% of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its oil reserves. New shipping routes can open up as the ice melts, connecting Asian and Western markets. It’s no surprise that every country wants a piece of the pie. All are making grand proclamations about their extended continental shelves - or where they think they have land under the ocean (unsurprisingly, Russia wants most of it, already planting its flag at the seabed of the North Pole). The UN has the fun job of allocating who gets what — but let’s be real about their track record on these matters… From expeditions to media stunts, this is Settlers of Catan, in real life.
Amidst all the international climate commitments and net zero pledges, this “business as usual” approach seems particularly ironic. Countries want to have their cake and eat it too.
Climate Industrialism can turn the tide.
Parachute is not here to solve global geopolitics. But we are here to showcase solutions that can help us move away from an extractive economy that’s “business as usual” and instead move towards one fueled by progress and abundance. This very notion underlies our thesis on Climate Industrialism, and we believe city policymakers, technologists, and communities have the agency and tenacity to change the course of action.
Nowhere is this more prominent than in Alaska. The state’s entire economy is at risk as the world attempts to move away from oil and gas. Alaskan oil and gas production has seen a steady decline since the late 1980's and the state's revenue has plummeted, especially over the last decade with the fall in global oil prices. As renewable energy generation, transmission, and storage takes off, that trend could continue in the long run.
By embracing Climate Industrialism now — and not when all its glaciers have melted — Alaska can transition the economy to capitalize on its natural assets beyond oil and gas. Its unique location, physical geography, coastlines, biodiversity, and indigenous knowledge are like no other!
The politicians haven’t seemed to grasp this just yet, but folks on the ground in local communities are putting shovels in the ground to build the new Alaskan economy.
Progress and Abundance!
Investment is underway across Alaska through public and private partnerships that create climate, economic, and social benefits for all.
Launch Alaska is a deployment accelerator that brings climate tech to communities across the state — scaling everything from microgrids to community resilience. The Alaska Ocean Cluster is a startup accelerator that works with organizations as diverse as the Bering Sea Fishermen's Association and the Coastal Villages Region Fund. It’s taking the brown economy of oil and turning it into a blue economy that leverages Alaska’s sustainable resources.
And finally, for more than 2,000 years, the Yupik peoples have hunted and fished in the icy wilderness of Alaska’s western coast, digging holes through the icy sea to catch salmon, picking berries for sustenance, and building cedar wood homes under the permafrost to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Indigenous communities possess knowledge of the environment that has been developed over generations through a deep relationship with the land. We should learn from and scale these solutions as much as we do newer technologies!
Alaska's strategic location has rooted its economic history in logistics. The Anchorage Airport is the 4th largest cargo port in the world, and is located less than 10 hours by flight from 90% of the industrialized world. Its maritime port has over $14 billion of economic activity every year.
Sandia National Laboratories - The Port of Alaska signed an MOU to develop renewable energy for the port, building capabilities for life cycle assessments, microgrids, and independent power systems that can enhance climate resilience, help the port expand, and create new jobs.
OpenTug - Delivering the digital connection between shippers and barges, terminals, and ships, OpenTug integrates the marine transportation ecosystem to make it more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable.
Your T-Mobile connectivity, Google Earth images, and remote sensing? It all comes from new Low Earth Orbit satellites that are launched in lower-altitude polar orbits, or those going over the North Pole, South Pole, and back.
Aerospace Innovation Hub at Merrill Field - Launch Alaska is partnering with the US Office of Naval Research to launch a new aerospace hub, positioning Anchorage to take advantage of the huge growth in commercial spaceports. Fun fact: the new satellites that will be launched here are going to play an instrumental role in monitoring our global emissions!
The Launch Company - Started by native Alaskan and ex-SpaceX engineer Ben Kellie, the company helps satellites get to space faster and cheaper with modular design principles. Ben left us with some words of wisdom at the Anchorage Design Week: “People say that our best days are behind us. To them I say, we haven’t even started yet.”
Alaska is a big state with small towns (355 of them to be exact). Small seaplanes buzz about, transporting oil to rural villages for their energy needs. But a new crop of entrepreneurs are launching microgrids, solar farms, and wind turbines to produce renewable energy on-site in small communities across the state.
60Hertz - Modernizes the maintenance and operation of microgrids, extending the life of infrastructure and creating jobs for local Alaskan Natives.
Fire Island Wind - Wind power accounts for 2% of Alaska's energy production, but the state has the capacity to generate enough power for the entire US. The 17.6 MW Fire Island project is the state’s first development, and its 98.6% success rate serves as a model for the future.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. This rings true across Alaska’s industries, with workers often operating in tough and ever-changing conditions. New data tools are helping them understand their surroundings and be more efficient.
BeadedStream - Designs and manufactures temperature monitoring solutions for industrial applications. The temperature of sea ice can significantly impact infrastructure such as ships, ports, bridges, and offshore structures that line the Alaskan coast.
Blue Ocean Gear - A sensor to track fishing gear in real-time helps fishermen battle massive tides in the Aleutians or collect snow crabs in the Bering Sea, while reducing impact on maritime habitats.
Alaska is almost as wide as the continental US and has more coastlines than the lower 48 states combined, with over 3 million lakes, 46,000 miles of tidal shores, and 158 coastal communities.
Noble Ocean Farms - This Alaskan aquaculture farm is cultivating regenerative kelp that generates a food source for people, creates aquatic habitats, enhances water quality, and can be used for livestock feed.
Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery - This tribal fishery in Seward is collaborating with NOAA and The University of Alaska at Fairbanks to measure the impacts of ocean acidification and develop adaptation strategies to keep shellfish stocks healthy given the importance of this food source for native tribes.
The temperature swings between extreme heat and extreme cold brought on by climate change are dramatic in Alaska, and residents have had to adopt new techniques and materials to stay comfortable in their own homes.
Tsimshian Cedar Wood Houses - Native Alaskans maintain a distinct respect for cedar logs, which are harvested from living trees. The heavy log structures have tremendous thermal mass, which creates an insulating effect. Today, lumber producers have been replacing harvested trees so diligently that North American forests have actually grown by 20% since 1970 and cedar wood is now one of the world’s most renewable building materials.
Cold Climate Housing Research Center - This center in Fairbanks leads the field in research for housing in extreme conditions by building prototype houses, developing innovative renewable energy systems, and producing education and media for builders, homeowners, and policymakers.
We’ll end with a high note: As oil prices have recently increased, Alaska’s state government has ended up with a $1 billion surplus in tax revenues. We couldn't think of a better time to lay the budgetary and regulatory foundations for Climate Industrialism and a bright, new, climate-resilient Alaska!
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Sonam was lucky to spend two weeks in Alaska climbing glaciers, kayaking in the wilderness, and hanging with the birds and bears out in the wild. Along the way, she met so many kind and generous souls who opened up their hearts and minds. A special thanks to Garrett, Taylor, Jonny, Shaina, Ben, Sarah, Brendan, Melissa, Peter, Hannah, Karen, and Yuri for sharing their stories of resilience in the face of climate change and their hopes for the future.
Simply put, it was humbling beyond belief. These lands are the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems - and it’s up to us to keep them flourishing for generations.
We’ve captured hours of footage across Alaska - in the cities, in the wild, and everything in between! We’ll be sharing all that on our new media platform soon enough, but wanted to give you a sneak peak with this fun video Sonam’s partner in crime Yan made to capture a trip of a lifetime!
Location Check: Lyn will be in LA for the next couple of weeks. If you're in town, come watch her give a TED talk about Parachute this weekend! Sonam will be zooming into several sessions on urban infrastructure at COP27 and otherwise embracing JOMO (the joy of missing out, a new term she learned this week and immediately made it a part of her vocabulary!).
by Sonam Velani & Lyn Stoler