Reading Loren Holmes’ and Charles Wohlforth’s story of George Divoky’s scientific work on Cooper Island was fascinating and humbling. Divoky’s documentation of the climate change-driven rise and fall of one black guillemot population can be a story of perseverance in the absence of promise. Thankfully, the story is much bigger than one island. We get to decide the balance of mitigation, adaptation and suffering we experience.
As hurricanes hammer the southeast U.S. and Alaska has yet to see what winter storms smash western villages, we are suffering enough.
We are also mitigating.
Last legislative session, Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed laws that leverage stably-priced renewable energy. Alaska’s new green bank, operated by the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., will fund up-front rooftop solar, heat pumps and other energy wins. This infrastructure captures not just renewable energy but also federal tax credits. SB 152 equips utilities to pull from distributed renewable energy projects and customers to purchase credit in the same. Increasing energy efficiency and expanding renewables promises less future suffering.
We owe it to ourselves to set a Railbelt Renewable Portfolio Standard to bring more renewable electrical energy and save billions in fuel costs over the next 20 years. We have a role in what happens next.
— Lia Slemons
Anchorage
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