Gold mines, Bering Sea, and bears — oh my! Learn about our bedrock environmental laws are holding the line in Alaska from our Alaska program director, @cooperfreeman.bsky.social in the latest podcast episode by @rewilding.org . Check it out for free. ⬇️

Episode 175: Cooper Freeman on How Bedrock Environmental Laws Are Holding the Line in Alaska (For Now)

Episode Summary Cooper Freeman, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, returns to the Rewilding Earth podcast and joins host Jack Humphrey

rewilding.org

🎧 Listen in to as @cooperfreeman.bsky.social, our Alaska director, talks with National Parks Traveler about bears, belugas, and a proposed gold mine near Lake Clark National Park. Check it out at the link below. ⬇

The Johnson Tract gold mine would devastate the only known winter feeding grounds for critically endangered Cook Inlet belugas, one of Alaska's great brown bear areas, the largest seabird nesting colony in Cook Inlet, and so much more. But they have to go through us. NO gold mines. bit.ly/3H7bQ9I

Lawsuit challenges permit for mine site construction on west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet | Alaska Beacon

The permit allowing a new road and an expanded airstrip fails to protect key habitat for endangered Cook Inlet belugas, the lawsuit says.

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We filed a lawsuit against a major Alaskan gold mine exploration project to protect the critically endangered Cook Inlet belugas and defend against acid mine drainage into Lake Clark National Park, Alaska Maritime National Refuge, and critical habitat for the beluga whales. bit.ly/3FkkMIo

Mining is an environmental and human rights nightmare. Battery recycling can ease that. grist.org/energy/minin... #EV #Batteries #Solar #Energy #Mining #Climate

Mining is an environmental and human rights nightmare. Battery recycling can ease that.

Battery recycling provides economic, national security, and environmental benefits. But the United States is playing catch-up to Asian countries, particularly China.

grist.org

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s decision to kill almost 200 brown bears in order to boost a struggling caribou herd violated due process and was unconstitutional, an Anchorage Superior Court judge ruled Friday. (From @alaskabeacon.com)

Anchorage judge rules state’s brown-bear killings are unconstitutional

Alaska has killed more than 200 bears as part of its "intensive management" program intended to help a caribou herd.

ktoo.org

Another desperate trip to Japan by AK state officials in search of the elusive investor for the $44 billion AK LNG pipeline that makes no financial or climate sense. A wise state would take this money and invest in renewable energy and public education, but that is not what we have. bit.ly/4hfkBLl

Alaskan officials to seek investors in Japan as Trump touts LNG

Alaskan state representatives will visit Japan this month to court investors for a natural gas project President Donald Trump says could pump trillions of dollars into the U.S., but Japanese energy firms remain sceptical of the project's feasibility.

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My current take on Alaska in the age of Trump II and our path towards "dewilding." bit.ly/3XSxHam

Episode 144 | Fighting Back: Alaska's Stand Against Trump's Environmental Blitzkrieg

Cooper Freeman works to protect Alaska’s wildlife, lands and oceans. Before joining the Center for Biological Diversity, he worked with Alaskan Native Tribes

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Had this enforcement-refusal been in place during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon, BP would not have been forced to pay the $100 million in fines that it did to clean up the Gulf of Mexico and save birds.

These kinds of local, artisanal businesses are the future of the Tongass, not going back to clearcutting old-growth trees for export. And they're mutually exclusive. The old-growth forests of the Tongass are the heart of the ecosystem and so important for mitigating climate change.

KTOO Public Media@ktoopublicmedia.bsky.social · 2y ago

Wildfish Cannery on Prince of Wales Island is riding the wave of the rising U.S. market for tinned seafood, which has surged by billions of dollars as boutique branded cans of fish trend on TikTok. (From KRBD-Ketchikan)

Let's be clear, the Forest Service's Tongass Assessment is neither complete nor deep, and they have "studied" very little. It appears hastily thrown together with lots of outdated and incorrect info. It's far from an adequate scientific foundation for one of the planet's most important forests.

KTOO Public Media@ktoopublicmedia.bsky.social · 2y ago

The last time the Forest Service studied the Tongass this deeply, the movie Titanic was hitting the screens. A few things have changed since then. (From CoastAlaska)

Gov. Dunleavy thinks Alaska's gas is "low carbon" 🤦 "...that gas has been recycled for almost 50 years on the North Slope. We know the content, we know the amount it's recycled back into the basin when that gas is then piped down through the pipeline — that carbon could be extracted from that gas."

NOAA Fisheries observers in Alaska face regular harassment; women twice as often as men. This is unacceptable. Importantly, we rely on these observers to document bycatch of imperiled marine mammals and fish. Intimidation may not be unintentional. This system is broken. bit.ly/3CujVDL

E&E News: NOAA fisheries monitors face regular harassment in Alaska, study says

The agency study found women are harassed twice as often as men, while less than half of all incidents are reported.

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NOAA doing a job here trying to make its bottom trawl fisheries research look innocuous. Rather, bottom trawl research, especially year after year in the same location, can cause real damage, downgrading ecosystems and reducing biodiversity. www.fisheries.noaa.gov/gallery/2024...

2024 Bottom Trawl Survey in Photos

Ever wonder what life is like when your office is a large floating marine laboratory? Our photo gallery highlights some of the incredible sights and scenes from the 2024 Bottom Trawl Survey season.

fisheries.noaa.gov

The dissonance between the reality of this headline and Trump's Alaska Executive Order aspiring to declare open season on oil and gas development in the state makes my head explode. www.adn.com/alaska-news/...

New Orleans has received twice as much snow as Anchorage this winter

Less than 4 inches of new snow has fallen in Anchorage since the beginning of December.

adn.com

Not at all unexpected, but still surreal to see. It's an order to bring about an all out plunder upon Alaska. This is such a horrific vision for Alaska. It could spell the end for Alaska's caribou, salmon, polar bears, walrus, and so much more. We say NO. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

UNLEASHING ALASKA'S EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE POTENTIAL – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:  Section 1.

whitehouse.gov

So long (again) Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area (EO 13990), which among other important things, closed this critical marine region to the use of commercial trawl fishing gear that makes contact with the seafloor (i.e. "pelagic" pollock trawling and bottom trawling). bit.ly/4anXFrm

Initial Rescissions Of Harmful Executive Orders And Actions – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as

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We're hiring for an experienced attorney fired up to hold the line against the oncoming Trump onslaught up here in Alaska. Come join our team or share with your friends! biologicaldiversity.bamboohr.com/careers/111

Staff or Senior Attorney

Salary Range: Staff Attorney: $69,000 - $85,000; Senior Attorney: $85,000 - $125,000 Location:  This is a remote position. Applicants residing anywhere in Alaska strongly preferred and will be given p...

biologicaldiversity.bamboohr.com

While Northern fur seals moms struggle to rear and nurse strong young pups on St. Paul island, their main food source, Alaskan pollock, is over-harvested and being bought up by taxpayer dollars to bail out the industry. Its annual catch was raised for 2025. alaskapublic.org/news/economy...

USDA buys $50M worth of Alaska pollock

The recent buy is just the latest influx of cash to Alaska’s seafood industry from the federal government.

alaskapublic.org

Updated 50-year change of annual temperature for the Alaska climate divisions, now for 1975-2024. Largest changes are in the North Slope and West Coast divisions and driven by, you guessed it, sea ice loss. Data from NOAA/NCEI. #akwx #Climate #ClimateChange @climatologist49.bsky.social

Yesterday was a good day for the Arctic Refuge.

BREAKING: The Liberty Unit - the only offshore oil and gas leases fully in federal waters in the Arctic Ocean - is DEAD! It'd be impossible to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean. The bowhead whales, polar bears, and ice seals can sleep a little easier tonight. bit.ly/402Gffn

Arctic Win: Interior Department Denies Lease Extension for ‘Liberty’ Offshore Drilling Project in Alaska

Center for Biological Diversity: ANCHORAGE, Alaska— The Department of the Interior published a decision today denying an extension of offshore oil and gas leases for the Liberty Unit in the Beaufort S...

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"Astonishingly, the U.S. is the only Arctic coastal nation that still has no permanently protected Arctic Ocean waters. Russia, Canada, Norway and Greenland all have established permanent Arctic marine protected areas." Important op-ed from my friend Rick Steiner. thehill.com/opinion/5057...

Biden’s missed chance to safeguard America’s oceans

President Biden has failed to protect America’s ocean ecosystems, despite his professed goal of protecting 30 percent of the nation’s oceans by 2030, due to his prioritization of local …

thehill.com

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game wants to kill up to 80% of wolves, brown bears, and black bears from roaring helicopters right on the borders of Denali and Lake Clark national parks. We must urge Alaska to reject this proposal and take bears and wolves out of the crosshairs. Take action ⬇️

Protect Bears and Wolves in Alaska

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is once again taking aim at wolves, brown bears, and black bears — right on the borders of Denali and Lake Clark national parks. Tell Alaska take bears and wolve...

act.biologicaldiversity.org

One of my favorite solar energy statistics is that during the ENTIRE month of December, Fairbanks receives the same solar energy as Tucson, AZ, does by 8:30 a.m. on Dec 1st. (Computed using USCRN solar data from NCEI.) @alaskawx.bsky.social

The desperation by the Dunleavy administration and his cronies to keep the impossible dream of an Alaska LNG pipeline alive is staggering. They're fossil fuel addicts, plain and simple, be damned the financial and ecological consequences to Alaska. bit.ly/4g08HW1

Alaska development agency moves to provide $50M commitment to LNG project

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s commitment could allow a pipeline developer to complete up to $50 million in engineering studies in hopes that an initial in-state gas line is ...

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To cement her Alaska legacy, Sec. Haaland is ramming forward a proposed road through the world's largest eelgrass beds - critical to sequestering carbon, mitigating ocean acidification, and fueling up millions of migratory birds to and from the Arctic each year. Take action now to save Izembek.👇

Center for Biological Diversity@biologicaldiversity.org · 2y ago

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, at the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, is one of the most ecologically important areas in the United States. It's facing a devastating threat from a proposed road that would cut through its heart. Take action to protect this refuge ⬇️⬇️

“Everything’s changing...The solution can’t be to drill more oil and pump more oil through the pipeline. It’s suicide.” news.oilandgaswatch.org/post/the-hug... @oilandgaswatch.bsky.social

The huge new oil project in Alaska that is escaping national attention

Last year, environmentalists criticized the Biden Administration for approving a large oil drilling project on public land in the Alaskan Arctic called the Willow project. However, a similar petroleum...

news.oilandgaswatch.org

First ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean could occur before 2030 - Nature Communications

The first day with no sea ice in the Arctic will be a visible sign of climate change. This work reveals that this could occur before 2030 already and becomes more likely as the world warms. As the ice...

nature.com

I discuss this with my students as the difference between “outplanting” (adding individuals to an ecosystem where they have declined) and “restoration” (which absolutely requires addressing the underlying conditions that led to declines in the first place). One is much easier to do than the other.

Noam Vogt-Vincent@nvogtvincent.co.uk · 2y ago

There'd be less criticism of reef restoration if it wasn't widely used for greenwashing and grossly misrepresented by media. This is NOT the fault of restoration scientists and I support the research, but I see little enthusiasm to combat these uncomfortable truths. www.nature.com/articles/s41...