Fat Bear Week: Alaska to choose most portly and hibernation-prepared bear

Voting is underway at Katmai National Park and Preserve of bears who have feasted on salmon running through the Brooks River

America may feel like a divided society but one thing is guaranteed to unite the nation each year: Fat Bear Week, a seven-year-old competition held in October to choose the fattest, most gorged and hibernation-prepared bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Fat Bear Week, which closes Tuesday and gathered 650,000 voting participants last year, is the creation of Explore.org, an online showcase for wildlife webcam videos, nature films and photographs that, it says, “creates a portal into the soul of humanity”.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/03/fat-bear-week-alaska
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Edward Helmore

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Delta variant surge pushes Alaska’s sparse health care infrastructure to the brink

In the past two weeks, Alaska’s case count increased by 72 percent, the highest in the nation, as it tops all-time state case and death records.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/delta-variant-surge-pushes-alaska-s-sparse-health-care-infrastructure-n1280366
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jean Lee and Ben Kesslen

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Judge throws out Trump-era approvals for Alaska oil project

Ruling calls federal reports flawed and says plan didn’t do enough to prevent further harm to polar bears and their habitat.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/judge-throws-out-trump-era-approvals-alaska-oil-project-n1277125
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press

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Three volcanoes are erupting at the same time in Alaska

Three volcanoes in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are erupting at the same time, with at least two spewing low levels of ash and steam.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/three-volcanoes-are-erupting-time-alaska-rcna1672
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Denise Chow

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Tsunami warnings issued after magnitude 8.2 earthquake hits off Alaska

“The biggest threat would be any potential tsunami risk,” a USGS geophysicist told NBC News.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/magnitude-8-2-earthquake-strikes-alaska-tsunami-warnings-issued-n1275362
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Kurt Chirbas and Henry Austin

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Trouble in Alaska? Massive oil pipeline is threatened by thawing permafrost

The slope of permafrost where an 810-foot section of the pipeline is secured has started to shift as it thaws, causing braces holding up the pipeline to twist and bend.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trouble-alaska-massive-oil-pipeline-threatened-thawing-permafrost-n1273589
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The Article Was Written/Published By: David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News

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Biden suspends oil-drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic refuge

Republicans and the energy industry have long sought to open the remote area, as Democrats, environmental groups and some Alaska tribes have worked to keep it off-limits.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/biden-suspends-oil-drilling-leases-alaska-s-arctic-refuge-n1269270
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press

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Biden administration backs Trump-era Alaska oil drilling plans

The Biden administration on Wednesday defended in the U.S. District Court for Alaska a massive ConocoPhillips oil and gas project approved during the Trump-era, per the New York Times.

Why it matters: President Biden has pledged to move away from fossil fuels. But the project has the backing of officials including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — who’s viewed as a potential ally for Biden in his attempts to push through policies in an evenly divided Senate, the NYT notes.

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Driving the news: Some tribal leaders and unions also back the project, but environmental groups say the Trump administration didn’t consider the effects the Willow drilling project in part of the National Petroleum Reserve would have on wildlife and climate-change, according to Reuters.

• A judge temporarily blocked the project in May after the environmental groups filed a lawsuit.

What they’re saying: The Biden administration didn’t clarify how its stance fit with climate policies, but it said in the filing sufficient considerations had been made in regards to greenhouse gas emissions and the effects the project would have on “fish, caribou and polar bear habitat,” the Times reports.

• The filing noted that Conoco has “valid lease rights” and can “develop its leases ‘subject to reasonable regulation,'” per the NYT.
• Representatives for the Interior Department did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.

Source: https://www.axios.com/biden-administration-backs-trump-era-alaska-oil-drilling-plans-ca4377bd-1e2d-4b0c-9944-dcd26571fcd1.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Falconer

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‘Second bite is one that broke the bones’: Alaska man describes bear mauling

Allen Minish was surveying land when he locked eyes with a brown bear in an encounter that left him with a crushed jaw and deep cuts

Warning: contains image of injuries sustained in the attack

Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a real estate agent in a wooded, remote part of Alaska, putting some numbers into his GPS unit when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30ft (10 meters) away.

“I saw him and he saw me at the same time,” Minish said by phone on Wednesday from his hospital bed in Anchorage, a day after being mauled by the bear in the chance encounter.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/20/alaska-bear-attack
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Associated Press

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A Zombie-Fire Outbreak May Be Growing in Alaska and Canada

“Overwintering” fires smolder under the snow, reigniting vegetation in the spring. New research shows the zombies may proliferate in a warmer world.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/a-zombie-fire-outbreak-may-be-growing-in-the-north/
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Matt Simon

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Ravens stealing food from Anchorage Costco shoppers

The “ravens of Anchorage” sounds like a viking jazz trio and, as it turns out, are as equally smooth as the musical ensemble name intimates. Actual ravens have been plundering shopping carts at a Costco parking lot in Anchorage, Alaska. One poor sap turned around and two of these winged-raiders made off with a short rib, tearing it right out of its packaging and flying away, presumably to feast at their evil lair. — Read the rest

Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/03/30/ravens-stealing-food-from-anchorage-costco-shoppers.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ravens-stealing-food-from-anchorage-costco-shoppers
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Kevin Reome

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Sen. Barrasso backs Murkowski after Trump targets her

Sen. John Barrasso said Sunday he’d back Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski for reelection, breaking with former President Donald Trump not long after he vowed to campaign against her.

“I want to always make sure we nominate somebody who can win in November,” Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” of the 2022 midterm elections. “Lisa Murkowski knows Alaska better than anybody, and she’s an incredible fighter for American energy.”

The Wyoming Republican cautioned that Murkowski — who has held her seat since 2002 — has not officially declared she would seek another term, but “if she does, I’m going to support her.”

Murkowski is one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial but is the only one of that cohort to face reelection next year.

Trump on Saturday declared that he would not endorse Murkowski “under any circumstances.”

“She represents her state badly and her country even worse,” he said in a statement to POLITICO. “I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be — in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator.”

The GOP is grappling internally with how best to proceed with Trump out of the White House but still in command of a fervent political base and an ardent desire to remain a force in Republican politics. POLITICO Playbook reported Saturday that Trump has sent cease-and-desist letters to the RNC, NRSC and NRCC demanding they stop using his name and likeness to fundraise without his permission, an unsubtle indication of his displeasure with the party apparatus.

The broadside against Murkowski came days after she voted to advance the nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to serve as Interior secretary — the only Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to do so. Trump cited that move as a recent example of the need to install someone else in Murkowski’s seat.

Murkowski had been one of the few Republicans who’d periodically criticize Trump in public, a position that made her a frequent target of the former president.

Murkowski, who succeeded her father, Frank Murkowski, in the Senate, has also proved a difficult person for Republicans to unseat. She managed to win as a write-in candidate after losing a GOP primary in 2010, and Alaska has since switched to a ranked-choice voting system that will pit candidates of all parties against one another in an open primary, with the top four vote-getters advancing to the general election.

Barrasso also said he stood by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who like Murkowski has become a top target of Trump’s after she broke with her party to impeach him earlier this year.

“I support her,” he said Sunday, while noting “I disagree with her completely on the issue of impeachment.”

Cheney has already fended off an attempt by Republican House members aligned with Trump to strip her of her leadership post.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/07/barrasso-murkowski-trump-senate-474220
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Nick Niedzwiadek

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Texas is Colder Than Alaska Right Now

In a turn of events that will surprise exactly no one at this point, a large swath of the United States is currently experiencing an extreme and unprecedented weather event.

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Source: https://earther.gizmodo.com/texas-is-colder-than-alaska-right-now-1846275170
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Brianna Provenzano on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Gizmodo

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Judge allows contested Arctic oil lease sale to go ahead

A federal judge on Tuesday denied a bid to thwart the Interior Department’s plan to sell oil drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Why it matters: District court judge Sharon Gleason’s ruling clears the way for the Interior Department to unseal bids tomorrow for drilling rights in the region.

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• The judge denied a motion from environmentalists and Native Alaskans for a preliminary injunction.

What they’re saying: “Plaintiffs may be correct that, over time, they may be significantly injured as a result of the planned lease sales on the Coastal Plain,” Gleason wrote.

• “But these future and cumulative potential effects do not demonstrate the irreparable harm necessary for preliminary injunctive relief at this time,” the ruling adds.

Yes, but: The ruling is just one step in legal battles ongoing and expected over development in the region — an area subject to a decades-long battle between drilling advocates and environmentalists.

• Drilling proponents say the region can be tapped with manageable disruption. But environmentalists say it’s impossible without harming the ecosystem that’s home to caribou, polar bears and other species

Where it stands: Wednesday’s unsealing of bids will reveal the extent of industry interest in the region.

• The refuge may hold huge oil deposits. But companies face strained budgets, cloudy future demand and prices, and activist pressure to keep clear.

The big picture: The Trump administration, on the cusp of President-elect Joe Biden taking office, is selling leases under a GOP-crafted 2017 law that opened the refuge for oil drilling.

• But there are nonetheless administrative and legal levers that Biden — whose platform calls for “permanently protecting” the region — can pull to try and stymie the years-long development process.

Go deeper: Company interest in drilling Alaska wildlife refuge to be revealed Jan. 6

Source: https://www.axios.com/judge-allows-contested-arctic-oil-lease-sale-31d7d996-c03c-439d-a3b9-8fab15f0696d.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Ben Geman

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Last-minute White House decision opens more Arctic land to oil leasing

Donald Trump’s administration announced on Monday that it has made final its plan to open up vast areas of once-protected Arctic Alaska territory to oil development.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/last-minute-white-house-decision-opens-arctic-land-oil-leasing-rcna217
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Reuters

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Alaska May Be Hiding a Huge Volcanic System

As if we needed more upsetting right news right now, geologists have reason to suspect that a cluster of Alaskan islands is actually part of an interconnected volcanic system of the same kind seen at Yellowstone National Park.

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/alaska-may-be-hiding-a-huge-volcanic-system-1845810147
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The Article Was Written/Published By: George Dvorsky

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Passenger jet damaged after crashing into brown bear on runway in Southeast Alaska

A cub miraculously survived the accident that killed one adult bear

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/passenger-pane-damage-crash-brown-bear-alaska-b1723518.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Shweta Sharma

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Alaska’s Coastal Permafrost Is More Vulnerable Than We Thought

Scientists have long assumed that a thick, solid mass of permafrost underpins all of Alaska like the sturdy foundation of a house, stretching from the tundra to the and below the seafloor. But in a new study published in Science Advances, scientists found that beneath the seafloor on the northeastern coast of Alaska,…

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Source: https://earther.gizmodo.com/alaska-s-coastal-permafrost-is-more-vulnerable-than-we-1845494158
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Dharna Noor on Earther, shared by Brian Kahn to Gizmodo

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7.5 magnitude earthquake near Alaska triggers tsunami warning

The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for the Pacific coasts from Kennedy Entrance, Alaska, to Unimak Pass, Alaska.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/7-5-magnitude-earthquake-near-alaska-triggers-tsunami-warning-n1243944
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Doha Madani

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Anchorage chooses 1st woman, openly gay acting mayor

Austin Quinn-Davidson will serve as acting mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, after the outgoing mayor resigned over an “inappropriate” relationship with a reporter.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/anchorage-chooses-1st-woman-openly-gay-acting-mayor-n1243866
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press

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