Saturday, July 6, 2019

Alaska's record heat wave

Alaska's record heat will probably be attributed to climate change. Unfortunately, Alaskans have little incentive to pay attention to our changing climate. 

The Alaska Permanent Fund uses oil revenues to pay out dividends to every man, woman and child in that that state. In 2018, that was $1,600. For a family of four that was $6,400. In 2015 it was $2,072 per person or $8,288 for this family.

Alaskans ought to be leading the charge to get us off fossil fuels. They are seeing some of the highest swings in temperatures, and their average winter temps are up something like 6 Fahrenheit. The permafrost is melting, damaging infrastructure and releasing more carbon ... there's a long list of severe impacts.

But Alaska keeps pushing for offshore drilling because they want to keep their checks. The state has to decide whether they love money more than their children.