As isolated as Alaska may seem, it is integrally bound to the physical and biological processes of the world.
While studying plants, animals and geology in Alaska, we strive in the Environmental Science Department to demonstrate these strong links. Birds we may observe during a class period may be seen by other students in Chile, Japan, Central America, or many parts of the Lower 48. The proteins of a grizzly’s muscles may be derived in part from nutrients ultimately obtained from single celled algae thousands of miles off Alaska’s shores. Pollutants sampled from Alaska’s atmosphere may come from China or Northern Europe. Environmental and economic policies of foreign lands can affect the potential for resource extraction and its environmental effects in Alaska.
In turn, salmon spawned in Alaska are captured by fishing vessels near the Russian coast.
Humpback whales, grown fat with a summer of feeding in Alaskan waters, used those gains to birth calves in tropical waters. Volcanic eruptions in Alaska commonly affect international flight schedules, and the largest may noticeably affect weather far from North America.
For the above and many other reasons, we scientists and students must not wear “Alaska blinders”.
Environmental science itself is in part responsible for this view of the entire earth and its ecosystems as part of a vastly woven web. Please, use Alaska’s many opportunities for studying processes and patterns in nature to understand and learn about those processes, but remember to stay alert for the interconnections with a much greater and inter-dependent whole.