Short Wave - Fire And Ice: Linking Intense Wildfire And The Melting Arctic

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

In the Arctic Ocean, sea ice is shrinking as the climate heats up. In the Western U.S., wildfires are getting increasingly destructive. Those two phenomena are thousands of miles apart, but scientists are uncovering a surprising connection. The ice is connected to weather patterns that reach far across North America. And as the climate keeps changing and sea ice shrinks, Western states could be seeing more extreme weather, the kind that fuels extreme wildfires.Check out the full series about how melting ice affects us all: npr.org/icemelt. We love hearing from you! Reach the show by emailing [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Happy Friday shortwavers, Emily Kwong here. So all of this week, we have been following ice, tracing the contours of how our entire planet is connected by frozen water and how the world's melting ice sheets and glaciers can have far-reaching impacts as the climate changes. When you're done with this episode, I highly encourage you to listen to episodes one and two to get the full scientific picture. Today, I am joined by Lauren Summer from NPR's Climate Desk with a tale of ice that begins in Alaska of my former home where I was a reporter for several years. Hey, Lauren. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

And we're actually going to a small village called Katsabu. I know Katsabu. Yeah, it is far north on the coast of Alaska, really tight-knit community. It's an amazing place. Yeah, definitely. And it's right above the Arctic Circle. You can't actually get there by roads, just plainer boat. When I was there, kids were swimming in the ocean, kind of launching themselves off the seawall at the edge of town.

Sounds like summer and cots? Very fun. Yeah. I mean, when I was there, it was the first few days of July. But here's the thing. Just a few decades ago, it would not have been swim season yet because there likely would have been big chunks of ice still floating by. Most of the year, the ocean near Cotsbyu is just covered by ice. But that season is getting shorter.

as the climate changes. Unless the ice is having big impacts, not just in Cotsabu, but thousands of miles away closer to where I live. Tonight, wildfires are leaving a trail of destruction amid record-breaking heat in the West.

The California heat wave is stretching into its eighth Wow, Lauren, yeah, wildfires have become really destructive. But I didn't realize there was a connection between fire in California and ice in Alaska.

It doesn't seem obviously linked. Yeah, it really is an example. though, of how far the influence of polar ice can go and how climate change will just play out in ways that we're just beginning to understand. So today on the show, why what happens in the Arctic goes far beyond its borders? And what that means for communities both near and far. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Okay, Lauren Summer, you traveled to Alaska for this series. You got to see polar ice up close, which is so cool.

I mean, ice is just woven into daily life above the Arctic Circle, especially within Alaska Native communities that have lived on that land for thousands of years. Right. In Katsabu, the Anupak community is very connected to the land around them. And most of the year, it's ice. I met Cyrus Harris, who grew up around Katsabu, and that's what he talked to me about. For the Inupak people that's living along the coastal areas, we're here for a reason. And that particular reason is the resources out in the waters. He says about 70% of his diet is from hunting and fishing for the traditional foods that his community has really relied on for generations.

It's so important culturally. And just financially, too, logistically, shipping food all the way up there is so expensive. Yeah, it is. And Cyrus actually runs a program in Katsabu that helps supply the long-term care facility in town with some of those traditional foods. I got a good chunk of bulwka that I put in. This is really taking me back. He opened this big walk-in freezer with caribou and fish and seal. That's the food that hunters donate and then they get some extra gas in return.

So people in the elder care facility can have those foods when they otherwise couldn't. We're going to be making fresh seal this winter with the seal. Bearded seals are an important traditional food. And they're only nearby for a short time when the CI starts breaking up in the spring. But that hunting season has been getting. even shorter, he says, because the Arctic is changing. It's warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Our colder temperatures throughout the winter are no longer colder temperatures throughout the winter. Earlier spring thighs, it's obvious. Late fall freeze up. That's obvious.

Cyrus and other village elders actually measured that. They teamed up with scientists from Columbia University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. And they combine their experience on the ground. So traditional indigenous knowledge and their community records. And then they added in new scientific measurements. And what they found is that since 2003, the CI breaks up three weeks earlier on average. If these changes continue to go on as they are, it's going to be a big challenge for the many of us. It's going to be a big challenge for the younger generation. And just such a big change for the community.

Yeah. But then there's another thing that we heard. And it's just this recognition that what happens in the arched, What's happening there doesn't stay in the Arctic. I talked to Alex Whiting about that. He's environmental director for the native village of Katsabu, and we're walking on a beach at the edge of town. The thing about the Arctic is that it only works when it's cold.

And so that means when it's not cold, a lot of things start to become disrupted. That disruption can cause a big ripple effect because the Arctic can shape the world's weather. And the Arctic is a major thermal regulator for the planet, right? It's our air conditioner for the planet. It drives weather systems. What exactly does Alex mean about it being like an air conditioner?

How does that work? Yeah, okay. So it starts with the sea ice. Normally, it's just this huge blanket of ice that covers the top of the planet, you know, the Arctic Ocean up there. It's really bright white. It's reflecting a lot of sunlight. So it's kind of like a shield. But that sea ice is shrinking.

So the ocean is spending more time as open water. And now when the sunlight hits it, the water absorbs the heat instead of reflecting it. Oh, so it's basically adding heat to the whole system. Yeah, and that heats up the water, which then heats up the air above it. That air rises. And that's what feeds a weather pattern, which is known as a low pressure system. It's actually strong enough to push something that you hear about a lot in weather report. the jet stream. Yeah, you hear about the jet stream and weather reports all the time. It's like a line of winds going across the planet, usually shown with like arrows on TV. And when it moves, it kind of steers the weather around the world, right? Yeah, yeah. Like sometimes when you hear about a big weather change or saying the jet stream is moving, right? Yeah. Especially in the lower 48. And when that low pressure system from the Arctic pushes the jet stream off its normal path, it can actually create a zone of hot, dry weather over the western U.S.

Earth scientists, Heilong Wong, did this research. He works at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The change in the Arctic could affect anywhere. People live. So if we live on the same earth, you will feel the change. Wow. He found that as the climate keeps warming, this weather connection, you know, where a dry heat wave hits the Western U.S., is likely to become more common in the fall.

And that's a season where the weather can be really dangerous. Yeah, fall in the U.S. has just become synonymous with really destructive wildfires in the West. They've gotten so bad. Yeah, exactly. And I talked to someone who's been right in the middle of that. His name is Mark Messias, and he's a fire captain with the St. Helena Fire Department in Northern California. We went to this rural part of Napa County. It kind of has these rolling hills and oak woodlands.

And back in September of 2020, he and his crew were the first one's on scene. at this particular spot when they got a wildfire call. It was windy. There was no humidity. The humidity had to be in the teen, low teens. When they saw the fire, it became clear really quickly that it just couldn't be contained. It's a bright orange everywhere. You're constantly getting burned with embers.

Yeah, it's something. So he and his team spent the next 60 hours straight just evacuating people because there's a lot of windy, narrow roads there. Yeah. It just seems like wildfires in the West are becoming harder. harder to contain. So people have to resort to evacuations instead of, you know, fighting the fire when it's so big. Yeah. Yeah. And there are a lot of reasons that wildfires can get that way. You know, sometimes the land is really overgrown. But when there is this hot, dry air, it just saps the moisture

from vegetation and it primes it to burn. Yeah, it turns it to like kindling. Yeah. And that fire, which was named the glass fire, it exploded. I mean, I remember when this happened, it just jumped hundreds of acres overnight, and eventually more than 1,500 homes and buildings were destroyed. It takes a huge toll on that community, of course, but also on Mark and the other firefighters whose job it is to protect that community, and he still gets a little choked up talking about it. Because you try to do a lot and it feels like you can't win. I know that was a huge thing that I've talked to with other guys. It's just like when you just feel like you can't win and you're trying, you know?

Those are the tough ones. Yeah. You know, the tone in Mark's voice and in Cyrus's voice all the way up in Katsabu is so similar. It's just this sense of this is the reality, this is how it's changing, and it's hard to face it. But we want to keep people safe as the planet is warming, whether it's melting sea ice or rampant wildfires. Yeah. I think that's really true. I mean, the changes feel separate, but they're not in terms of what people are facing the pace of the change that's affecting their everyday life. Right.

For this particular case, there is hope. There's hope that understanding these long-range connections, this weather, you know, maybe there can be better forecasting in the future. Sure. Maybe we could keep an eye on the sea ice. And then in the event there'd be a really bad year, Western states could actually get a warning. So they know the fall would be bad and they could put more firefighting forces, you know,

at the ready for that season. Yeah. Yeah. It's really, it's cutting-edge science at this point, so there is a lot more to learn. That would be kind of incredible. Wow. Lauren, you know, we've gone around the planet this week talking about ice. We've gone to Greenland. We've gone to Nepal. We're ending in Alaska and California. Thinking about the series, has all this reporting changed the way you think about ice itself? Yeah. I mean, it really has, actually. There's kind of like one thing that sticks in my mind, which is one scientist told me that we have a lot to thank. for all of us do. Yeah. Because the planet we know today, you know, the shape of our coastlines

or what our weather is like, it's due in large part to these giant ice sheets. 68% of the world's freshwater is frozen. So it's kind of been a reminder for me that this whole planet is connected in ways that we're just beginning to understand. And, you know, there's urgency to understand that. It's only increasing because of how the planet is. is heating up with climate change and how fast it's happening. Lauren Summer, thank you so much to you and to the whole NPR Climate Desk for bringing us this reporting. Yeah, thanks for having us all week.

It was great. Go back and listen to their stories. Go to npr.org to see photos from all the places that they went and read up on some of the science. This episode was produced by Burley McCoy. It was edited and fact-checked by managing producer Rebecca Ramirez. The audio engineer for this episode was passing. Mary. Beth Donovan is our senior director and Anya Grundman is our senior vice president of programming.

I'm Emily Kwong. Thank you. Thank you as always for listening to Shortwave from NPR.