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The Northern Lights over a lake in Fairbanks, Alaska. Photo: Shutterstock

Alaska: the good, bad and ugly sides to life on America’s ‘last frontier’

  • Vast and underpopulated, the 49th state’s great outdoors is a hunting, hiking and adventure sports paradise, but for how much longer?
  • Alaska is warming up twice as fast as the global average, creating some of the world’s first climate refugees

The Good

The name Alaska is derived from the Eskimo word alakshak, meaning “great lands”. Separated from the rest of the United States by the Canadian province of British Columbia, the state is twice the size of Texas. Or, to put it another way, 1,553 Hong Kongs would fit into America’s “last frontier”.

Alaska has the longest coastline of any US state, the most active volcanoes and one bear for every 21 humans, although it’s unclear who did the counting. As for the urban myth that Eskimos have 50 words for snow, anthropologists reckon there might actually be some truth in it – especially as there’s evidence that the Sámi people have 1,000 words that describe reindeer.

Tourists come to hike, hunt, fish and conquer some of the most challenging peaks in the US. You can book a bear-viewing tour or go panning for gold or husky dog-sledding. Alaska is home to more than three million lakes and 100,000 glaciers and, although a third of the state lies within the Arctic Circle, summer temperatures can be pleasantly balmy. In Utqiagvik, the sun rises on May 10 and doesn’t set again for almost three months. Visitors hoping to witness the Northern Lights could do worse than head to the city of Fairbanks, where the natural phenomenon is visible an average of 243 days a year.

Alaska has one bear for every 21 humans. Photo: Alamy

Indigenous people comprise roughly a quarter of the state’s population and the Alaska Native Heritage Center, in the city of Anchorage, is a living museum that provides insight into tribal culture through song, dance and storytelling. There’s also the opportunity to purchase handicrafts and clothing directly from artisans.

Talking of handicrafts, another way of helping indigenous Alaskans pay their bills is by shopping at cooperative stores. All the jewellery, artefacts and clothing is handmade and provides employment for native craftspeople living in remote villages where there are few other ways of generating an income.

Alaska is all about the great outdoors so after a day or two in Anchorage, leave the bright lights behind and venture out along the Seward Highway, a scenic 200km that features on many an Alaskan bucket list. Alternatively, take the Parks Highway and keep your eyes peeled for moose, caribou and Denali (aka Mount McKinley), the highest mountain in North America.

A stretch of the Seward Highway. Photo: Alamy

Then there’s the city of Juneau, which has more miles of tunnels than roads – a legacy of its gold mining days – and is the only state capital inaccessible by car. The only ways in and out are by plane, ferry or cruise ship.

Cruises represent a significant segment of the Alaskan tourism industry. Themed “fjords and glaciers” trips incorporate whale watching and wilderness walks, wildlife-spotting excursions and tribal house visits. Passengers also join kayaking expeditions through lakes filled with chunks of floating ice towards calving (crumbling) glaciers.

Alaska’s size and relative inaccessi­bility mean many residents aren’t connected to the electricity grid while those who are struggle with skyrocketing utility bills. Over the past decade, however, isolated communities have begun to benefit from alternative sources of power. Since 2014, for example, the island of Kodiak has generated 99 per cent of its energy needs from wind and hydro power.

The Bad

Over the summer, wildfires have ravaged more than two million acres in Alaska. Photo: EPA

According to a federal agencies report, the Alaskan climate is warming twice as fast as the global average. The aforementioned pleasantly balmy summer weather made international news over the 4th of July weekend, when Anchorage recorded an all-time-high temperature of 32.2 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit). With wildfires raging across the state, authorities cancelled Independence Day firework displays. This followed the hottest-ever June, when daily highs in the city matched those in subtropical Miami. And to think Alaskan homes are designed to trap heat inside!

South Pacific Islands aren’t the only places suffering the effects of rising sea levels. Alaska’s unusually sultry conditions caused the earliest break-up of ice on its major rivers this year. Ocean surface temperatures are almost 5 degrees Celsius hotter than average – a disaster for those who rely on sea ice for hunting and fishing. Dozens of settlements are at risk and a handful have already been relocated, creating some of the world’s first climate refugees.

As Alaska’s glaciers haemorrhage fresh water into swollen lakes at a record speed, “global warming tourists” are flocking to the 49th state to see the frosty formations before they disappear for good. Tour operators are experiencing a boom in related activities, although some glaciers are melting so fast they’ve already become too thin to walk on. A number of people have died after falling through the ice in snowmobile accidents this year.

Underpopulated Alaska is overpopulated with mosquitoes. Photo: Alamy

Alaskans are grateful for the revenue that tourism generates but that doesn’t stop them from going online to complain about certain behaviour. Gripes include inconsiderate motorists who block highways when they stop to photograph distant moose or caribou and ill-prepared adventurers who wander off into the wilderness – then require rescuing at the state’s expense.

Tourists aren’t always to blame, though. Underpopulated Alaska is overpopulated with bloodthirsty mosquitoes and a lack of sunlight in winter results in brisk sales of vitamin D supplements. Problem is, the pills cost a fortune, along with nearly everything else – one reason that, over the past six years, more people have left America’s northernmost state than have moved in.

Alaska’s renewable energy initiatives are a step in the right direction but the state’s recycling scheme isn’t particularly eco-friendly, mainly because Alaska is so far from the rest of the country. According to activism website Responsible Travel: “Plastic chucked in the recycling bins in Denali [National Park] travels 320km to a processing centre, before being shipped over 3,000km to recycling facilities outside Alaska.”

And shopping at cooperative stores might help support indigenous people but non-US citizens should bear in mind this advice, also from Responsible Travel: “It’s perfectly legal for Alaska Natives to make or buy walrus-ivory statuettes, fur shrugs and whale baleen fishing rods. But we don’t recommend buying animal souvenirs – not least because some animal products often can’t be transported out of the USA.”

The Ugly

An oil-well drilling platform, in Prudhoe Bay, Beaufort Sea, near Deadhorse, Alaska. Photo: Alamy

Alaska is the nation’s second-largest oil producer, after Texas. Besides creating employment, the Alaska Permanent Fund gives each resident a yearly pay­ment calculated from industry profits. This means the state most affected by climate breakdown is the one with most to gain from drilling for more planet-warming fossil fuels. Talk about a petroleum paradox!

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