The Whale And the Supercomputer: on the northern front of climate change

Science News, June 5, 2004

THE WHALE AND THE SUPERCOMPUTER: On the Northern Front of Climate Change

CHARLES WOHLFORTH

Average winter temperatures in interior Alaska have risen 7[degrees]F since the 1950s, and annual precipitation has increased by 30 percent. Other indicators of global warming show up in measurements of local ice cores and air analyses. Native Inupiat Eskimos are keenly aware of atmospheric changes causing thinning ice and increased fog during whaling season. Wohlforth has traveled with both scientists and Eskimos to see how each group studies the environment. Employing both scientific detail and eloquent nature writing, he explores how this knowledge can be shared--specifically, how scientists could learn rom the people who have essentially studied a northern climate for hundreds of years. The author also describes how people in this region are adapting to climate change that he and many scientists believe will soon affect the rest of the world. North Point Pr, 2004, 322 p., hardcover, $25.00.