Arctic Communities

ISER's Dr. Jen Schmidt traveled to Tanana this past October to discuss the results of an ongoing fuel meter data collection project alongside Alaska Center for Energy and Power’s (ACEP) Alana Vilagi and Baxter Bond. 

Tourism in Alaska is a growth industry, with much of the revenue generated below the Arctic Circle. But the Arctic’s unique natural environment and tourists' desire to see the Arctic before it changes – sometimes called “last chance tourism” – is drawing more and more travelers above the Arctic Circle. The increase in nature-based tourism offers Arctic communities around the world development opportunities, but also risks to community and environmental systems.

Visiting Fulbright Scholar and Doctor of Law, Elena Gladun, will give an overview of recent educational and research projects in Siberia and Yamal regions of the Russian Arctic, the most effective supports for sustainable development, and Indigenous rights and interests at a lunchtime talk on Friday, May 17, in ISER’s conference room at noon. 

Chris Southcott, who has been involved in community-based research in the circumpolar north for more than 30 years, will share final results from his Resources and Sustainable Development (ReSDA) project, which looked at developing ways to ensure that a larger share of resource development benefits stay in the region, and what it means for communities in Northern Canada, Alaska and other Arctic regions at a lunchtime talk at ISER on Thursday, May 16 at noon. 

ISER Professor of Education Policy Diane Hirshberg is co-editor of the new book, Including the North: a comparative study of the policies on inclusion and equity in the Circumpolar North. Nearly four million people live in the Arctic, including indigenous peoples, northerners, and those who’ve recently arrived.

ISER’s Jennifer Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management, is part of the Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network (IFKN), bringing together Indigenous leaders, community practitioners, and scholars (both Indigenous and non-Indigenous) focused on research and community capacity related to food sovereignty and Indigenous Knowledge. 

On June 13, 1988, after decades of Cold War tensions in the Bering Strait, Alaska Airlines’ “Friendship Flight” flew from Nome to Provideniya, in what was then the USSR. That historic flight reunited long-separated Native peoples of Alaska and Russia and helped end the Cold War. David Ramseur, a former visiting scholar of public policy at ISER and author of the book, Melting the Ice Curtain, was on that flight. At a free lecture at the Anchorage Museum, he will talk about the flight and lead a panel discussion among others who were also aboard, including Gunnar Knapp, a former ISER director. The panelists will recall that day, and discuss how it prescribes a course for U.S.-Russia relations today.

Where: Anchorage Museum, 625 C St
When: Thursday, May 31, 6:30 p.m.
Note: Use the museum’s 7th Avenue entrance.

The Alaska Energy Data Gateway is an online database that UAF's Alaska Center for Energy and Power, ISER, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory established several years ago, to give communities across Alaska a broad range of data they can use as they develop and improve their energy systems.

Now, the gateway has had a major upgrade. Users can search by Alaska community for information to help them determine whether specific communities have the financial and technical capacities—and the skilled people—they need to develop sustainable energy systems. A new interactive search tool also makes it easier to find information from across the state. To learn more, check out the press release (PDF, 1MB) or visit the gateway at https://akenergygateway.alaska.edu/.

Alaska households on average use more energy—and spend more for it—than households nationwide. But making houses more energy-efficient can reduce both how much energy Alaskans use and how much they spend for it. Also, making houses more energy-efficient may increase their sales price, if the energy savings are capitalized into the value of the houses.

Dominique Pride, a postdoctoral fellow at UAF's Alaska Center for Energy and Power, will talk about the results of two studies investigating the relationship between energy efficiency and single-family home prices in the Anchorage real estate market.

We apologize that Dominique Pride's lunchtime talk did not live-stream as we had planned. A similar presentation she did, discussing her research on valuing energy-efficiency in the Anchorage residential market, is available in its place.