How Particle Pollution and Climate Change are Destroying Alaska
Whenever I tell people my name, several questions often arise in response. Among the most common are, ‘Why did your parents name you Alaska?’, ‘Did you used to live in Fairbanks?’ and ‘Have you ever been to Alaska?’ Because of that final question, I always wanted to visit Alaska from a young age, if only to tell curious strangers that Alaska Fairbanks had been to Fairbanks, Alaska.
The summer before freshman year, my family made the trip. We traveled to Anchorage, Fairbanks, and smaller towns along the coast, traversing the terrain by plane, boat, bus, bike, and foot. We also stayed near Denali, the largest mountain in North America, for a few days, hoping that we’d catch a glimpse of its snow-covered peaks. We didn’t expect much, as only 2% of people could see the entirety of the mountain; but, on one perfectly clear day, we were blessed with perfect views. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before - cliffs of white stretching into the clouds, surrounded by a sea of green. Despite the typical cloudy weather of Denali, its air quality is among the best in the United States; the same cannot be said for the rest of Alaska.
A clear day at Denali National Park: taken by me on my trip to Alaska in the summer of 2019.
When I think of Alaska, my mind certainly doesn’t shoot straight to air pollution. Instead, I think about the ‘great beyond’, the wilderness filled with evergreens, and the mini-documentary on how to react if you see a black bear vs. a brown bear that’s played at national parks (for black bears, try to look intimidating; for brown bears, play dead). But, the wood-burning stoves of Fairbanks aren’t part of a rustic nature aesthetic, they’re a major source of particle pollution. Particle pollution, or excess amounts of particulate matter in the air, is made up of dust, soot, and microscopic particles mixed with liquid droplets, and is the primary form of ambient air pollution. Ingestion of these particles through respiration leads to spikes in lung cancer, asthma, and, as I’ve been studying throughout my personal research, Alzheimer’s disease. Fairbanks is the third-most polluted city in the United States, and was the first in 2018; it’s no coincidence that Alaska is also home to the highest rate of Alzheimer’s growth in the country.
Cars driving along Badger Road, Fairbanks surrounded by exhaust fumes and haze. Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Additionally, particle pollution doesn’t solely affect personal health, it’s extremely detrimental to the environment. As an arctic location home to polar bears, northern lights, and massive glaciers, Alaska is one of the places most greatly affected by climate change. Climate change is spurred by the accumulation of greenhouse gases that form a suffocating blanket over the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases are produced through the air pollution resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels, which includes that same wood-burning heat system that warms Fairbanks from the bitter cold of Alaskan winter. On my visit to Alaska, my family was also lucky to see the Johns Hopkins glacier, a frozen mountain with a wall of ice barricading it from the ocean. Standing on the edge of a ferry boat, looking out at the serenity of glacier bay, I heard the sounds of calm waves lapping against the shore, the whistle of a cool summer wind, and a crash as a section of the glacier’s wall disappeared into the sea.
To solve the problem of particle pollution in Alaska, wood-burning stoves and heaters can be abandoned in favor of cleaner forms of energy. This proposition, although simple-sounding, has been a struggle for locals to implement without total cooperation, showing that state or federal intervention must be used to significantly improve air quality conditions in Fairbanks. Continuing to neglect Alaska’s particle pollution will only increase costs of repair, decrease affected communities’ motivation to improve, and loosen our already faltering control on the fate of the Earth’s climate.
