Alaska’s Search for Solutions to a Rapidly Changing Reality

By Mayor Ethan Berkowitz

Excerpt from Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s op-ed on Route Fifty.

It seems as if almost every day a new study is published about the long-term effects of climate change. Here in Anchorage, Alaska, we are sourcing creative solutions to the immediate threat climate change poses to our city’s infrastructure, economy and lives. Beyond threats to our infrastructure, climate change also has brought higher temperatures to Anchorage and, as a result, we’ve seen more parasites, more lightning strikes and a longer fire season, all of which threatens public health and the well-being of our city’s residents.

We want to be leaders on climate change—not only because our climate is changing twice as fast as in other parts of the planet, but because we can draw from a diverse tapestry of ideas and skills from people who know how to live and thrive in northern latitudes. To do that, the Municipality of Anchorage recently partnered with the Anchorage Museum to create SEED Lab, a center that will bring together artists, researchers and the public to propose and explore solutions to the challenges of climate change. Creating policy changes, as well as implementing day-to-day solutions to curb our carbon footprint and become a sustainable city, will help us meet future challenges that we cannot yet predict.

Read the full piece, on Route Fifty.

Anchorage, Alaska is a winner of the 2018 Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge which provides grants for free, temporary public art pieces. Learn more about the Public Art Challenge here.