My friends Wray and Cindy Kinard operate a B & B outside Anchorage, AK. They moved there from Texas in 1977 on a wing and a prayer (because they both love the outdoors and had long dreamed of relocating to those magnetic northern wilds). By working their butts off (and with the help of friendly locals who "showed them the ropes" in regard to living in a climate drastically different than the one they'd been used to), they have reached the point where neither of them needs to travel the twenty minutes to downtown Anchorage in order to work day jobs and thereby pay the bills.

When I heard that Wray and Cindy were coming to North Texas (to visit Cindy's assisted living facility-bound father), we arranged to meet for lunch at the La Madeleine in NorthPark.

No sooner had we tucked into our salads than we were approached by a guy from WBAP wielding a microphone and wanting to know our thoughts about the "man's mother-in-law dying while Dallas officer detains him for running red light" story - in particular what we thought about officer Robert Powell's recently-announced resignation.

Which brought to mind this whole "regionality of news" mindset that we here at PegNews have been immersed in for lo these many moons (three-ish years, in my case).

While we here in North Texas concentrate on issues of potential police misconduct, tax-funded hotels and local film festivals, there's A FRIGGIN' VOLCANO erupting within 100 miles of Wray and Cindy's front door. (It would actually be out their back door, but you get the idea.) The only reason they were able to make it to Texas on schedule was because the volcano gods cooperated by quieting down for a spell - and then immediately resumed their 50,000-ft.-high ash-cloud belching hijinks after the Kinards had winged their way southward. (Getting back to Alaska may prove to be equally dicey for them.)

One thing I wanted to get their first-hand observations on was this whole climate change/global warming issue, and here's what they had to say about it:

Yeah, it's happening, and happening fast.

Just a few miles from Wray and Cindy's house is a visitor center whose primary attraction used to be its backyard glacier. The forest ranger program designed to wow visiting Texans began in a darkened theater where a video describing how glaciers are formed was shown. Then came the grand finale: the curtains would be drawn open to reveal, just beyond a plate glass window, icebergs floating in the bay, calving from the big ol' glacier overhead.

This is how the program went when the Kinards first moved out there. Today, the glacier has receded so far up the sound that you can't even see it from the visitor center. (And forget about the icebergs.)

Here's another weird (and perhaps cautionary) weather tale for you: this past January, Anchorage schools had to shut down for a spell because it got too warm. Seems it started raining heavily (which, historically, simply doesn't happen in winter up there) and the snow covering the ground turned to polished ice. Not even the gravel trucks could navigate the roads.

Only in Alaska, I guess - at least for the time being.

Comments

Scott Doyle Verified

Just happened to catch a glimpse of the History Channel's special Modern Marvels tonight: Doomsday Tech 1.

Decent amount of it had to do with global warming accompanied with the not-so-distant inevitability of peak oil and what might happen should their sudden (potentially VERY sudden) impacts align. Definitely worth an hour of everyone's time, imo, regardless of your personal thoughts on how things might go down - always good to keep an open mind.

Apparently one theory is that a sudden ice age would fall upon us, mostly impacting Europe. [insert smarter people's discussion of excess fresh-water entering the "global conveyor belt" and hindering salt-water flow from Europe to Iceland, essentially mucking up the works errywurr] Obv impact would be felt globally, but Europe especially.

Someone more knowledgeable please elaborate as it's tough to retain every detail with so many different doomsday theories being thrown at you.

Anyhow, should that happen around the time we're on the downhill run from peak oil...apparently everything will be for naught and it's every nation for itself (if not state, man, etc). Obviously I'm not hardcore enough to read up on any of this within a few hours, but different schools of thought anticipate peak oil to be anywhere from a decade to a few decades away. Regardless, relatively accepted that within my generation's lifetime we'll have to adapt or get boned.

Fear-mongering b/c of volcanoes and icebergs ITT. Just sayin', various things as of late definitely have opened my eyes to our impending doom if drastic changes aren't made relatively soon. Pretty amazing that our industriousness will be our downfall if we don't counter with more smurtz than what put us here in the first place.

Man, can't wait for the peak-oil crusaders of the internet to bombard this here thread. Mr. Meyer, I apologize if this opens a can of worms the likes of which nobody cares to tolerate.

7 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Alex Bentley Staff

Wow, that has to have been the longest comment I've ever seen Scott post. At least there were line breaks...

7 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle Verified

Piss off, let's see you try to summarize key points of that episode without writing an essay!

7 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

John Meyer Staff

No worries, Scott. I'm just hoping I get to see the film version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road before the apocalypse depicted actually occurs.

(Or I get run over by a bus.)

7 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )