natursyn.dk

I guess that the summer must be just around the corner. I went to a bonfire with an outdoor margarita bar tonight. I didn’t spot anybody in playa-wear, though. We had to stand very close to the fire, because it was -20ºC. People do have a good sense of humor around here.
By the way, March has been really cold this year with an average of -22ºC.

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I saw this on Onion News Network and had a good laugh.

It is not only in Alaska where oil runs the economy. In fact, oil is so important that wars constantly are fought over it. Antonia Juhasz, author of the book The Bu$h Agenda: Invading the World – One Economy at a Time, argues that the latest war lead by the United States, the war in Iraq, was fought to gain increased access to Iraq’s oil.

Tonight I went to a talk by Antonia Juhasz where she explained the “oil time-line” driving the war, and how the Bush administration has fundamentally transformed Iraq’s economy, locking in sweeping advantages to its corporate allies. According to a proposal by the Iraqi government, less that one-third of the known oil fields will  stay nationalized and benefit the people. The remaining oil fields will be open to foreign cooperate control with little benefit for the people.  And big money is involved since Iraq holds the 2nd largest oil reserve in the world.

I think that it is very sad that the war in Iraq was initiated under false pretenses. The primary reason for the war was never about creating freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people. It was naively assumed that people who had lived without democracy under an unscrupulous dictator for more than a generation suddenly would know how to run a country as soon as they were freed. Instead, primitive religious and tribal feelings were unleashed on a scale that was unimaginable for most people at the time.

If the United States and its allies such as Denmark keep insisting on maintaining control of Iraq and its oil for the years to come, the result will be immense suffering for the troops stationed there. Whether a continued  presence of allied soldiers will change anything to the better for the Iraqi people I don’t know. But I know as long as these soldiers are perceived as occupation forces by the Iraqi people, things will only get worse. The new proposal on how to “share” oil resources does not help to improve that image.

This weekend I tried ice climbing for the first time in my life. It was great fun and at times challenging. Before ascending the frozen waterfalls, we’re given a thorough instruction to ice-climbing and tied securely by ropes so it was fairly safe. I went with a group of people from UAF to Dragonfly Creek located about two hours drive south of Fairbanks. I have put more pictures from the trip in my picasa album. I also put a video on youtube where Mark from Outdoor Adventures is climbing in a leisurely looking style.

The International Polar Year (IPY) is a campaign of internationally coordinated research to gain new knowledge about Earth’s polar regions, how those regions are changing, and how such changes are impacting the health of our biosphere. I am quite excited that I arrived at Universtiy of Alaska just when the Polar Year took off. Of the 208 clusters of projects endorsed by IPY, 55 have participation from Universtiy of Alaska.

Sled dog racing is one of the biggest winter sports in Alaska. This weekend, Fairbanks hosted the annual Open North American Championship Sled Dog Race. The race takes place over three days with 1-2 hours of racing every day. The breed for these relatively short distances can run incredibly fast with an average pace of 30-35 km/h! With that pace I wouldn’t even be able to follow them on a mountain bike.

This weekend I played croquet on the Chena river. Every year around spring equinox, two departments, the Biology and the Fish & Game, play against each other as “a celebration of spring”. I was so unfortunate to be on the loosing Biology team. We lost despite our serious attitude and it was only by pure luck that the other team won. We had all great fun playing it.

At Finger Mountain we had fun sliding down a slope. This video shows Mat (husband to Diane, my sponsor at UAF) in a free fall.

Yesterday I went to Finger Mountain just 10 miles south of the Arctic circle. It is the first time I have been this far north and I was struck by the beauty of the landscape. This area has been inhabited by the Athabaskans for thousand of years.

Last week I went to see the annual ice carving contest here in Fairbanks. It is called The World Ice Art Championships and artists come in from all over the world. Their creations are just amazing and especially beautiful when they are lit up at night. I’ve not been there at night yet but I’ll post some pictures as soon as I do.