Two of the most amazing adventurers in recent Alaska history, Bretwood Higman and Erin McKittrick, have announced the launch of the beta version of an exciting new web tool they're creating. Here's how they describe Alaska's Wild Resource Web:Alaska's Wild Resource Web allows you to explore natural resource issues in Alaska. You can read in-depth articles on the issues, browse maps, or see slide showsof the places where these resources are found.
This site is a work-in-progress – some articles are still under construction, and content is always being added. The site is currently focused on the issue of coal in Alaska.
erin goes on, at their longtime blog, groundtruthtrekking, to further describe their hopes for the new site:
All this started with a love of wandering around the Alaska wilderness, and with a drive to understand the hard decisions that Alaska and America need to make about that wilderness. Is it possible to capture nuanced trade-offs between different options in a web site that is still interesting and understandable? Can that web site tie together the gritty on-the-ground experiences that form the foundation of our interest with the detailed research that broadens and deepens our understanding? Is it possible for our tiny organization to do the research needed to do justice to these complex issues?
By the way, erin's new book, A Long Trek Home, comes out in October. They'll be giving talks and signing books soon afterward, in many Alaska communities.
Reading through erin's description of the site, I was struck with a couple of thoughts:
1.) Why aren't there more Alaska-based, wiki-like tools, such as what erin and hig are creating? There should be.
2.) Earlier this evening, I read AK Muckraker's post at The Mudflats, about the new movie, Crude. As I read through the post and watched the trailer for the film, I thought - There should be a movie just like this about the Bering Sea trawl fishery, and what that and other egregious fishery practices - like the False Pass intercept fishery - have done to the 7,000-year-old Yupik culture on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. Sort of an anti-Deadliest Catch movie, to tell the real truth surrounding that adventure's premise.
image - erin & hig in the rainforest
4 comments:
Not to be a killjoy...but having an adventure...even walking across the entire state of Alaska...does not make one an Alaskan. LIVING IN ALASKA IS THE QUALIFIER. I hiked all over California, but I'm not a Californian. Erin lives in Washington State. I believe Bretwood does too.
Phil, please change the title of your post. They area not Alaskans.
They live in Seldovia. They moved here after they finished their journey. About 45 seconds research could have cleared that up. Your local library may have free courses in doing web research. If you don't know how to look up your local library, please post another comment asking for assistance.
One should recognize that anyone who prefaces their comments with such empty phrases as 'not to be a killjoy', is first and foremost, a glaringly open admission from the commenter that the commenter actually has no intention of doing anything but attempting lamely to be just that, ...a killjoy.
That the commenter failed miserably to mask their true intentions, and that they failed so miserably in their attempt to distract or detract from Erin and Hig's worthy contributions is just icing on their 'fail' cake.
Having seen many examples of the illuminating and broad rational perspective that Erin and Hig bring to any issue they apply themselves to, I look forward to their new endeavor being every bit as successful, thorough, and illuminating.
Erin and Hig are working on achievable and feasible projects, projects that can be of great benefit to all of us, and the insecure whinging of some impudent anonymous killjoy will not diminish, nor will it trivialize their character or reputation.
freeper
spam disguised as praise is still spam,
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