When I first lived in Alaska, I could stand on the roof of my house and see five glaciers in the distance. Fourteen years later, three of them had receded out of view. When people would talk to me about how the global warming thing was exaggerated...this theory and that... I would tell them what I saw with my own two eyes. You've not seen anything until you've seen an Arctic drought. No snow on the ground in the middle of winter is especially dark. Even the animals have a hard time getting around when it is like that... food is scarce because the snow doesn't protect it so it freeze-dries into dust. I've been away as long as I lived there and now... finally people are taking it seriously.

Sometimes I really miss being able to look across a desolate and pristine landscape...it's breathtaking. Steppes have these little butterflies the size of your pinky fingernail. Sometimes the clouds would cover the sky dark and grey... and you could see fork lightning on the horizon... brush fires that would come right up to the road... very otherworldly especially when you get past the global tree line. It's a shame people don't realize how much life lives there... it makes me sad.