Sky Views: The Arctic is on fire and Alaska is failing to act - but there is hope

By Hannah Thomas-Peter, climate change correspondent

The Arctic is on fire.

July may well be the hottest month on record. For the world.

The north of our planet is warming at approximately twice the rate of the global average.

This means that the Arctic permafrost region, the area that has the highest carbon density of anywhere on Earth, is beginning to thaw.

Permafrost is essentially frozen soil, rock, plants and animals.

It is carbon rich because of all the organic material it contains.

As it thaws, that material decomposes, releasing carbon and methane that was previously locked in for millennia.

These are greenhouse gases, which creates the potential for a dangerous accelerated feedback loop of warming - a self-perpetuating cycle of rising temperatures which thaws more permafrost which releases more gases, and so on and so on.

Scientists are scrambling to work out how fast and how destructive this will be if we fail to limit warming.

I'll take a guess.

Very.

The federal government of the United States may not be filling the world with confidence on climate action, but many of America's states are picking up the slack.

So you would think that the governor of Alaska, an area which is currently both on fire and home to millions of acres of melting permafrost, would be falling over himself to fight climate change.

That he would be deeply concerned about the potential effects of a warming planet on coastal communities, fisheries, the broader economy and its future - and deeply concerned at one federal estimate that climate change could cost the state $3bn to $6bn (£2.5bn to £5bn) between 2008 and 2030.

Right?

Nope.

Governor Mike Dunleavy is doing the opposite.

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One of his first acts in office was to remove the "climate action for Alaska" page from his government website.

He disbanded the state's climate response policy team, saying that the group and its personnel were "no longer relevant, have fulfilled their intended purpose, are not aligned with the governor's policy direction, and/or appear to have been made primarily for political or public relations purposes".

He is now in the process of defunding Alaska's state university system, home to world leading Arctic climate science centres and researchers.

It's not much better in Oregon, just a few states south.

There, Republican lawmakers decided to flee rather than vote on a law that would limit carbon emissions.

It ended up being quite a successful strategy - the vote didn't happen.

There is always a "yet" or "but" when it comes to America - a place so huge and diverse I think of it as 50 separate countries stitched together in a slightly uneasy patchwork of awkward neighbours.

Oregon is the same place where a group of children are so far successfully advancing a civil lawsuit against the US government for failing to provide them with a clean environment and a liveable future, thereby denying their constitutional rights.

And other states are showing the world how it is done.

New York, Colorado, New Mexico and Maine are all following the lead set by California in setting aggressive targets for reducing emissions.

And think about how the urgency of the climate crisis is shaping the Democratic 2020 race - where political futures depend on striking the right urgent tone.

So when you read about politics in Alaska, or listen to Donald Trump on climate and despair, or feel frustrated that a country responsible for nearly 15% of global carbon emissions is pulling out of the Paris climate accord, remember that in this vast nation, there is never a single narrative thread to be had. On any story.

The federal government of the United States may not be filling the world with confidence on climate action, but many of America's states are picking up the slack.

Can they make enough of a difference without the weight of the White House?

Let's hope so.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Deborah Haynes - Other nations must help UK secure key waterway amid Iran threat