Fires bring a crow feast

The massive forest fires attributed to climate-change-induced dry spells is forcing a lot of people to eat crow — and I’m one.

Most people’s crow special is due to years of doubting that global warming is really serious enough to cause problems for humans. Mine was for thinking that Alaska’s natural gas reserves could make a major difference.

I did some research that I should have done before. And it actually seems unlikely, when you look at other reserves, that Alaska could make much of a difference. Many countries have large gas reserves, some that dwarf Alaska’s.

The state of Alaska is itself physically large but its gas reserves aren’t that big by comparison to others. Alaska’s state government says we have 45 trillion cubic feet of gas already discovered and a lot more yet to be found. But the feds estimate our gas reserves at something more like 6.6 trillion cubic feet.

Either way our total is dwarfed by Russia, which has about 1,700 trillion cubic feet, the largest of any nation. And Russia is right next door. Granted, Russia could be inflating its numbers as well.

But even within the United States we don’t rank that high. Alaska is listed 12th among the 50 states in reserves of natural gas. Topping the list is Texas, which has something north of 140 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. The top five also includes Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Ohio.

And one of the embarrassing things about my claim that Alaska could be a major player in the gas business is that we in the 49th state might even be our only customer unless we can sell some to Hawaii and a few odd places around the Pacific Rim.

The other 11 states in the big 12 are all in what we call the Lower 48. That means they are all much closer to American markets than Alaska, and the shipping distance would be minuscule by comparison. So the best market for Alaska gas could well be Alaskans.

There is one other big option and that is something like the deal Governor Bill Walker tried to put together with China to sell Alaska gas to the Chinese market. That could well be a possibility someday since China doesn’t have enough gas for its own needs. But Walker’s deal fell through and currently looks like a long shot. And China isn’t being very friendly to the U.S. these days.

Another big and related item on people’s minds these days is the huge forest fires that are burning up major portions of the western states, killing people and destroying property.

{span}Some people are claiming that the forest fires are partially the result of global warming. Experts say the fires are also spurred by insect infestations, forest management and farming practices as well as atmospheric warming from the burning of fossil fuels. {/span}

The climate is indeed warming and has been ever since the last ice age — and warming has been accelerating in recent years because of humans burning fossil fuels. The air pollution resulting from that combustion is almost certainly goosing natural warming enough to create some climatic problems. That likely includes worsening forest fires.

A lot of people refuse to believe that human activities are generating enough pollution to really cause problems like rising oceans and the forest fires, but I’m ready to concede that it is a reality. Don’t tell Donald Trump I said so.

Pass me the salt and I’ll try a wing of that crow.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of five books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.