With Fairbanks-area local, Jeff Reid, finishing under the Burled Arch in Nome on March 16th, the 2024 Iditarod is complete with twenty-nine of the original thirty-eight mushers finishing the entire race. This year was an eventful race with more than one record broken, tragic dog deaths on the trail for the first time in years, snowmachine harassment of the mushers, and a competitive race full of veterans and rookies.

We live beside pristine nature and are aware that, by most measures, our state is feeling the effects of global warming four times faster than elsewhere in the world, all while funding this existence by pumping gas and oil. But the first step in addressing these problems is to be informed, so I wanted to share my research regarding our current state of affairs in this petrostate we call home. And between the approval of the Willow Project last spring, followed this fall by reneging of permits and the implementation of protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) this fall, there’s a lot to catch up on.