What would you do if you could create the future? Put on your superhero cape and change the course of history? First, you would want to look around in the ‘Now’ to know what you have to work with. “The Future is Now” unit on Sustainable Energy and Climate Change gives you a real look at today’s resource problems and solutions on our swiftly changing planet.

This is more than a Far North Eco-adventure, it is a chance to learn leadership and technology tools for shaping your own future. Using the University of Alaska campus as a hub, students will get a chance to soak up wild Fairbanks and its environs. Our group will travel off campus on a series of adventures to seek out the local eco-technology, the extraordinary, and the endangered. Overnight destinations will range from roughing it on campout in Denali National Park, to relaxing at world class Chena Hotsprings Resort.

In the sub-arctic, people are facing challenges today that communities in lower latitudes will have to face tomorrow. Our frozen, isolated landscape is feeling the effects of warming temperatures and dwindling energy resources, and we are rising to the challenge. Since the first step begins at home, ‘The Future is Now’ students will begin by assessing their own carbon impact using a carbon footprint/questionnaire model, and discover the tools which allow us to quantify impacts to our environment such as carbon credits.

Throughout the session, students will meet local pioneers in renewable energy and have hands on experience using tools and techniques to combat climate change. They will learn how geothermal and hydrogen energy are generated, create solar water heaters and panels with their own hands and participate in local sustainable technology projects.  We will experience carbon-neutral technologies by helping construct straw bale buildings in local Fairbanks area, and tour a local biodiesel cooperative where fuel is being made out of used vegetable oil. We will travel to places and meet people who create the future everyday; sustainably and with their own two hands. Along the journey students will visit the Alaska Interior’s wild and frozen environment and learn about the vectors of climate change, and the incredible phenomena that are at stake, like permafrost, native cultures, and arctic wildlife.
 
“The Future is Now”, let’s get started already! 
 

Dr. Jo Mongrain is a professor in Petroleum Engineering with a broad interest in alternative energy. She thinks Alaska is an exciting place to work on developing new energy solutions. We won’t stop producing oil and gas in the near future but it should become just one of many approaches used to provide clean, safe and cheap energy to people around the world whilst minimizing the impact on our environment.

Amy Tippery is a MS Marine Biology candidate in her third year at UAF, investigating the effects of climate change on seagrass ecosystems at extreme northern latitudes. After receiving her BS in Environmental Sciences from the Evergreen State College in 1997, she went on to work for positive progress in her backyard of the Puget Sound. Collaborating with state and non-profit agencies, Amy has been helping farmers, school groups, and neighborhoods to restore streams and wetlands, mentoring girls to take on outdoor leadership through rock climbing with Passages Northwest, and exploring the outdoors in Washington. Her newfound hobby of SCUBA joins the favorites list beside botany, rock climbing, hiking and exploring. Raised on an island, Amy has always loved tide pool gazing and could put Indiana Jones out of a job with her Bull Kelp whips: discovering the mysteries of ocean and shore has been a life priority. Her favorite quote is the wise passage by Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."