Climate Update: The Capital City of Alaska Sees More Serious Flooding Every Year As a Result of Climate Change

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

Here is another news story quite clearly related to a generally warming climate which it feels necessary to get people to pay attention to.

There is a natural glacier in Alaska, near the capital city of Juneau, which served as a natural kind of a dam, holding back some water. in recent years, however, because of warming temperatures, this glacier has been melting noticeably. There have been issues with the nearby city of Juneau flooding in recent years, but the problem is apparently growing more extreme as more and more of that glacial ice continues to melt. 

Here's a snippet from a New York Times article by Raymond Zhong from yesterday, in which he describes, specifically, the dire situation:

Early Wednesday, as the basin drained once more, the Mendenhall River peaked at a height of 16.65 feet, exceeding a record set last year. 

Now again, it bears repeating that it flooding is nothing new. It has been happening consistently for almost a decade and a half now. But the levels of the flooding is growing more extreme, as the glacial ice which previously served as a natural dam is melting (according to the same article):

Such floods have been a recurring problem in Juneau since 2011, but recent years have seen record-setting surges as rising temperatures cause glaciers in the area to melt more rapidly. Alaska has warmed faster than the global average, and the fastest of any state, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

This leads to a more extreme problem this year. The city of Juneau, Alaska, is seeing more serious floods with each passing year as the melting of the  Mendenhall Glacier which previously served almost as a natural, makeshift dam which held back the water from the Mendenhall River in Alaska now is eroding. 

The result is predictable: a “major flood” stage as of Wednesday (yesterday as I write this). 

Certain regions spread across the United States have recently seen massive flooding unlike anything seen before. It happened in Texas, in New York and New Jersey, in Wisconsin, and now in Alaska. Meanwhile, massive and relentless heatwaves (numerous both across North America and Europe) keep bringing new record hot temperatures across those continents, and the Far East in Asia just got past a record heatwave that ushered in record hot temperatures and conditions in Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam. Oh, and stunning levels of flooding in China, India, and Pakistan. 

No, this is not normal.

Again, it's time to start connecting the dots and acknowledging the reality of climate change. The time for debate is over. Now, it's time to start taking action while we still can (assuming that we still can). 

Alaskan River Reaches Record High From Melting Glacier by Raymond Zhong, August 13, 2025:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/climate/alaska-juneau-flood-glacier.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwY2xjawMKO8pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHgNDC0hTuE4nq7Shb5MVFuzE5dTt2qd0UmdzKACoxaGhIGwzEME2yPF_XLai_aem_UdYpbrkqdFYlvK-MjTJYtg