Global warping: How the world saw Juneau in 2024

Mostly the headlines portray Juneau as a small Alaska coastal town suffering from a deluge of cruise tourists and glacial floods. But it gets kinder cold-season coverage as an underrated winter wonderland for visitors and being the capital city in The Last Frontier always means some eclectic experiences will be reported to readers.

How accurately the world reported on Juneau during the past year is also a mixed story.

More than 60% of Juneau voters in October rejected a ballot measure to ban large cruise ships on Saturdays, but that’s not the impression of the town readers of the U.K. newspaper The Guardian got seeing the Nov. 29 headline “‘We’ve become an amusement park’: the Alaskan town torn apart by cruise ship tourism.” The story, part of a series titled “The real cost of cruises” that offered a harsh overview of the industry, focused most of its coverage on the concerns expressed by people seeking to limit cruise impacts.

Other moments were pure headline hyperbole, including Men’s Journal reporting in early September a “Titanic moment” for a Carnival Cruise ship that struck a small piece of ice in Tracy Arm Fjord that caused no damage or injuries.

But in-depth coverage and analysis came from publications covering major events such as the second straight year of a record glacial outburst flood from Suicide Basin, putting the event into the larger context of climate change impacts and noting about 15 million people worldwide now face the threat of jökulhlaups.

Other times community events and individuals got magnified exposure, such as The New York Times selecting a new Perseverance Theater production among its “15 Shows to See on Stages Around the U.S. This Fall.”

The following is a chronological look at Juneau-related stories covered by media outlets outside Alaska ranging from the largest international publications to specialized independent news websites. The excerpted text is not necessarily from the beginning of the articles and non-continuous sections are noted with ellipses.

In Juneau, Alaska, a carbon offset project that’s actually working

Grist, Jan. 4

Mendenhall is shrinking quickly: The 13-mile-long glacier has retreated about a mile in the past 40 years. Getting all those tourists to Juneau — some 1.5 million this summer by cruise ship alone — requires burning the very thing contributing to its retreat: fossil fuels.

In an effort to mitigate a portion of that CO2, some of those going whale watching or visiting the glacier are asked to pay a few dollars to counter their emissions. The money goes to the Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund, but instead of buying credits from some distant (and questionable) offset project, the nonprofit spends that cash installing heat pumps, targeting residents like Roberts who rely upon oil heating systems.

Heat pumps are “a no-brainer” in Juneau’s mild (for Alaska) winters, said Andy Romanoff, who administers the fund. Juneau’s grid relies on emissions-free hydropower, so electricity is cheaper and less polluting than oil heat. They also save residents money — Roberts said she was paying around $500 a month on heating oil, and has seen her electricity bill climb just $30.

Residents of Alaska’s capital dig out after snowfall for January hits near-record level for the city

Jan. 24, Associated Press

Residents of Alaska’s capital were digging out Wednesday after back-to-back winter storms brought the city’s snowfall totals for the month to near-record levels, leaving some parked cars buried with just side-view mirrors or windshield wipers poking out of the white stuff.

So far this month, 69.2 inches (175 centimeters) of snow have been recorded at the Juneau airport. The record for January was set in 2009 at 75.2 inches (191 centimeters), said Nathan Compton, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Records date to 1936.

Much of the snow so far this year has come from two storms lasting for days.

Would You Buy This? Half-Destroyed Home on Alaska Riverfront Is Listed for $400K

March 8, Realtor.com

You have to appreciate truth in advertising.

In the listing for a $399,900 property in Juneau, AK, the first words are “investment opportunity.”

But beyond the description and price, it’s the listing photos that really tell the tale…

Most of what was once a house 120 feet from the banks of the Mendenhall River is now rubble, after it collapsed into the river on Aug. 5, 2023. Other homes nearby were also threatened and damaged.

Tlingit and Haida delegation came to Denver to reclaim their cultural heritage. They left empty-handed.

April 5, The Denver Post

Tribal representatives say they’re still trying to reclaim their heritage from the Denver Art Museum, 34 years after the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act came into effect. Museum officials have been intransigent, condescending and insensitive in consultations, they allege.

To this day, a host of prized Tlingit cultural objects remain in the museum’s much-celebrated Indigenous Arts collection, despite three formal repatriation claims and numerous delegation visits to Denver’s premier art museum.

“They are probably the worst museum” we have ever dealt with, said Harold Jacobs, the Tlingit and Haida’s cultural resource specialist, who attended the 2017 meetings in Denver.

Alaska set to limit daily number of cruise ship passengers who can visit Juneau

June 6, CBS News

Cruise aficionados looking to experience Alaska’s capital, Juneau, may have to vie for permission to disembark and step foot on land, under a new agreement between the city and major cruise lines that sail there.

The agreement between Juneau and Cruise Lines International Association in Alaska (CLIA), finalized last week, seeks to limit the number of daily cruise passengers who can arrive in Juneau to 16,000 on Sundays through Fridays, and to 12,000 on Saturdays, effective in 2026.

Now the city government has signed a voluntary agreement with the cruise ship industry that caps the number of vessels allowed to dock each day, starting in 2026…

But some locals believe the new limits are insufficient, and are pushing for a ballot measure that would reduce the limit to 250 beds on Saturdays and July 4, effectively banning most passenger ships on those days.

Juneau’s Landslide Crisis Is Looming

June 8, Jacobin

As climate change raises deadly landslide risks, cities like Juneau, Alaska, must grapple with informing the public about safety while weighing property value and insurance concerns. These climate-driven challenges are a foretaste of future difficulties.

Juneau, Alaska – Is This the Last Undiscovered Ski Town in North America?

June 13, Mountain Watch

The main street has a rustic charm and you get the feeling it doesn’t look a hell of a lot different now to when the hunt for gold brought prospectors, including Joe Juneau, this way back in the 1880s when the town was established. Indigenous Tlingit (pron: clink-it) and Haida (pron: high-da) Indian tribes have been fishing these salmon-rich waters for centuries and as you walk through town Tlingit names are on signs, buildings and maps…

Could this be a unicorn; a seriously good ski destination that hasn’t been overrun (yet?) What it doesn’t have ticks a lot of my boxes – no lift lines, no traffic snarls on the 22-minute drive from town, no parking dramas, no wanker attitude and no frills. What it does have is darn good skiing, friendly locals, a huge almost empty ski area and at the end of the day plenty of great old school bars and places to get a great meal back in town.

Alaska city limits cruise passengers after being overwhelmed by tourists

June 19, The Independent

The capital city of Alaska will set new limits on how many cruise ship passengers can visit every day after a post-pandemic deluge of tourism.

Last year the roughly 32,000 residents of Juneau weathered hordes of hikers, schools of whale watchers, and swarms of overflying helicopters as roughly 1.6m visitors in total – or up to 21,000 per day in peak periods – disembarked at the docks.

Alaska glaciers may hit irreversible melting point sooner than expected, study finds

July 2, Reuters

Glaciers in the Juneau Icefield in southeastern Alaska are melting at a faster rate than previously thought and may reach an irreversible tipping point sooner than expected, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Researchers at Newcastle University in England found that glacier loss in the icefield, located just north of Alaska’s capital city of Juneau, has accelerated rapidly since 2010.

Glacier melt is a major contributor to rising sea levels, a threat to coastal settlements worldwide. Current rates of ice melt could result in a permanent decline of Juneau Icefield, researchers said.

A melting Alaska glacier keeps inundating Juneau. Floods are getting worse.

Aug. 7, The Washington Post

The torrent of frigid meltwater that burst from an Alaskan glacier Tuesday and flooded at least 100 homes, swamped cars and forced residents to wade to safety has become a summertime scourge for the residents of Juneau who live in its path — and one with no easy solutions.

Alaska capital takes stock after worst flooding yet caused by retreating glacier

Aug. 8, The Guardian

Residents in Alaska’s capital cleared out waterlogged homes on Wednesday after a lake dammed by the picturesque Mendenhall Glacier gave way, causing the worst flooding in Juneau yet from what has become a yearly phenomenon…

The glacial flooding, however, is a reminder of the global risk from bursting snow-and-ice dams – a phenomenon called a jökulhlaup, which is little known in the US but could threaten about 15 million people around the world.

Alaska Felt Safe From Global Warming. Then the Glacier Melted.

Aug. 9, Slate

First-person narrative by Summer Koester with the subheadline: “What I hope people understand about the record flooding in Juneau.” Original headline was “I Left California Because of Wildfires. Now, My Town Is Dealing With a Whole Other Kind of Disaster.”

The Alaskan Bar Is a Mythic Snapshot of the Real Juneau

Aug. 14, Punch

When people talk about the history of The Alaskan, it is not a chronological narrative of the place, nor is it definitive. Instead, there are more questions than answers. Where did the streetlamp come from? What was going on with those hot tubs in the basement? And who, dear God, takes all the coins from the urinal?

There is a mythic nature to the stories, and a ubiquitous shrugging of shoulders. It’s all true, or none of it. Well, the hot tubs were definitely there. And the bear. At least there’s footage. Supposedly.

When a glacier is no longer a glacier

Aug. 24, The Washington Post

Gideon Brosowsky was excited to see his first glacier, dreaming of massive ice like he saw in the movie “Titanic.” But when the incoming high school junior arrived at Alaska’s Juneau Icefield on a family cruise in August, his expectations sank.

“Okay, where’s the glacier?” he asked. His mom pointed to a “small, dinky piece of ice” on a mountain. He barely recognized the glacier compared with historical pictures in local museums. Even just 20 years ago, the landscape was more impressive.

“I was in disbelief,” Brosowsky said. “I was assuming global warming is starting to eat away at these glaciers little by little, [but the pace was] a lot faster than I expected.”

If this is underwhelming now, he said, imagine what people are going to think in a few decades. It might be gone.

15 Shows to See on Stages Around the U.S. This Fall

Sept. 7, The New York Times

‘COLD CASE’: An Inupiaq woman from a Native village in Alaska battles to retrieve her aunt’s body from an Anchorage morgue in this new play by Cathy Tagnak Rexford (HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country”). The script won the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, whose previous winners include Sanaz Toossi’s “Wish You Were Here.” DeLanna Studi directs. (Sept. 6-22 in Juneau, Alaska, and Oct. 11-20 in Anchorage; Perseverance Theater)

Carnival Cruise Ship Grazes Iceberg While Sailing in Alaska, Causing Passenger Panic

Sept. 11, Men’s Journal

A Carnival Cruise Line ship traveling through Tracy Arm Fjord, south of the city of Juneau, Alaska, struck a small iceberg last week. The waterway is known for its breathtaking views as well as floating pieces of ice, as passengers learned all too well.

Thankfully no one was injured in the collision and there were no damages to the ship, but video posted to social media captured the harrowing incident.

Cassandra Goskie, a passenger on the ship, posted video to TikTok of the accident that occurred last week on Sept. 5. “If we die it was damn well worth it … it’s a Titanic moment,” Goskie can be heard narrating the video, before letting out an exaggerated scream as the ship was seen plowing right through the floating chunk of ice.

Juneau ranks 11th among 20 most expensive towns with populations between 10,000 and 50,000

Sept. 23, The New York Times

Only one of the 20 most expensive micropolitan areas had a median home value of less than four times the area’s median income: Los Alamos, N.M., at 3.04. In the other 19 places, it ranged from 4.2 times greater (Juneau, Alaska) to 10.7 times greater (Vineyard Haven), unaffordable to almost everyone.

‘Not our border’: How a colonial line shapes Tlingit lands — and my own ancestor’s role in it

Sept. 26, IndigiNews

Sitting beside me in a 10-metre-long fibreglass canoe painted with Tlingit designs, Ben Coronell explains why he’s joined this journey paddling from “Canada” across the international border southwest to Dzántik’i Héeni (“Juneau, Alaska”).

Coronell, who is Tlingit from the “U.S.” side of the boundary, says he set out with the Taku River Tlingit — or T’aaḵú Ḵwáan — on the trip’s second day hoping to reconnect with his relatives in “Canada.”

“120 years ago, we didn’t think in terms of borders,” he says.

Juneau Alaska Rejects Cruise Ship Ban Despite Eco-Outcry

Oct. 20, gCaptain

The New York Times reports that from Venice, Amsterdam and Greece to Key West and Maine, cities are increasingly scrutinizing the overwhelming presence of cruise ships. Juneau, Alaska, is the latest example. With a population of just 32,000 and a staggering 1.65 million cruise visitors last year, the city recently voted on whether to ban cruise ships on Saturdays. The proposal, dubbed “Ship-Free Saturdays,” was rejected, with 6,575 voting against the ban and 4,196 in favor.

For a town that plays host to as many as 20,000 cruise passengers per day during peak season, the rejection highlights a growing tension between the environmental concerns and the economic lifeline that cruise ships represent. As Laura Murray, a local resident who opposed the ban, said, “The ship pollution and excessive visitor traffic is very real, but banning them for an entire day is not the answer.”

Scientists are mapping landslide risk in Alaska. Some homeowners don’t want to know.

Oct. 21, The New York Times

The region’s challenging landscape means housing is in short supply while emergency managers, forecasters and other experts encourage more towns to adopt hazard maps that show what land might be susceptible to sliding. The knowledge might save lives, but it could also limit what pockets of development are still possible.

Scientists are finding out some people don’t want it. Residents of Juneau, the state capital and the region’s biggest city at just over 31,000 people, convinced assembly members in the city to vote against adopting the maps, claiming they could lower their property values. “You have something that for many people is their biggest investment,” said Shawn Eisele, a Juneau resident, referring to homeowners in his neighborhood. “If you create a landslide zone, that’s a huge impact on those people.”

Chick-fil-A employees fulfill Texas couple’s all-American dream: ‘Bucket list’

Nov. 8, New York Post

Bill and Becky Chilcutt spent the last two decades traveling to every state capitol in the country — and had one left on their list when Bill Chilcutt’s terminal cancer halted the planned trip.

The couple, who are frequent visitors of a Chick-fil-A location in Houston, Texas, were feeling defeated when the unthinkable happened.

Employees at the Chick-fil-A Market in Springwoods Village contacted the Alaska State Capitol — the last stop on the Chilcutts’ bucket list — to see if there was a way for the Chilcutts to visit the capitol without physically being there.

‘We’ve become an amusement park’: the Alaskan town torn apart by cruise ship tourism

Nov. 29, The Guardian

The rhythm of the cruise season dictates daily life for Juneau’s 32,000 residents. Local people monitor the schedule provided by the Alaska Cruise Ship Association and avoid the centre during peak cruise hours. Traditional seasons have been replaced by two distinct periods: cruise and non-cruise…

Karla Hart, a former tourism business owner turned activist, is at the centre of a political fight that has divided the community. She spearheaded Proposition 2, a ballot initiative aimed at banning cruise ships on Saturdays and 4 July. In October, it was defeated by a margin of about 60/40, with approximately 10,000 people voting, more than in the mayoral election, which took place at the same time. “We’ve become an amusement park,” Hart says. “The soul of Juneau is being sold off piece by piece…”

The cruise industry is one of the fastest-growing tourism sectors, with more than 30 million people choosing cruises each year, according to the latest report from the Cruise Lines International Association. The industry promotes frontier tourism – visiting remote and “exotic” locations – with ships going into regions such as the Arctic, South Pacific and Galápagos Islands. Prof Jackie Dawson of the University of Ottawa termed the idea of seeing wildlife and habitat before they disappear as “last-chance tourism”. Others have labelled it extinction tourism.

Mary McGee, Motorcycle Racing Pioneer, Is Dead at 87

Dec. 4: The New York Times

Mary McGee, a risk-loving motorcycle rider who was often the only woman on the tracks she raced on — and certainly the only one wearing a pink polka-dot helmet — died on Nov. 27 at her home in Gardnerville, Nevada. She was 87.

Her family announced the death on social media. Their statement did not specify a cause, but The Associated Press reported it as complications of a stroke.

McGee died the day before ESPN released “Motorcycle Mary,” a 22-minute biographical documentary, on its YouTube channel. The movie chronicles McGee’s years as one of the few female racecar drivers and the sole woman in motorcycle racing.

Allure of Student-Created Viral Videos Is Fueling Vicious Brawls at U.S. Schools

Dec. 15: The New York Times

Across the United States, technology centered on cellphones — in the form of text messages, videos and social media — has increasingly fueled and sometimes intensified campus brawls, disrupting schools and derailing learning. The school fight videos then often spark new cycles of student cyberbullying, verbal aggression and violence…

A New York Times review of more than 400 fight videos from schools in California, Georgia, Texas and a dozen other states — as well as interviews with three dozen school leaders, teachers, police officers, pupils, parents and researchers — found a pattern of middle and high school students exploiting phones and social media to arrange, provoke, capture and spread footage of brutal beatings among their peers. In several cases, students later died from the injuries…

“Cellphones and technology are the No. 1 source of soliciting fights, advertising fights, documenting — and almost glorifying — fights by students,” said Kelly Stewart, an assistant principal at Juneau-Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska. “It is a huge issue.”

Alaska in Winter: Reveling in a Playground of Ice and Snow

Dec. 16: The New York Times

To boost my luck last winter, I relocated to Juneau, the capital of Alaska, for a month. Though better known as a cruise port welcoming 1.6 million ship passengers annually between May and October, it’s also a ski town in the low (and budget-friendly) season…

Climate-wise, Juneau is renowned for rain. Surrounded by the Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest contiguous temperate rainforest, the destination gets 230 days of rain a year, some of them in winter.

But when the conditions are right, the rain turns to snow and freshwater to ice, creating a wonderland for winter fans, like me, who appreciate downhill and cross-country skiing as well as skating, hiking, cultural diversions off-piste and culinary intrigue after dark.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.