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ENVIRONMENT Living on the melting edge: Former Ashlander to share Alaskan experience at Medford presentation Former Ashlander to share Alaskan experience at Medford presentation Comment By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Aug. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated Aug 17, 2015 at 10:20 AM By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Aug. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated Aug 17, 2015 at 10:20 AM » Social News The impacts of global warming — and oil extraction — are most keenly felt in the Arctic, especially by indigenous peoples who get 85 percent of their food and clothing from the environmentally sensitive caribou herds.  So says former Ashlander Dennis Specht, now of Medford. He spent 24 years as an Alaskan fisherman before coming back to Oregon, where he is basing his efforts as an “Arctic advocate,” especially helping — and giving political voice to — the 150 indigenous Gwich’in of Arctic Village, Alaska. The Gwich'in people have lived in the area now known as northeast Alaska to the northern Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada for as long as 20,000 years, according to www.gwichin.org. “Offshore oil and gas are the biggest threat to their way of life,” says Specht, noting that the coastal plains of the state’s north slope are the birthing grounds for some 50,000 caribou, who must migrate the length of the Alaskan Wildlife National Refuge twice a year.  Global warming is melting the region’s permafrost, meaning wolves and bears can’t dig dens — and river banks cave in, fouling rivers and killing fish. Accelerating warmth means caribou are increasingly tortured by flies and mosquitos, he notes, reducing their numbers, and they are impeded by rapidly-growing brush on their migration trails. In addition, winters are wetter and warmer and it rains all summer.  Specht presents his talk, “An Oregonian’s Visit to Arctic Village, Alaska: The Front Line for Climate Change,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, at the Medford Library. It’s free and open to the public. It includes a short video, showing the life, values and struggle of the Gwich’in. The video is also at http://bit.ly/1TGhV7Q. Specht, 67, a masseuse for the last 15 years, has a personal relationship with oil in Alaska: his fishing was wiped out for three years after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. He recently got a reparations check from Exxon for a few hundred dollars, which he split three ways, he says, between Oregon’s two U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and the Alaskan Wilderness League, all for their work against drilling. In guest lectures at Southern Oregon University, Specht says he is always asked why we don’t take alternative energy sources seriously.  “It’s because oil and gas producers have monopolized 80 percent of government subsidies — and they get this money whether they find oil and gas or not,” he says. “If you level that playing field for alternative energies, we would go to alternative energies immediately.”  After the Cold War, Specht has traveled to Russia six times as a “social change activist,” helping make a sister city in Siberia a nuclear-free zone by “teaching them to use democracy against things that poison our world.”  Specht is framing his campaign for the Gwich’in by using the United Nations Convention on Human Rights, which, he notes, brands it “cultural genocide” if indigenous peoples are deprived of the natural resources they need to survive as who they are.  As part of his help to Arctic Village, Specht has donated original caribou art of Christopher Kent, books, mahogany for wood projects, obsidian for knapping tools, DVD documentaries on environmental campaigns, steel bandsaw blades for metalwork projects from Boise-Cascade in Medford and gratis massage sessions by him.  An article on the tribe is at http://bit.ly/1ffwGkq. John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Aug. 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated Aug 17, 2015 at 10:20 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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