Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing Princeton Times series, Thinking Green.

PRINCETON — On the surface, West Virginia and Alaska may not seem that similar, but they both have a lot to lose if the world keeps getting warmer.

Deborah L. Williams, a representative of Alaska Conservation Solutions, has made it her mission to make sure the nation knows what’s happened in her home state with just a 4-degree rise in temperature in recent decades. Two years ago, she started touring the nation, working to fulfill her “moral obligation” to stem what she calls dramatic and adverse consequences of the increasing carbon dioxide emissions that insulate the earth.

Friday, she shared her observations with Princeton Rotarians and called on them to join the effort to keep the world cool.

“We’re at a fork in the road, and we can choose, now, which way we’re going to go in the future,” she said.

And, though Alaska and West Virginia are far apart on the map, Williams said they share common links that could be in greater jeopardy the higher temperatures rise.

“West Virginia and Alaska are both beautiful, mountainous, biologically rich states. Our people enjoy a rich history of hunting and fishing and are very proud of our wildlife. We both enjoy coldwater fishing, and both states are fossil fuel-producing,” she said.

However, much of that is fading, or thawing, in Alaska.

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Global warming could turn into the biggest national security danger the United States has ever known, in Williams’ estimation, because it could affect food supply, habitats worldwide, job availability and much more.

Though most of the world has only registered an estimated 1-degree increase, on average, since the Industrial Revolution, Alaska has warmed 3-5 degrees on average. Winters there have registered 7-10 degrees higher than what was once normal.

“We are the melting tip of the iceberg,” Alaska Conservation Solutions’ website states, but Williams said it a little differently.

“Alaskans are the Paul Reveres of global warming,” she said, explaining that this time, they would be warning, “Take action now. The BTUs are coming.”

Scientists during the Industrial Revolution theorized that emissions that began increasing at that time helped hold heat to the earth.

Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and more acted like a cover or comforter that held heat within the planet’s atmosphere. Then, carbon dioxide made up approximately 280 parts per million of the atmosphere, and researchers theorized that doubling the carbon dioxide emissions would increase the world’s temperature an average of 5-6 degrees.

Today, Williams said humans have increased the emissions approximately 35 percent and are on course to continue increasing the portion of carbon dioxide two to three parts per year unless we change our course.

“We’re increasing the insulation of our atmosphere,” she said.

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Since the 1970s, Alaska’s sprawling forests have slowed their growth cycles and fallen victim to record-breaking fire seasons and new pests that attack their hardwoods.

“They don’t like warmer temperatures, and they don’t like having less water. Some years, the trees just didn’t grow,” Williams said.

In recent seasons, she said Alaska lost 11.2 million acres of forest to fires due to drier conditions and warmer temperatures she attributed to the warming trend.

Another 4 million acres were destroyed by a bud worm that has become uncontrollable without winters harsh enough to stall their progress.

By comparison, Williams said West Virginia only has 15 million acres of forests in the state. The entire hardwood and forestry industry right now is less than the acreage lost in Alaska already.

“These are jobs, and this is your environment,” she said.

More than the trees have experienced the toll in Alaska.

Williams said Polar bears are increasingly starving or turning to cannibalism in the absence of food, and a warmer-than-usual summer in 2004 led to a dramatic decrease in the pink salmon harvest. The numbers sunk from 52 million the year before to just 11 million after the heat wave.

Trout Unlimited experts fear the same fate could hit West Virginia waterways. Williams said the mainstream organization estimates 97 percent of Appalachia’s coldwater fish will disappear by the end of the century, unless humans change the course.

The warmer temperatures have also caused the sea ice to shrink. It’s now an estimated 23 percent smaller than in 1979, Williams said, and that’s important to the world.

“Every square inch of ice we lose up here warms the earth more,” she said.

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Though each person can help the situation by reducing his or her carbon footprint, Williams said the most pressing need currently is for federal legislation that mandates reduced emissions and ways to pay for cleaner energy research and technology.

Specifically, she supported the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Bill. The bill would require cuts in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from electric utilities, transportation and manufacturing, accounting for about three-fourths of U.S emissions.

It would also cap greenhouse gases at the 2005 emission level and gradually reduce them 15 percent by 2020, continuing the decrease from there through 2050.

The measure also allocates funding to research, design and develop technologies to sequester carbon dioxide coal products, making West Virginia’s biggest natural resource much cleaner to consume.

The Lieberman-Warner bill earmarks billions in federal spending to promote domestic energy sources that can be used cleanly.

“That is good for West Virginia. If you want the coal industry to grow, you need this legislation, very candidly,” Williams said.

With two key Senate votes in Sen. Robert C. Byrd and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Williams said West Virginians have a strong voice on the issue.

Saturday, Rockefeller stopped in Princeton and listed climate concerns as one of his top legislative priorities, also calling for action on a federal level. Without it, he said the climate trend was “not going to have a good result.”

“It’s not going to have a good result faster than we think it will,” he said.

For more information, visit www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.