Auliya McCauley-Hartner, program specialist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, came to Wrangell in late January to help set up a traveling exhibit, named Real People, Real Climate, Real Changes, at the Nolan Center. It focuses on the changing climate and has only been transported by ground, until now.
“Alaska is really unique in that for this stop in Wrangell, it had to travel on a barge,” she said. “That’s the first time that it ever has.”
The exhibit is a collaboration between the National Science Foundation and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
“What we’re trying to get at is that we know our environment is changing, and some of those changes we’re not ready for or we don’t want to happen,” McCauley-Hartner said. “So what can we do?”
There’s two parts to the exhibit.
The first presents individual stories about how people, like farmers, are experiencing our warming climate right now. The second part goes over what people can do to limit or mitigate the impacts of a climate crisis.
The interactive exhibit challenges people to be creative and proactive about what they can do.
McCauley-Hartner said the exhibit tends to focus on the contiguous U.S., so to fix that they made specialized panels for each community it will visit.
“It’s called the Regions of Alaska panel and we’ve interviewed locals,” she said. “We’ve interviewed researchers, people here that have experienced Alaska and the environment and created a panel that talks about those unique experiences.”
But those local panels won’t arrive in Wrangell until mid-February — the rest of the exhibit got here early.
McCauley-Hartner said a couple factors played a role in bringing the exhibit to Wrangell.
“Wrangell is really interesting,” she said. “Originally, we were planning on coming here just because it was along the cruise line, but once we started talking with folks from Wrangell, it’s evident that this is a community that is really the community, and the economy is tied heavily with its environment.”
She said their decision about where the exhibit goes is really about who it would have the most impact on. She said another factor was Nolan Center Director Jeanie Arnold’s enthusiasm for bringing the exhibit to town.
“The biggest part of my excitement was just the exposure to our community members and especially to our children,” Arnold said. “There are components to this exhibit that are interactive and they’re hands on.”
She said these types of exhibits are usually in cities, so it was a major appeal to bring it here.
“It’s bright, it’s really beautiful. It works very well in our space,” Arnold said. “I’m excited about it. I think the information is great, and its relative.”
Former Wrangellite Sean Kelly will be at the Nolan Center on February 22 to present on the climate. He now teaches at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“I think he wants to be able to relate it to Wrangell specifically and kind of tie everyone in that way,” Arnold said. “Then on the 21st we are going to be inviting as many of the classes through here that we can organize and manage and Sean Kelly will also be kind of leading that.”
Wrangell is the exhibit’s first stop in Alaska. It will head to Fairbanks in March, then on to Anchorage and Homer, before leaving the state in November.
Real People, Real Climate, Real Changes will be at the Nolan Center until March 5.
