Seriousness about climate change amid a festive backdrop

The lead character depicted in the last of the one-act plays at the Climate Fair for a Cooler Planet on Saturday was none other than James Hansen, noted NASA researcher and climate scientist best known for his prescient testimony before the U.S. Congress in 1988.

Hansen, played by Juneau actress Natalia Spengler, was also an ideal protagonist for the annual event, held from 3 to 5 p.m. at Overstreet Park. The goal of 350Juneau and Theater Alaska, which co-produce the event, is to mix creative content with science to engage people about the severity of the climate crisis.

“The partnership with 350Juneau shows that as artists we can contribute to raising awareness and helping our nation think about climate change,” said Flordelino Lagundino, producing artistic director of Theater Alaska. “It’s a nice mashup.”

In all, there were 10 acts, four of them plays. The other performances included music, poetry and dance. The Juneau Dance Theater gave a presentation of “New Season Re-creation” by Viktor Bell.

The somber high point was when they put a podium and a microphone for individuals to make pledges about how they would personally contribute to a solution. Each time someone finished the group repeated “for the sake of our children.”

The climate fair aims to get people inspired to help work for change without leaving them in the fetal position. At the same time, the situation is dire, said Michael Tobin, a member of the board of 350Juneau, and an organizer of the event.

The Hansen play, which he wrote, included poster board props held by Conor Lendrum, a Theater Alaska actor. The first featured a chart based on NASA data showing the rise of CO2 over 800,000 years, which goes up like a rocket at the end. The other showed the rise in temperature during the last 2,000 years as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of the United Nations.

“It’s impossible to ignore that this year’s fair is in the context of big changes in our planetary system,” Tobin said. “We know the cause of all of it — it’s the burning of fossil fuels.”

The theme for this year’s fair: No Fossil Fuel Expansion. The group is focusing on two key things germinating in Alaska, Tobin said.

The first is the Willow project, a huge oil field project planned by ConocoPhillips on the North Slope. The other is the proposed Alaska LNG Project, also on the North Slope. Various speakers addressed both of those potential projects and there were plenty of handouts about ways to get involved.

If those projects move forward — and they are a ways off if they do — it’s alarming officials are even considering them, Tobin said, adding the damage they would do is catastrophic given conditions now.

More to the point, he said, it isn’t necessary. According to a 2021 report by the United Nations climate panel, reserves already in production or under development are sufficient to meet power needs during the transition to renewable energy.

Tobin listed examples of land heat records being broken and never-before-seen ocean temperatures before turning to the climate issues most visible in Juneau, which is the hazy skyline.

The origin of the smoke causing it could be one of three places, he said, “mainland Alaska, the Yukon Territory of Canada, or Northern British Columbia.” He thinks it’s the latter, largely because he had friends just return with first-person accounts.

Most people at the fair said they planned to attend, but some just wandered in, like Chris Fredell. He lived in Juneau for 20 years and is just moving back to Alaska, this time to Gustavus. In town to visit family and friends, he chanced upon the fair.

“It’s exciting to return here and see that Juneau, with its social action and issue awareness, is still the same impressive community,” he said.

• Contact Meredith Jordan at meredith.jordan@juneauempire.com or (907) 615-3190.