Climate change is a polarizing, two-word combo but did you know about Russian America?
Did You Know?
Dr Katherine Hayhoe is a Canadian, Christian, climate scientist based in Texas. That’s a mouthful of what seems like an oxymoron. She was named by TIME as one of the top 100 Influential People and one of Fortune’s 50 Greatest World Leaders. She shared the following 14 facts about recent climate change outcomes. 
1. Global warming is affecting our food.
2. Cocao prices tripled last year.
3. It is contributing to rising food prices world-wide.
4. Bananas will be harder to grow in a warmer world and coffee supply is also at risk. 
5. Warmer waters are making fish smaller.
6. Higher levels of carbon pollution in the air is making many fruits and vegetables less nutritious.
7. Tiger mosquitoes that spread diseases including dengue, West Nile, and Chikungunya thrive in a warmer world.
8. In addition to causing over 8 million premature deaths each year, particulate pollution from burning fossil fuels is also responsible for up to a third of premature births worldwide.
9. In 2024 more than three quarters of people experienced at least 31 days of extreme heat that were “made at least two times more likely due to human-caused climate change, a new report found.
10. The extreme heat caused the deaths of some 1,300 pilgrims during this year’s Hajj.
11. It’s getting so hot in some places that “bridges can literally fall apart like Tinkertoys,” a civil engineer said.
12. 2024 saw the deadliest Atlantic hurricane season in nearly 20 years, with some communities in the Carolinas not regaining power and water for weeks afterwards.
13. Devastating floods in the Philippines and Spain were also super-sized by climate change. Increasing extreme weather risk is driving up insurance prices and causing insurers to pull out of some areas of California, Florida, and Louisiana entirely.
14. One analysis estimated that all the carbon we’ve already emitted will depress global income by 19 percent.
Russian America?
As if climate change isn’t enough to get you going, how about Russian America?
Flag of Russian America
Did you know that from 1732 to 1867, the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas? Russian colonial possessions in the Americas were collectively known as Russian America.
The Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur-bearing mammals on Alaska’s coast. In 1795, the first group of Orthodox Christian missionaries began to arrive, evangelizing thousands of Native Americans, many of whose descendants continue to maintain the religion.
By the middle of the 19th century, profits from Russia’s North American colonies were in steep decline. Faced with the reality of periodic Native American revolts, the political ramifications of the Crimean War, and unable to fully colonize the Americas to their satisfaction, the Russians concluded that their North American colonies were too expensive to retain. After less than a month of negotiations, the United States accepted Emperor Alexander II’s offer to sell Alaska for $7.2 million, ending Imperial Russia’s colonial presence in the Americas.
And now you know.
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