Matthew Druckenmiller

You were the lead editor of the 2025 Arctic report card that found the region is warming nearly three times as fast as the rest of the world. What findings stood out the most to you? 
The Arctic was both the warmest it’s ever been on record, as well as the wettest it’s ever been. Water’s just moving in and out and across the Arctic in a much faster way. 

Your report talked about “rusting rivers.”  
This is a phenomenon that stretches across the Arctic. As the permafrost, which is the perennially frozen ground, thaws, it mobilizes metals, and some of those metals are oxidized and the oxidation is what gives the rivers that orange color. It has implications for fish and also for communities downstream that rely on those rivers for drinking water.  

How has the warming trend affected the people of the Arctic? 
The warming is causing infrastructure to collapse, not only public infrastructure but also personal infrastructure, people’s homes. There are a number of villages that in the long term realize they need to relocate.  

Why should the larger world care about the warming trend in the Arctic?  
We have a lot to learn from working with Arctic peoples. In most of the world, we are divorced from our local environments, at least in terms of how we make decisions. It’s not the case in the Arctic. People up here, they make decisions that are tied every day to what’s happening outside their window. And I think that provides a lesson for all of us.  

Do you ever have the feeling that nobody’s listening?  
I never get the feeling that nobody’s listening. I worry that the right people, the most influential people, aren’t listening.  

What gives you hope?  
There are many smart people out there on both sides of the aisle who see that it’s not only climate in a broad conceptual sense. It’s extreme weather, it’s loss of infrastructure, it is human lives. I think there is strength within Congress to keep scientific agencies well funded and committed to their mission.   

What do you hope to accomplish as an Arctic Innovation Fellow? 
Dartmouth is really able to convene experts in a way that other universities aren’t. And I think what’s really needed in the Arctic space is bringing different experts together to chart a course for the future of Arctic research.