i m in alaska s state capital ofjuneau. it s a place dominated by nature, which can have a big impact here as i m about to find out. i ve been reliably informed that, given the terrain around here, these things are basically like taxis. got an eight minute flight. i ve never been in a helicopter! let s go! i m meeting up with university of alaska southeast scientists, eran hood and abby watts. oh, man, i m so excited! they ve invited me to tag along as they conduct their research on the changing environment here. oh, yes, here we go! just look out there. 0h, we re going to be in for such a fun time. so, we re just coming into view now of mendenhall glacier, which is about 13 miles wide incredible. and it s one of the many thousands of glaciers in alaska. this basin that we re coming into all this area that s collapsed this was completely full of water. and it all rushed out underneath the glacier down into juneau. last summer, water amounting to about 30,000 0lympic s