research - global warming effects

info on global warming effect on NT


http://www.willstegerfoundation.org/baffin-island-expedition-2007/a-guide-to-baffin-island
Saturday, 12 January 2008 02:52
The Inuit Voice
Written By: Baffin Island Expedition
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The world is changing rapidly for the Inuit, becoming a place they no longer recognize. In some cases, they do not even have the language to describe what is happening to them – species are appearing that they have never seen before. Their food sources are disappearing. The weather is changing rapidly. The landscape is changing as well, with rising water levels and melting permafrost. Global warming is an environmental injustice against the Inuit and poses one of the greatest threats their culture has ever faced. Here are quotes from Inuit residents of Baffin Island and the Northwest Territories, telling their experiences in their own words:

“Global warming is getting stronger every year. In the past, when lakes freeze over with ice some people would be jigging for fish. Now it takes longer for lakes to freeze. There used to be ice that never melted. Now there are more of them melting due to earth warming up. It is not like it used to be.” –Pauloosie Nakoolak, Coral Harbour (Northwest Territories, Canada)

“It’s usually in springtime before the ice breaks up that a seal spends time basking on the ice. At that time they are going through the moulting stage. But if the ice breaks up early, then the moulting is incomplete; therefore the hair will be old and brownish in colour. I will know right away that the moulting phase was disrupted by early ice breakup.” –Inusiq Nasalik, Pangnirtung (Baffin Island, Canada)

“Right now the weather is unpreductale. In the older days, the elders used to predict the weather and they were always right, but right now, when they try to predict the weather, it’s always something different.” –Z. Aqqiaruq, Iglulik (Baffin Island, Canada)

“Long ago, there was always ice all summer. You would see the [multiyear ice] all summer. Ice was moving back and forth this time of year. Now, no ice. Should be [multiyear]. You used to see that old ice coming from the west side of Sachs. No more. Now between Victoria Island and Banks Island, there is open water. Shouldn’t be that way.” –Frank Kudlak, Sachs Harbour (Northwest Territories, Canada)

“When there is lots of ice, you don’t worry too much about storms. You get out there and travel in between the ice [floes]. But last few years there has been no ice. So if it storms, you can’t get out…” –Andy Carpenter, Sachs Harbour (Northwest Territories, Canada)


Click here to view Inuit Observations on Climate Change, a documentary produced by the International Institute for Sustainable Development.


Sources:

"Traditional Knowledge," by Susan Sang, WWF Arctic Bulletin, No. 304
The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

Published in A Guide to Baffin Island

Felix : " the changes that the locals have noticed over the years are mainly associated with climate. The ice is getting thinner and open water areas are increasing in number, so that their hunting strategies have to change."

climate change
projects/ what schools can do:
http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/section-BG/BG_HS_15_O_E.html
http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/section-BG/BG_HS_17_O_E.html
http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/section-BG/B3_HighSchool_Outline.html

An interesting document from 2003, by Departament of Environment - Climate Change Strategies for Nunavut: http://www.gov.nu.ca/env/Climate%20Change%20Full%20English%20low.pdf

http://www.gov.nu.ca/env/ccb.pdf

Warmer arctic current for 2 000 years - study
2011-01-28 09:03


Oslo - A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2 000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed.
Scientists said that waters at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, averaged 6°C in recent summers, warmer than at natural peaks during Roman or Medieval times.
"The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2 000 years," lead author Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, said of the study in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait, have risen from an average 5.2°C from 1890 - 2007 and about 3.4°C in the previous 1 900 years.
The findings were a new sign that human activities were stoking modern warming since temperatures are above past warm periods linked to swings in the sun's output that enabled, for instance, the Vikings to farm in Greenland in Medieval times.

Ocean heat
"We found that modern Fram Strait water temperatures are well outside the natural bounds," Thomas Marchitto, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the authors, said in a statement.
The Fram strait is the main carrier of ocean heat to the Arctic.
The authors wrote that the warming temperatures "are presumably linked to the Arctic amplification of global warming" and that the warming "is most likely another key element in the transition to a future ice-free Arctic Ocean".

Ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank to its lowest on record in 2007 and many experts expect the ocean will be ice-free in summers in coming decades, a threat to the hunting livelihoods of indigenous peoples and to creatures such as polar bears.

The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the global average as part of a trend the UN panel of climate scientists blames on a build-up of greenhouse gases from mankind's use of fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.
The shrinking of reflective ice and snow in the Arctic region exposes water or ground which are darker coloured and so soak up more heat from the sun, amplifying warming.
- Reuters

Climate deal: Why should I care?
2009-10-14 12:18
The global economy is still is bad shape, people are worried about their jobs and just paying the bills is a major challenge, hardly the right environment to get people focusing on climate change.
With so much to worry about, it can be hard to understand all the fuss about reaching a tougher UN climate deal in December in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
Following are some questions and answers on the importance of crafting a new agreement from 2013.

What does it mean to me?
A new deal will change the way energy is used, priced and created. In short, it will change the global economy.
Scientists say rich nations must find ways to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from power stations and steel mills to refineries and transport to prevent dangerous climate change.

For you and me, this will most likely mean higher fuel and electricity bills, while catching a plane will also become more expensive, as will buying imported food and drink. Insurance premiums covering storm damage or other natural disasters are also likely to rise.

In short, we'll be forced to make tougher lifestyle choices.

The flip side is that governments will help make renewable energy and greener transport more attractive, allowing people to make the switch to cleaner alternatives.
Wind farms, solar, plus geothermal, wave and tidal power along with hybrid and fuel cell cars should become more commonplace as costs come down.

Financing from rich nations could also drive a green revolution in developing countries, boosting investment, creating jobs and cutting emissions.

How will this work?
It all hinges on putting a price on every tonne of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, produced by industry, transport or through deforestation, or saved from being emitted, such as building wind farms or saving tropical forests that soak up CO2.

Emissions trading through cap-and-trade schemes that give industries incentives to clean up will also be essential. Europe already has such a scheme, while Australia and the United States are working on their own versions.

Key to these schemes are tougher 2020 emissions reduction targets under a new climate treaty. The tougher the targets, the greater the financial incentive for industries to act.

What's the urgency? Can't we wait?
The world has already warmed on average 0.7°C over the past century through the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and gas.

Prior to the latest financial crisis, emissions growth was increasing annually at a rate beyond past projections, driven largely by soaring coal and oil consumption in big developing nations, such as China and India.

Scientists say that the world is on course to pump enough carbon dioxide into the air to raise global temperatures by at least 2°C in the next few decades, a level they say will lead to more chaotic weather, rising seas, melting glaciers, water shortages and falling crop yields.

Such disruption poses major security threats because the world's population is expected to keep rising. Pollution and health problems are also growing risks.

Even if you don't believe in climate change, the world has only about 41 years of oil left based on proven reserves and 2008 consumption levels of nearly 31 billion barrels a year.

As reserves fall and oil becomes harder to extract, prices of crude will continue to rise, making greener energy more attractive.

What can just one person do?
A lot. Switch to compact fluorescent lighting in the home and office, use public transport, buy locally produced food and recycle your rubbish. Take re-usesable bags when shopping and switch off unused appliances at home.
Every little bit helps because it entrenches behaviour and gets people talking.
- Reuters


Arctic will soon be ice free
2009-10-15 18:00
London - Global warming will leave the Arctic Ocean ice-free during the summer within 20 years, raising sea levels and harming wildlife such as seals and polar bears, a leading British polar scientist said on Thursday.

Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, said much of the melting will take place within a decade, although the winter ice will stay for hundreds of years.

The changes will mean the top of the Earth will appear blue rather than white when photographed from space and ships will have a new sea route north of Russia.

Scientists say evidence of melting Arctic ice is one of the clearest signs of global warming and it should send a warning to world leaders meeting in Copenhagen in December for UN talks on a new climate treaty.
"The data supports the new consensus view - based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition - that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years," Wadhams said in a statement. "Much of the decrease will be happening within 10 years."

Wadhams, one of the world's leading experts on sea ice cover in the North Pole region, compared ice thickness measurements taken by a Royal Navy submarine in 2007 with evidence gathered by the British explorer Pen Hadow earlier this year.
Hadow and his team on the Catlin Arctic Survey drilled 1 500 holes to gather evidence during a 450km walk across the Arctic. They found the average thickness of ice-floes was 1.8m, a depth considered too thin to survive the summer's ice melt.

Earth's air-con
Sometimes referred to as the Earth's air-conditioner, the Arctic Sea plays a vital role in the world's climate. As Arctic ice melts in summer, it exposes the darker-coloured ocean water, which absorbs sunlight instead of reflecting it, accelerating the effect of global warming.
Martin Sommerkorn, of the environmental charity WWF's Arctic programme, which worked on the survey, said the predicted loss of ice could have wide-reaching affects around the world.

"The Arctic Sea ice holds a central position in our Earth's climate system. Take it out of the equation and we are left with a dramatically warmer world," he said.
"This could lead to flooding affecting one-quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions ... and extreme global weather changes."
Britain's Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said the research "sets out the stark realities of climate change".
"This further strengthens the case for an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen," he added.
- Reuters

://www.grida.no/publications/et/ep2/page/2501.aspx
UNEP : The Environment Times
Poverty Times #2



A number of life altering changes has happened over the last years to Inuit societies. Changes explained only by the changes in weather patterns. The 155,000 Inuit in northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Chukotka in the far east of Russia have suddenly – in terms of nature’s time scales – been forced to reconsider their traditional life styles. Ways of life that have allowed the Inuit to survive for hundreds of years in what is for most people a harsh environment are now threatened by changes induced by humans far south of the areas where the Inuit live.

“The human rights of the Inuit to decide their own life style and habitat have been threatened as a cause of these changes in nature,” says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, elected Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (icc), representing the rights of the Inuit.“Talk to hunters across the North and they will tell you the same story, the weather is increasingly unpredictable. The look and feel of the land is different. The sea-ice is changing. Hunters are having difficulty navigating and travelling safely. We have even lost experienced hunters through the ice in areas that, traditionally, were safe. The melting of our glaciers in summer is now such that it is dangerous for us to get to many of our traditional hunting and harvesting places,” says Watt-Cloutier. By Grid-Arendal and icc (Inuit Circumpolar Conference)

“For generations uncounted, Inuit have observed the environment and have accurately predicted the weather enabling them to travel safely on the sea-ice and hunt seals, whales, walrus, and polar bears. Inuit do not hunt for sport or recreation. Hunters put food on the table. People further south on the globe go to the supermarket, Inuit go on the sea-ice. Eating what Inuit hunt is at the very core of what it means to be Inuit. When they can no longer hunt what is on the sea-ice their entire existence as a people is threatened,” Watt-Cloutier points out.

The icc has collected documentation from different Inuit communities that all tell the same story of changes to their environment. The residents of Sachs Harbour, a tiny community in the Canadian Beaufort Sea region, have reported that melting permafrost cause beach slumping and increased erosion. They see increased snowfall, longer sea-ice free seasons, and have observed new species of fish and birds like the barn owl, robins, pin-tailed ducks and salmon. They have also had an invasion of mosquitoes and black flies. Alaskan Inuit report that their natural ice cellars in which they store food are melting.

“Plans are well under way to relocate certain communities if need be. Climate change is not just a theory to us in the Arctic, it is a stark and dangerous reality. Human-induced climate change is undermining the ecosystem upon which Inuit depend for their cultural survival. The Arctic is not wilderness or a frontier, it is our home,” says Watt-Cloutier.

The eight Arctic states; Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Canada, Russia and the us account for 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; the gases believed to be provoking climate change. In several international forums discussions and negotiations about reducing greenhouse gas emissions are taking place. One of these forums is the Convention of the Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, established by the United Nations Convention on Climate Change to curb climate change.

A year ago the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Pro 1617gramme (unep) passed a resolution calling for increased environmental monitoring in the Arctic. This decision was also based on the increasing amount of international research suggesting that what happens in the Arctic will later happen in the rest of the world. You can, so to speak, take the pulse of the world in the Arctic.

“Responding to climate change has split the nations of the world. Our plight shows the compelling case for global unity and clarity of purpose to forestall a future that is not ordained. These dramatic changes to our environment and our climate will bring about the end of the Inuit culture,” says Watt-Cloutier.

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference represents the Inuit, the Arctic people living in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia. The icc holds consultative status to the un Economic and Social Council and is involved in many areas of various international forums. www.inuitcircumpolar.com.