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Features
The Arctic used to be a remote and forbidding place at the very edge of our collective Canadian consciousness. (It was literally the ends of the earth.) But now the Arctic is becoming central to our concerns about the future of the planet. Earth observation satellites have documented conclusively how Arctic ice has been thinning over the past 3 decades. Many scientists are convinced that sea ice will disappear altogether during the Arctic summer within a few years. No one knows for certain what the impact of the retreating ice will be on the Arctic ecosystem and the people who live there, or on global warming. There isn’t enough research to make accurate predictions, but everyone agrees that much is at stake. The loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic could be a signal of irreversible climate change with drastic consequences all over the planet. Canada is in the vanguard of Arctic research. Montreal writer George Tombs joined the Canadian research vessel Amundsen in the Beaufort Sea on a recent scientific mission.
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| George Tombs joined the Canadian research icebreaker during a winter mission in the Beaufort Sea. |
The bright red icebreaker Amundsen shudders through the blinding white icepack of the Beaufort Sea, off Banks Island, Northwest Territories, about 2,500 kilometres due north of Vancouver. Above the southern horizon, the pale-white sun wanders, like some ghostly abstraction. With the wind chill, it’s –57 degrees Celsius. It’s really cold! At this temperature, the ice breaks up into perfectly geometrical blocks of ice, which screech along the hull of the ship, bobbing up and down, then sizzle and quickly refreeze in our steaming turquoise wake. The Amundsen is a Canadian research icebreaker, named for the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He was the first person to get through the fabled Northwest Passage a century ago. Now the icebreaker is on a 16-month scientific odyssey in the Arctic archipelago, bringing together researchers from 15 countries, to investigate climate change during International Polar Year.
While I'm on board the Amundsen, I meet researchers from 10 countries – China, Russia, Poland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, France, and Canada. They're all participating in the $20-million “Circumpolar Flaw Lead” or CFL project, which aims to develop a complete picture of the Arctic marine environment, from the benthos or muddy bottom of the Beaufort Sea, 200 metres below the surface, up through the water column of the ocean, to the algae blooming in spring just below the ice surface.
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* Photographs by George Tombs
Resources
International research collaborations on board the research icebreaker Amundsen:
Circumpolar Flaw Lead Project (led by University of Manitoba).
The Network of Centres of Excellence of Canada “ArcticNet” (led by Laval University).
Inuit Health Survey (a collaboration involving McGill University and committees in Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut and Nunatsiavut, and participatory partnerships between educational institutes, representatives of Inuit communities and organizations involved in developing and conducting the Inuit Health Survey).
Malina Consortium (an international collaboration led by the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche, in the south of France).
International Polar Year
The world secretariat for International Polar Year, c/o the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, GB.
Canada’s International Polar Year Secretariat (University of Alberta).
A website devoted to the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Amundsen, one of the world’s leading research icebreakers.
On shore in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut
Information about Cambridge Bay - in Inuinnaqtun, the Inuit language spoken in this region, Cambridge Bay is called Iqaluktuttiaq which means “good fishing place”:
Cambridge Bay - Kitikmeot website
Cambridge, Bay
Kitikmeot Heritage Society’s centre in Cambridge Bay
An interesting book about Netsilik Inuit art
Darlene Wight. Art & Expression of the Netsilik. [Winnipeg]: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2000. This book provides information about Damien Iquallaq’s grandfather Nelson Takkiruq, and many other Netsilik Inuit artists. It can be located in public libraries worldwide, by clicking on the following link: ISBN 0889151954
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