The WWF Arctic Global Polar Bear specialist, Geoff York, is on a field trip in Churchill on the Hudson Bay, observing and blogging about polar bears. Below is the third blog from our ‘eyes and ears on the tundra’. Read more blogs by Geoff York.
By Geoff York
This year I had a unique opportunity while in town. PBI and Frontiers North Adventures premiered a new film by Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro. The documentary was filmed in Inuktitut with English subtitles and is called Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change. Some of you may recognize Zach from his last award winning project, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner). This new work is a documentary recording Inuit elder perspectives on climate change across the Nunavut region of the Canadian high arctic. Along with the discussions on observed changes witnessed by elders and their concerns about the future, the film highlights some fairly direct and sometimes angry views around polar bears, conservation efforts, and the scientists who study this animal.
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Tag Archives: Canada
Making connections on the tundra
The WWF Arctic Global Polar Bear specialist, Geoff York, is on a field trip in Churchill on the Hudson Bay, observing and blogging about polar bears. Below is the second blog from our ‘eyes and ears on the tundra’ – here is his first blog.
By Geoff York
My first week in the town of Churchill is focused around meetings with partners and scientists, so this is very much a working trip for me. Many of you may ask, why Churchill? WWF has long supported polar bear research efforts in the Hudson Bay region going back to the early 1970’s. We continue that direct support today, helping to maintain one of the best long term research and monitoring efforts on polar bears anywhere in the world. You can see tangible results of the current support via our online Polar Bear Tracker. This long term research has provided some of the clearest links between changes in polar bear population dynamics directly tied to changes in climate and sea ice.
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‘Avoid changes that are unmanageable, and manage changes that are unavoidable’
The WWF Arctic Global Polar Bear specialist, Geoff York, is on a field trip in Churchill on the Hudson Bay, observing and blogging about polar bears. Here is the first blog from our ‘eyes and ears on the tundra’.
A virtually ice-free Hudson Bay. (c) WWF / Geoff York
By Geoff York
It’s November 10th in Churchill, Manitoba, and something is not quite right. The air temperature is well above freezing on our arrival and there are only small remnants of a past snow across the mostly bare and brown tundra. There is no ice on Hudson Bay and little sign of any forming far to the north in Foxe Basin. This is disturbing to us, and even more disturbing to the local polar bears. Continue reading
Tundra tune – ‘You who are on the globe must have a code’
By Paulette Roberge
We were going to be different, jazz things up. Our group of five communicators who met two days prior was tasked with leading a discussion on climate change impacts at this month’s inaugural communicators’ camp, hosted by Polar Bears International in Churchill, Manitoba.
Our performance could have benefited from props, musical accompaniment and more rehearsal time but, here, I present you the Climate Change Impacts song, a hasty, back-of-the-envelope adaptation of Crosby Stills Nash & Young’s “Teach Your Children.”
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A pungent challenge at the communicator leadership challenge in the North
By Paulette Roberge
We were exhorted to “walk the talk.” So all 21 of us vowed to take up the eco-challenge – not to shower all week. Not such an impressive undertaking, you might point out, except we were living in extremely cramped quarters on a Tundra Buggy Lodge on the shores of Hudson Bay. Continue reading
Communicator leadership camp in the North: Day Two
By Paulette Roberge
Read more blog posts from Paulette’s trip with Polar Bears International (PBI).
A large adult polar bear casually circles the Tundra Buggy Lodge, evidently drawn by the scent of human dinner being prepared. The lodge is being buffeted by 60-km winds whipping off Hudson Bay. Nearby an Arctic fox is scavenging on the tundra, opportunistically monitoring the humans in the box on wheels, while keeping a respectful distance from the bear.
Tundra buggy. (c) Paulette Roberge/WWF-Canada
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Get cracking: Travelling north for a leadership camp
WWF Canada communications specialist, Paulette Roberge, is attending the inaugural Polar Bears International Communicators Leadership Workshop where participants will explore the tundra, collaborate on blogs and brainstorm ways to spread the urgent message of climate change impacts on polar bear habitats.
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Students on Ice arctic youth expedition diary: Final day
By Zoë Caron
We are nearing the expedition’s end. Our onboard team – or rather, family – begins to collect the pieces and connect the dots between the words and the direct effects of climate change.
Read earlier Students on Ice blog posts.
Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld of CBC Ottawa hosted a five-person “At Issues” panel this evening. I sat alongside, sharing the seats with Canadian Wildlife Service’s Garry Donaldson, arctic biologist Dr. David Gray, geographer Dr. Peter Harrison and Inuit elder David Serkoak. The issue at hand: Polar bear conservation. The audience: 80 inquisitive high school students.
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Students on Ice arctic youth expedition diary: Baffin Island
By Zoë Caron
Two evenings back, I gave an introductory presentation on climate change – the raw basics. The questions from these people are directly hitting the nail on the head, ranging from topics including renewable energy, oil drilling in the high arctic, and climate change impact on the oceans.
Read the other Students on Ice blog posts.
While climate change is a global issue, it first and foremost impacts the Arctic – and every individual on this special expedition is aware of that, whether 11 or 81 years old. It is mentioned daily without doubt, and is in the background or foreground of every location we visit here on Baffin Island and northern Nunavik.
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Students on Ice arctic youth expedition diary: A day for which to be grateful
By Zoë Caron
Clear crisp sky. Unbroken satin ocean. Bare rock island. We glide by quietly in the zodiac, as hundreds of walruses own the shores with their becks and calls.
This is Zoë’s second Students on Ice trip blog post. Read her first reflections on the trip.
Today is ice-free. We are north of 60 and we are clad in t-shirts, windbreakers, and 50 SPF sunscreen. The walruses roll over to expose their deep pink bellies – coloured by their blood rising to the surface of their skin, a sign of the warmest of body temperatures.
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