So, I'm in Ottawa for the IPY Early results workshops. For those of you who dont know what IPY stands for, its International Polar Year. It's global initiative to encourage, promote and better polar research, in both northern and southern poles. One of the main focuses of IPY Canada is integrating indigenous knowledge into the research they do. although 'year' is singular, IPY is actually more of a 5 year initiative..
Anyway, I'm here just kind of tagging along with some delegates from Nunavik. I've been to quite a few IPY events but this is my first one completely on my own, not as part of a group or organization so i thought i'd somehow make my time here productive and do daily debriefs of what i saw happen.
The conference is being held at the Chateau Laurier (i know, right!).. which i think is completely ridiculous. They're paying for 200 people to stay at this crazy posh hotel AND have workshops in the conference rooms that talk about 'how to include northerners in all aspects of research'. Well, I have a little hint.. Maybe, instead of spending $300/person for hotels plus whatever it costs to use the conference facilities, maybe -now, forgive me if this is too much to ask- but maayybe you could have had this conference in the north? Then the people could hear about it, talk about it.. it might even envoke a desire to become active participants in the process. But no, we're here in Ottawa (I've been to IPY meetings in Quebec City and Geneva).. just another conference in the south. I think that sometimes, certain types of people take themselves way too seriously. I will not apologize for saying that.
Anyway, enough criticism, I do actually love the idea of IPY and everything it has accomplished for northern research. This morning, Dave Carlson, the head of thr entire program, gave a really interesting talk about a few things that i think should be shared (it's dave's birthday today by the way!).. he had a 5 point presentation that was a) very, very relevant to Inuit and Northerners, b) almost completely jargon free.. which is completely awesome for someone who's totally non-scientific like me and c) short and sweet, what more could you ask for? *note that i only mention a few of his 5 points because some things, i need to do more research on before i can be comfortable to write about them
1. Recent Arctic Climate: a multi-millennial study on the arctic climate showed that, yes, climate does fluctuate and the arctic does have warm(er) periods.. BUT the baseline year he talked about, 1950, there was an incredible spike in arctic temperature.. it's like the line of the graph sat on a pin and shot into space. Point being? Arctic temperatures in the last 60 years are warmer then they have ever been.
2. Sea Ice extent: in 2007, they started predicting what the ice extent would be for the next fall. This was kind of iffy, but they did it anyway.. the point of this is that even tho in '07 they werent really sure of their estimates, they are getting significanly better at it, so look out for the next estimates for sea ice extent in the next year, they might be pretty accurate. He also showed a graph of sea ice in 2000 compared to 2009.. scary shit..
3. Sea Ice Thickness: He showed a graph with the years 2000-09 that showed how thick the ice was during March (the beginning of melting season), the graph included melt and recovery. Melting patterns were prety much stable throughout the 9 years, but it was the recovery that should cause concern. Each year, the Ice didnt recover quite as well as before untill, in '09 it reached almost half of what it was in 2000 (4 milion square Km in 2000 compared to 2.5 in 2009). He gave a really good example to explain it better. Think of it as breathing.. ice melts it exhales, ice recovers, it inhales. get it?
4. Ice Sheets and Sea Level-- i wasnt really sure how to synthesize this portian.. but check out 'the Copenhagen Diagnosis'
5. Permafrost and Carbon: We have more carbon in the first 3 meters of (canadian)permafrost that we do currently in the atmosphere. 'nuff said.. I could write a whole post about this topic, and i intend to.. but not right now. (just a fact that everyone should know: there is 2x the carbon in Eastern Siberian Sea alone than there is in the atmosphere and they left permafrost emmissions completely out of COP15 negotiations).
Anyway, a lot more happened today but i'm exhausted, starving and itching to see some lovely people so i'm gonna stop it there. Lemme know what you think! much, much more to come..
love.
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