The Far North: On the frontlines of climate change
The effects are evident here more than anywhere
An Inuk woman makes her way home in Iqaluit on April 1, 2009. A recent report from the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy warns that climate change could have dire consequences for infrastructure in the North. Roads, airport runways, communications towers, pipelines, and underground fuel storage tanks built on permafrost would be threatened by a warming climate.NATHAN DENETTE
This photo released by the Université Laval shows reseachers at work near Ward Hunt Lake in July 2006. Global warming is believed to be softening the harsh Arctic environment, causing the algae population in Canada's northernmost lake to spike over the past two centuries. The team, led by Laval scientists, found aquatic life in the lake, located north of Ellesmere Island, increased 500-fold during the period. The changes occurred at a speed and range unprecedented in the lake's last 8,000 years. And researchers say the likely culprit is 'climate change related to human activity.'DERMOT ANTONIADES
With temperatures peaking above 20 degrees Celsius, Inuit boys in Tasiujaq, Northern Quebec head for the water in this August 2007 photo. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the only time that summer temperatures were similar to current readings was just after the last ice age ended about 8,000 years ago, and during a warm period before the last glaciation.Bill Curry
In April 2005, a thousand Inuit in their traditional dress joined together on an ice floe to form the image of an Inuk drum dancer in the Arctic Circle. The Earth Day event, which was sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council with Global Green USA, sought to highlight the effects of global warming on northern Canadians.
This 2004 photo shows two polar bears on a chunk of ice in the arctic off Northern Alaska. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears live in the Arctic, but the world's largest population resides in Canada, with about 60 per cent of the total. Researchers say the species faces an uncertain future because of the rapid melting of sea ice, their primary habitat, due to climate change.Dan Crosbie
This photo shows Markham Fiord in August 2008 after the Markham Ice Shelf broke away. In Sept. 2008, researchers announced that two ice shelves in Canada's Far North have lost massive sections while a third ice shelf now is adrift in the Arctic Ocean, citing climate change. The entire 50 square-kilometre Markham Ice Shelf off the coast of Ellesmere Island broke away in early August and is now adrift, while two sections of the nearby Serson Ice Shelf detached, reducing its mass by 60 per cent or 122 square kilometres. Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, which halved in July, lost an additional 22 square kilometres. 'These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for 4,000 years are no longer present,' said Trent University's polar expert Derek Mueller.DENIS SARRAZIN
This photo - taken by Bernadette Green, 15, of Paulatuk, Northwest Territories - was recognized by the LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium's 'Images of the Arctic' photo contest. Bernadette says: 'I think my photo captures the essence of the Arctic because it shows the effects of global warming. Springtime coming earlier, warm weather and the snow melting are all signs of global warming. Five to 10 years ago, April was a month of blowing snow, cold weather and lots of people going out goose hunting at least until May. Now, I don't think we'd be able to go out this year because it is melting really fast. This affects us, the Inuvialuit, because geese are a part of our diet and have been for a long time.'
The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent makes its way through the ice in Baffin Bay on July 10, 2008. The ship was on its annual voyage through Canada's Arctic that includes patrols through the Northwest Passage. The ship was also carrying a team of scientists studying climate change and the health of Canada's three oceans.JONATHAN HAYWARD
Inuit fishermen make their way along the bay in their boat near Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Aug. 21, 2009. In October, a team of British researchers said the Arctic Ocean is undergoing a swift melting that they predicted will leave it largely free of summertime ice in as little as 20 years.Jonathan Hayward