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UArctic gets more Canadian dollars

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham announced in Yellowknife on Sunday that Canada will give an additional $250,000 to the development of the University of the Arctic. So far, Canada's total contribution to UArctic is $700,000.

"By continuing to support the University of the Arctic, we are reaffirming our commitment to strengthening circumpolar cooperation and the Northern Dimension of Canada's Foreign Policy," Graham said. "The development of this university helps to provide northerners and their neighbours with the means to participate in the international circumpolar world, and to foster academic excellence."

The University of the Arctic links northern colleges and universities, indigenous organizations and governments, offering online higher education and exchange programs between northern regions.

April 25, 2003

Global warming could keep eastern Arctic cool

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

Within the next 100 years, global warming may melt much of the ice sheet over Greenland. But this meltwater may eventually insulate the island and the eastern Arctic from further climate change, the journal Nature reports.

The model predicts that Greenland could be about 4° C warmer by 2080. The resulting melting could raise sea level by five centimetres. Being fresh, the meltwater would float in a pool on the surface of the North Atlantic's salty water.

After 2080, however, this freshwater pool might stop the warming effect over Greenland by blocking the Gulf Stream of warmer water that flows toward the North Atlantic.

If this were to happen, northern Europe might cool by up to 3° C, and northern Canada by up to 5° C. At the same time, temperatures over Greenland may plunge 10° C.

"Greenhouse warming may stop the Greenland Ice Sheet from melting in the end," said Philippe Huybrechts of the Free University of Brussels at a meeting last week in Nice, France.

April 25, 2003

Alaskan whalebones find home in England

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

Two bowhead whalebones from Barrow, Alaska, have been installed as an arch at the seaport of Whitby, on the northeast coast of England. The town wanted a new whalebone arch to replace one that had stood as a landmark commemorating its whaling history, dating back to the 1700s.

But getting the huge bones from Barrow to Whitby was no easy task. Because the bowhead whale is an endangered species, it was very difficult to export its bones under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Permits required that the bones be dry and clean. In the fall of 2000, the bones were steam-cleaned and covered in plastic wrap in Barrow, but algae and mildew developed as the bones waited there through 18 months of permit problems.

When the bones were inspected after arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, last year, they were discovered to be soiled with algae, rancid whale oil and whale tissue. The bones arrived in England last spring but still suffered from leakage of whale oil from their marrow. The bones were buried in horse manure for several months to draw out the oil.

Finally, last month the town of Whitby took down the old arch and put up the new one on a cliff above the North Sea, tying the bones together at the top with an ancient harpoon tip.

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