February
1, 2002
Is polar ice shrinking,
growing or both?
Researchers think the thick
layer of ice and snow on the western part of the Antarctic, which extends to
the southern Polar Sea, may be slowly growing.
But according to the journal
Science, they may have simply placed their measuring instruments at a time where
the ice began to re-form after a 10,000-year melting cycle. That’s because,
another group of scientists has reported in Science gigantic icebergs are breaking
away from that very same western Antarctic ice shelf.
"It is actually quite
difficult to determine what is happening to the climate," Jorgen Peter
Steffensen from the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark told the Danish newspaper,
Politiken.
Steffensen is one of the
field directors of the North Greenland Ice-core project, known as GRIP. This
project is extracting ice cores from Greenland’s glaciers to learn about
past climatic conditions.
The institute is also participating
in a similar project on the eastern Antarctic plateau to drill down to 190,000-year-old
ice. At that time, it was 10 C colder in Antarctica than it is today.
Steffensen said ice-cores
in Greenland show the climate can change drastically, even from one day to the
next. This kind of cataclysmic event, called "Event One," can abruptly
change a climate and cause wild temperature swings.
"Intense climate
changes can occur within a generation," Steffensen said.
But he said conflicting
evidence and effects makes it hard to see what is happening. For example, Norway
has become warmer, but receives more snowfall, while in Greenland, it looks
as if the ice is shrinking on the one side of the island and expanding on the
other.
TOP
February 1, 2002
New Greenlandic environmental
group gets cash
The World Wildlife Organization
donated 50,000 Kroner ($10,000) last week to the new environmental protection
group Uppik, which means snowy owl in Greenlandic.
The Danish government had
also promised the fledging group 30.000 Kroner ($6,000) as start-up money. But,
due to the freeze on all new spending by the Danish government, the money hasn’t
been sent.
Uppik held its first general
meeting last week. The group wants to recruit 100 members before April 1, 2002.
Its 20 current members all come from Ilulissat, the hometown of Peter Lange,
its founder and chairman.
TOP
February
1, 2002
Greenland’s Home Rule
government says it won’t finance "anarchy"
KNAPP, the local hunters
and fishermen’s association in Nuuk, won’t follow a new law that sets
limits on the bird hunting season in Greenland.
The regulation, which came
into effect Jan. 1, extends the hunting ban on auks and eider ducks by one month.
The new, shorter hunting season is intended to help the birds’ depleted
numbers to recover.
But apparently this measure
doesn’t suit the hunters and fishermen in Nuuk who have said they intend
to hunt as they have always done.
"I think people ought
to think really carefully before they make statements such as these. If the
hunters and fishermen of Nuuk want to act this way, they better start looking
other places for subsidies. The Home Rule refuses to finance anarchy,"
said Edward Geisler, the minister for environment on Greenland’s KNR national
radio network.
Geisler said hunters and
fishermen receive subsidies to help them market to sell their products.
"If they wish to have
a continued relationship with the Home Rule Government, they must therefore
stick to the rules which have been laid down in the legislation," Geisler
said.
TOP
February
1, 2002
KIA election this spring
Nominations for the top
job at the Kivalliq Inuit Association will open later this month.
Starting Feb. 25, Inuit
beneficiaries in the Kivalliq region can nominate a person to be president of
the KIA. Nominations close on March 11.
Voting day is slated for
April 15.
The president’s position
was vacated this fall when Paul Kaludjak took a leave of absence to run in the
Nunavut Tunngavik elections. After winning the vice-president of finance position,
Kaludjak stepped down from KIA.
At KIA’s board meeting
in Rankin Inlet last week, the board of directors appointed Donat Milortok as
the interim president until the April election.
TOP
February
1, 2002
Language Week will focus
on standards
Nunavut’s department
of culture, language, elders and youth will use this year’s Language Week,
Feb. 10 to 16, to draw attention to the importance of maintaining linguistic
standards.
CLEY says it will work
with the Nunavut Social Development Council, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Nunavut’s
regional Inuit associations and Nunavut language commissioner Eva Aariak to
hold activities aimed at promoting the use of Inuktitut.
A GN news release says
that CLEY and the NSDC plan to make language week "an important annual
event on Nunavut’s cultural calendar."
TOP
February
1, 2002
Teachers, GN negotiate
new contract
Nunavut teachers will head
to the bargaining table for contract negotiations with the territorial government
on Feb. 14.
Their current contract,
signed on April 1, 1999, expires on June 30. Negotiations are expected to last
three sessions, although the process could take much longer if the two sides
have difficulty reaching an agreement.
Lou Budgell, president
of the Federation of Nunavut Teachers declined to comment on teachers’
demands until the bargaining process has begun.
The federation has completed
a survey to solicit ideas and opinions from Nunavut teachers. Budgell said a
report will be available in April.
TOP
February
1, 2002
Lakes hold key to how warming
works
The lakes on Antarctica’s
Signey Island have undergone "extreme ecological change," according
to a group of researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature.
They found that as the
air on the Antartica peninsula got a little warmer, it set off a chain reaction
that made the lake water warm up three times as fast.
Signey Island extends over
an area seven kilometres by four kilometres, and much of it is covered with
permanent ice. In summer, however, moss and grass grow and there are numerous
freshwater pools and lakes.
Since 1980, the winter
temperatures of 17 lakes on Signey Island have increased by up to 1.3 C. Signey’s
permanent ice cover has shrunk by 45 per cent since 1951, and its lakes now
have up to 60 fewer days of ice coverage than in 1980.
The island’s isolation
allowed researchers to see what happens in a place that’s not affected
by local pollution or heating associated with cities.
As in parts of the Canadian
Arctic, some areas of Antarctica appear to be cooling, while others, like Signey
Island are warming — more proof that regional variations can occur in global
warming.
TOP
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