DOCSLIB.ORG

Leading Arctic Scientist Calls Continued Lack of National Polar Policy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Leading Arctic Scientist Calls Continued Lack of National Polar Policy Leading Arctic scientist calls continued lack of national polar policy 'an embarrassment and frustrating' Standing on the unsympathetic shoreline of Mercy Bay, a bulbous fjord on the northern edge of Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic archipelago, John England was “stupefied.” By Juris Graney | Published on: January 8, 2017 What the world-renowned University of Alberta Arctic “I was looking out at the open polar sea, waves were scientist saw close to a decade ago on one of his more lapping against the shore line like the Bahamas,” he said. than 40 excursions to the farthest northern reaches of Canada will never leave him. “There was not a fragment of sea ice to be seen and it was just staggering. I thought to myself, what if the explorers England, an expert in environmental change who has been came back? What would they think?” studying the Arctic for 50 years, was standing in the same area in which Capt. Robert McClure and the HMS England distinctly remembers his thoughts and his feelings Investigator sought protection from terrifying sea ice from that trip because of the gravity of the consequences. conditions in the winters of 1851-52. In his own lifetime and scientific career stretching back to McClure was part of a rescue mission to try and locate the his first visit to the Arctic in 1965, he too has witnessed ill-fated lost expedition of Capt. John Franklin and was, first hand the ever-quickening retreat of polar ice due to himself, trapped within two days of sailing through the global warming and man-made climate change. Northwest Passage, confronted by 40-foot thick pack ice. “When I first went to the Arctic … I was still seeing the sea Unable to escape, with impenetrable ice to the horizon ice conditions that were very much like McClure and beyond, McClure and his scurvy-riddled crew spent described,” he said. two winters surviving on dwindling food rations and “I saw the Arctic when it was still largely like what the late conditions that sent some men mad. 19th Century explorers saw in temperatures and sea ice In the end, the HMS Investigator was abandoned. Most of severity. the crew survived long enough to be rescued. “I saw the ice shelves and now I’m standing in their stead, Fast forward to 2008 and England was standing in the in the very same places and recognizing something they same area looking out at what was a graveyard of multi- never would have dreamt of.” year sea ice that almost broke McClure. Page 1 of 2 The Great White “embarrassment” Early in 2010, facing a lack of government funding under the Harper government and a void where a national polar policy should have been, England penned an opinion essay for revered scientific journal Nature. In it, England said an Arctic policy and increased government funding were crucial to help support researchers in remote field sites “to continue crucial monitoring of the fast-changing Arctic environment.” “The lack of such a policy leaves many Canadian scientists feeling voiceless and chronically insecure about research support,” he wrote. Asked if much or anything has changed in the past six years, England sighed. “There have been a few glimmers of resurgence in Canada,” he said. “But the fundamental answer is there really has been no significant progress in finally establishing a national polar policy. “If this country wants to be recognized as a really engaged Northern nation, not only in science but economic, strategic and cultural, environmental concerns, we need to get our act together and stand on the international stage and identify a polar policy that ensures that we have a long-term vision and a co-ordinated and strategic plan to implement that.” England said it was “disheartening,” “an embarrassment and frustrating,” and “contemptible”. “It’s really maddening to watch us turn our back on something that ought to be enlightened self-interest,” he said. Honours and awards Last month, England was celebrated with the Weston Family Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Northern Research, a $50,000 award that honoured his advocacy and research of the Canadian Arctic landscape. England said he wants to take his three grandchildren to the Northern reaches to inspire them just as he was inspired. “It was fundamentally transformative in my life was going to the Arctic,” he said. “There’s something remarkably special about the Canadian Arctic … there’s a silence and a stillness there that I really don’t think you can experience anywhere else. “I think just bringing young ones into that environment, they would drink in the magic and the serenity.” But there is also the inescapable fact that what he once saw, as the explorers before also had witnessed, will never be the same again. The clock is ticking. Thinking back to that moment in Mercy Bay, England takes a moment. “McClure was stuck where you are standing, with his ship tied to the shore, with his men starving, looking out after two years of being stuck, thinking I have to take all of my men in their weakened state and I’ve got to march across sea ice that is out in that channel to another island hoping that we find someone to rescue us, and I’m standing in the very same spot looking at nothing but open water. “The change is that dramatic.” Source: Edmonton Journal URL: http://edmontonjournal.com/technology/science/leading-arctic-scientist-calls-continued-lack-of-national-polar-policy-an-embarrassment- and-frustrating Page 2 of 2 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of HMS Investigator and the Mcclure
    REVIEWS • 109 DISCOVERING THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE: THE FOUR-YEAR ARCTIC ODYSSEY OF H.M.S. INVESTIGATOR AND THE McCLURE EXPEDITION. By GLENN M. STEIN. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2015. ISBN 978-0-7864-7708-1. maps, b&w illus., appendices, notes, bib., index. Available from www.mcfarlandpub.bom; order line: 800-253-2187. Softbound. US$39.95. Of all the explorers who sailed from Europe in search of the Northwest Passage, the least admirable was probably Robert McClure. He is remembered today because in 1855, the British government awarded him a knighthood and 10 000 pounds (today worth roughly $1.3 million), with half going to his men for having become “the first to have passed by water from sea to sea.” By returning alive to Eng- land, they had provided “a living evidence of the existence of a North-west Passage” (p. 240). Originally the reward had been offered, as author Glenn M. Stein notes, “for the first person who should complete the North-west Passage, by actually sailing with his ship from one ocean to the other” (p. 240). But the government, saddled with the expenses of the Crimean War, was desper- ate to staunch the spending on Arctic search expeditions. And so it recognized McClure’s tortured logic, turning a blind eye to the fact that, as Stein writes, “the Investigators had walked through portions of the route” (p. 240). In Discovering the North-West Passage, author Stein details the difficult human story behind McClure’s dubi- ous achievement. This is the definitive account of the last voyage of HMS Investigator—a tale of how a Machiavel- lian captain, obsessive and ruthless, turned his ship into a frozen hell of unjust floggings, imprisonments, starvation, scurvy, and even, for a few, miserable deaths.
    [Show full text]
  • Frederick J. Krabbé, Last Man to See HMS Investigator Afloat, May 1854
    The Journal of the Hakluyt Society January 2017 Frederick J. Krabbé, last man to see HMS Investigator afloat, May 1854 William Barr1 and Glenn M. Stein2 Abstract Having ‘served his apprenticeship’ as Second Master on board HMS Assistance during Captain Horatio Austin’s expedition in search of the missing Franklin expedition in 1850–51, whereby he had made two quite impressive sledge trips, in the spring of 1852 Frederick John Krabbé was selected by Captain Leopold McClintock to serve under him as Master (navigation officer) on board the steam tender HMS Intrepid, part of Captain Sir Edward Belcher’s squadron, again searching for the Franklin expedition. After two winterings, the second off Cape Cockburn, southwest Bathurst Island, Krabbé was chosen by Captain Henry Kellett to lead a sledging party west to Mercy Bay, Banks Island, to check on the condition of HMS Investigator, abandoned by Commander Robert M’Clure, his officers and men, in the previous spring. Krabbé executed these orders and was thus the last person to see Investigator afloat. Since, following Belcher’s orders, Kellett had abandoned HMS Resolute and Intrepid, rather than their return journey ending near Cape Cockburn, Krabbé and his men had to continue for a further 140 nautical miles (260 km) to Beechey Island. This made the total length of their sledge trip 863½ nautical miles (1589 km), one of the longest man- hauled sledge trips in the history of the Arctic. Introduction On 22 July 2010 a party from the underwater archaeology division of Parks Canada flew into Mercy Bay in Aulavik National Park, on Banks Island, Northwest Territories – its mission to try to locate HMS Investigator, abandoned here by Commander Robert McClure in 1853.3 Two days later underwater archaeologists Ryan Harris and Jonathan Moore took to the water in a Zodiac to search the bay, towing a side-scan sonar towfish.
    [Show full text]
  • Rather Than Imposing Thematic Unity Or Predefining a Common Theoretical
    The Supernatural Arctic: An Exploration Shane McCorristine, University College Dublin Abstract The magnetic attraction of the North exposed a matrix of motivations for discovery service in nineteenth-century culture: dreams of wealth, escape, extreme tourism, geopolitics, scientific advancement, and ideological attainment were all prominent factors in the outfitting expeditions. Yet beneath this „exoteric‟ matrix lay a complex „esoteric‟ matrix of motivations which included the compelling themes of the sublime, the supernatural, and the spiritual. This essay, which pivots around the Franklin expedition of 1845-1848, is intended to be an exploration which suggests an intertextuality across Arctic time and geography that was co-ordinated by the lure of the supernatural. * * * Introduction In his classic account of Scott‟s Antarctic expedition Apsley Cherry- Garrard noted that “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised”.1 If there is one single question that has been asked of generations upon generations of polar explorers it is, Why?: Why go through such ordeals, experience such hardship, and take such risks in order to get from one place on the map to another? From an historical point of view, with an apparent fifty per cent death rate on polar voyages in the long nineteenth century amid disaster after disaster, the weird attraction of the poles in the modern age remains a curious fact.2 It is a less curious fact that the question cui bono? also featured prominently in Western thinking about polar exploration, particularly when American expeditions entered the Arctic 1 Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World.
    [Show full text]
  • Update on Polar Bear Research in the Viscount Melville Sound/North Beaufort Polar Bear Subpopulations Spring 2012
    Update on Polar Bear research in the Viscount Melville Sound/North Beaufort Polar Bear Subpopulations Spring 2012. This was the first year of a three year mark-recapture program to estimate the current population size of the Viscount Melville Polar Bear Subpopulation. To examine movement patterns and population boundaries, we deployed 14 GPS satellite collars in the Viscount Melville Subpopulation and 15 collars in the North Beaufort Subpopulation; of the latter 15, 5 were deployed north of Norway Island and 10 in the area from Prince of Whales Strait to the mainland. Two field crews were used to conduct research. One field crew worked out of Ulukhaktok. This crew consisted of Andrew Derocher (University of Alberta), Patrick Mislan(University of Alberta), and Kenneth Ehaloak (Ulukhaktok). The second field crew worked from 5 base camps. Three base camps were polar bear cabins located at Wynniatt Bay on Victoria Island, Cape Providence on Melville Island, and near Castel Bay in Aulavik National Park on Banks Island. The two other camps were temporary base camps located at Mould Bay on Prince Patrick Island and Nias Point on Melville Island. The second field crew consisted of a Helicopter pilot (Benedikt Seguro), a helicopter engineer (Scott Hauser) (required due to hrs flown), a research assistant from the community of Ulukhaktok (Peter Ross Klengenberg), Evan Richardson (Environment Canada), and Jodie Pongracz (ENR Inuvik). Research commenced on April 21, 2012 in Wynniatt Bay, Victoria Island and was completed on May 31, 2012 at Polar Bear Cabin on Banks Island. A total of 110 hours were flown in an ASTAR (including ferrying to/from Inuvik).
    [Show full text]
  • Search for HM Ships Erebus and Terror (PDF)
    The Search for H M Ships “Erebus” and “Terror” Edited version of the presentation by Joe O’Farrell to the McClintock Winter School, Dundalk, Co Louth, Ireland. Friday, January 18th 2008 ***************************************************************************************** When starting my work on this paper, I casually put the rhetorical question to my wife as to how can it be explained that a search of almost 160 years duration, in the decreed place for the missing items, has produced no positive result? In rather quick time, she replied, helpfully, that this very point has been covered in one of Anthony de Mello’s fables. Now some, indeed many, of you may have heard of this 20th century Jesuit philosopher and may be familiar with his device of using fables to get us to broaden our thinking. “A man was on his knees on the pavement, under the street light, obviously looking for something. A passer-by, having ascertained that the man was looking for a lost key, stopped to help him. After some time, and without any success in finding the missing key, the passer-by asked the man if he had actually lost it there. “No” replied the man, “I lost it in the house.” “But why, then, are you looking here?” “Because this is where the light is.” That succinct little fable was the very grist which my mill needed, for it supported the slightly uncomfortable feeling I‟ve had about aspects of the “search for the Franklin ships” since I first became interested in polar matters over 30 years ago. Over much of that period, I became increasingly concerned at the “establishment” acceptance of the story as it is now honoured, oftimes with uncorroborated and questionable evidence, while conflicting opinion and testament has, largely, been dismissed with disdain.
    [Show full text]
  • There Is Something Bigger Than Fact: the Underlying Spirit, All It Stands For, the Mood, the Vastness, the Wildness
    There is something bigger than fact: the underlying spirit, all it stands for, the mood, the vastness, the wildness. Emily Carr University of Alberta Quaternary glaciation of central Banks Island, NT, Canada by Thomas Ryan Lakeman A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences ©Thomas Ryan Lakeman Fall 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. For Mom and Dad Without your tremendous example, none of this would have been possible. ABSTRACT The glacial geology and geomorphology of central Banks Island record the extent and dynamics of the northwest Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during Late Wisconsinan glaciation. Additional stratigraphic exposures document Mid Quaternary environmental changes. Detailed mapping and a new chronology indicate that the island was inundated by the northwest LIS during the Late Wisconsinan. The maximum limit of the ice sheet was offshore on the Beaufort Sea shelf, one of several source regions for floating glacier ice that scoured the Arctic Ocean sea floor to a depth of 450 m.
    [Show full text]
  • The Use of Dog Sledges During the British Search for the Missing Franklin Expedition in the North American Arctic Islands, 1848–59 WILLIAM BARR1
    ARCTIC VOL. 62, NO. 3 (SEPTEMBER 2009) P. 257–272 The Use of Dog Sledges during the British Search for the Missing Franklin Expedition in the North American Arctic Islands, 1848–59 WILLIAM BARR1 (Received 4 September 2008; accepted in revised form 17 October 2008) ABSTRACT. While the bulk of the searching parties sent out from the British ships deployed on the search for the missing Franklin expedition in the North American Arctic Islands over the period 1848–59 employed man-hauled sledges, dog sledges were also used quite extensively. The dog sledges were especially (but not exclusively) used as “couriers,” that is, for communi- cation between the various wintering ships, where speed was the primary requirement. The total distance covered by dog sledges (excluding short hauls in the vicinity of the wintering ships) was, at a minimum, 11 576 km; this distance compares with the minimum 41 555 km covered by man-hauled sledges. Key words: dog sledges, Franklin search expeditions, North American Arctic Islands RÉSUMÉ. Bien que la plupart des équipes de recherche déployées par les navires britanniques à la recherche de l’expédition de Franklin disparue dans l’archipel Arctique nord-américain pendant la période de 1848–1859 se soient servi de traîneaux tirés par des humains, elles ont également employé des traîneaux à chiens à maintes reprises. Les traîneaux à chiens servaient plus particulièrement (mais non pas exclusivement) de « messagers » en ce sens qu’ils établissaient les liens de communication entre les divers navires en hivernage, la rapidité de transmission étant essentielle. La distance totale à avoir été parcourue par les traîneaux à chiens (ce qui ne comprend pas les courtes distances dans la région des navires en hivernage) s’est chiffrée, au minimum, à 11 576 kilomètres, comparativement à la distance minimale de 41 555 kilomètres parcourue par les traîneaux tirés par des humains.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Heritage Resources Report & Inventory
    Phase I: NTI IIBA for Cultural Heritage Resources Conservation Areas Report and Inventory Appedices Cultural Heritage Area: Queen Maud Gulf and Interpretative Migratory Bird Sanctuary Materials Study Prepared for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. 1 May 2011 This report is part of a set of studies and a database produced for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. as part of the project: NTI IIBA for Conservation Areas, Cultural Resources Inventory and Interpretative Materials Study Inquiries concerning this project and the report should be addressed to: David Kunuk Director of Implementation Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. 3rd Floor, Igluvut Bldg. P.O. Box 638 Iqaluit, Nunavut X0A 0H0 E: [email protected] T: (867) 975‐4900 Project Manager, Consulting Team: Julie Harris Contentworks Inc. 137 Second Avenue, Suite 1 Ottawa, ON K1S 2H4 Tel: (613) 730‐4059 Email: [email protected] Report Authors: Philip Goldring, Consultant: Historian and Heritage/Place Names Specialist (primary author) Julie Harris, Contentworks Inc.: Heritage Specialist and Historian Nicole Brandon, Consultant: Archaeologist Note on Place Names: The current official names of places are used here except in direct quotations from historical documents. Throughout the document Umingmaktok, for example, refers to the settlement previously known as Bay Chimo. Names of places that do not have official names will appear as they are found in the source documents. Contents Section 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Close World-System Encounters on the Western/Central Arctic Periphery: Long-Term Historic Copper Inuit-European
    Close World-System Encounters on the Western/Central Canadian Arctic Periphery: Long-term Historic Copper Inuit-European and Eurocanadian Intersocietal Interaction by Donald S. Johnson A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Individual Interdisciplinary Program University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © Don Johnson, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-70313-7 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-70313-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Applying Community-Based Approaches to an Archaeology of Banks Island, NWT
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 10-12-2016 12:00 AM There Is More Than One Way to Do Something Right: Applying Community-Based Approaches to an Archaeology of Banks Island, NWT Laura Elena Kelvin The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Lisa Hodgetts The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Anthropology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Laura Elena Kelvin 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Other Anthropology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Kelvin, Laura Elena, "There Is More Than One Way to Do Something Right: Applying Community-Based Approaches to an Archaeology of Banks Island, NWT" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4168. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4168 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This dissertation explores how historical knowledge is produced and maintained within the Inuvialuit (Western Arctic Inuit) community of Sachs Harbour, NWT, to determine how archaeological research can best complement and respect Inuvialuit understandings and ways of knowing the past. When archaeologists apply Indigenous knowledges to their research they often have limited understandings of how these knowledges work, and may apply them inadequately or inappropriately. I employ an archaeological ethnographic approach to help Ikaahukmiut (people with ties to Banks Island, NWT) articulate to archaeologists how they construct their knowledge of Banks Island’s past.
    [Show full text]
  • The Following Section on Early History Was Written by Professor William (Bill) Barr, Arctic Historian, the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary
    The following section on early history was written by Professor William (Bill) Barr, Arctic Historian, The Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary. Prof. Barr has published numerous books and articles on the history of exploration of the Arctic. In 2006, William Barr received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the recorded history of the Canadian North from the Canadian Historical Association. As well, Prof. Barr, a known admirer of Russian Arctic explorers, has been credited with making known to the wider public the exploits of Polar explorations by Russia and the Soviet Union. HISTORY OF ARCTIC SHIPPING UP UNTIL 1945 Northwest Passage The history of the search for a navigable Northwest Passage by ships of European nations is an extremely long one, starting as early as 1497. Initially the aim of the British and Dutch was to find a route to the Orient to grab their share of the lucrative trade with India, Southeast Asia and China, till then monopolized by Spain and Portugal which controlled the route via the Cape of Good Hope. In 1497 John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), sponsored by King Henry VII of England, sailed from Bristol in Mathew; he made a landfall variously identified as on the coast of Newfoundland or of Cape Breton, but came no closer to finding the Passage (Williamson 1962). Over the following decade or so, he was followed (unsuccessfully) by the Portuguese seafarers Gaspar Corte Real and his brother Miguel, and also by John Cabot’s brother Sebastian, who some theorize, penetrated Hudson Strait (Hoffman 1961). The first expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage that are definitely known to have reached the Arctic were those of the English captain, Martin Frobisher in 1576, 1577 and 1578 (Collinson 1867; Stefansson 1938).
    [Show full text]
  • 2009-2010 PCSP Science Report
    Logistical support for leading-edge scientific research in the Canadian Arctic Polar Continental Shelf Program Science Report 2009-2010 Contact information Polar Continental Shelf Program Natural Resources Canada 615 Booth Street, Room 487 Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E9 Canada Tel.: 613-947-1650 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: pcsp.nrcan.gc.ca Acknowledgements This report was written by Angelique Magee, with assistance from Sue Sim-Nadeau, Don Lem- men, Marty Bergmann, Marc Denis Everell, Marian Campbell Jarvis, and PCSP-supported scientists whose work is highlighted. The assistance of John England is greatly appreci- ated for the section highlighting his 45 years of Arctic research. The map was created by Sean Hanna (Natural Resources Canada) and the report was designed by Roberta Gal. Photograph credits Photograph credits are indicated within the report. Special thanks are due to Janice Lang (2008-2010) and David Ashe (2010) for providing spectacular photographs. Photograph on cover: Joint NRCan/DFO/DRDC United Nations Conven- tion on the Law Of the Sea (UNCLOS) Program field camp located on sea ice near Borden Island, Nunavut (J. Lang, PCSP/NRCan, CHS/DFO). Information contained in this publication or product may be reproduced, in part or in whole, and by any means, for personal or public non-commercial pur- poses, without charge or further permission, unless otherwise specified. You are asked to: - exercise due diligence in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced; - indicate the complete title of the materials reproduced, and the name of the author organization; and - indicate that the reproduction is a copy of an official work that is published by the Gov- ernment of Canada and that the reproduction has not been produced in affilia- tion with, or with the endorsement of, the Government of Canada.
    [Show full text]