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Meridian Spring IN THIS ISSUE NEW IDEAS ABOUT SOVEREIGNTY AND SECURITY IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC Steven C. Bigras New Ideas about Sovereignty and What are the implications of global warm- iticians and university students had gathered Security in the Canadian Arctic 1 ing for Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic? A to hear what the experts had to say about SPRING/SUMMER 2002 recent international conference in Ottawa the warming trend in the Canadian Arctic, Bipolar Science: has provided much food for thought on this and what they predicted the results would A Canadian Contribution question. mean for country as a whole. to Earth System Science 2 “On Thinning Ice: Climate Change and Some scientific experts were telling us New Ideas about Sovereignty and Security in that the Arctic is experiencing a decrease in Northern Lake Sediment Fossils the Canadian Arctic” was mounted in Janu- the ice cover thickness and greater areas of Hold Clues to Climate Change 5 ary by the Canadian Arctic Resources Com- open water. If the present warming trend mittee, The Centre for Military and Strategic persists the Northwest Passage may soon Global Change: Studies at the University of Calgary, and the become a veritable expressway for commer- Much More than a Matter of Degrees 8 Canadian Polar Commission. The three cial shipping between Europe and Asia. national organizations brought together This type of scenario brought sovereignty Interview: Jean Briggs 12 some of the globe’s leading experts on cli- and security issues to the forefront. With the mate change, sovereignty and security. By possibility of increased commercial activity What’s New 15 inviting such notables to the conference the in the Arctic, a stronger government pres- organizers were hoping to fuel debate and ence is necessary to ensure that Canada’s Horizon 16 find answers to questions on the implica- sovereignty is upheld. As many of the secu- tions of global warming, and whether or rity experts were quick to point out, a not the changing ice regime would bring stronger presence may also be needed to challenges to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty. deal with such security threats as smuggling They were not disappointed. and illegal immigration, which may be The Norwegian ambassador kicked off increasingly attempted in what were once the event by welcoming arctic researchers inaccessible locations far from established and conference organizers at an evening border checkpoints. reception at his home. Then for the next two Health issues, lifestyle, and well-being of days the vast meeting chamber of the northerners need to be addressed as a result Government Conference Centre in Ottawa of increased commercial activity. There are echoed with the voices of some 30 invited also environmental issues – how to protect speakers and an audience of nearly 200. and regulate shipping to ensure our waters Ambassadors, academics, bureaucrats, con- do not suffer environmental damage, or sultants, military officers, researchers, pol- worse, an environmental catastrophe. There is a need to continually monitor water quali- Through their presentations panelists The conference concluded with a call for ty to maintain the survival and proliferation brought it to our attention that Canada is a action. Canada needs to step up its research of terrestrial and marine species. polar nation with no national polar research activities in the Arctic. If the Canadian gov- As the conference drew to a close, it strategy. Canada is seen by other nations as ernment does not do so – if it continues to became increasingly apparent that Canada a weak link in terms of its contributions to ignore the need to increase surveillance and needs to start strategizing to meet the poten- understanding of the arctic environment environmental monitoring programs – then tial challenges that climate change may and global climate change. For the last five the landscape that we fondly call the Cana- bring to bear on our arctic region. The years Canada has seen other nations mount dian Arctic may well undergo a drastic envi- instinctual Canadian response to seek the large-scale multinational interdisciplinary ronmental and geopolitical transformation. middle ground when dealing with a prob- research projects in our arctic regions (see lem of this magnitude will not serve the “Tundra Northwest 99”, Meridian, Fall / Steven C. Bigras is Executive Director of Canadian interest in this instance. What is Winter 2001). This conference has under- the Canadian Polar Commission. needed is a radical departure from the status scored the fact that Canada is ill-equipped to quo. respond to the many and varied challenges global warming may bring. We have gaps in our arctic knowledge base. We have relied on the twin factors of inaccessibility and iso- lation to deter commercial use of our arctic waters. BIPOLAR SCIENCE: A CANADIAN CONTRIBUTION TO EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE Wayne Pollard EARTH SYSTEM These scientific advances have been Canadians have a role to play in this SCIENCE matched by and to some extent stimulated process. Not only do we need to work hard During the past 40 years developments have by technological developments. Advances in as a nation to meet our environmental com- combined to reveal to us a new view of the satellite and manned spacecraft technologies mitments under the Kyoto Protocol; we also Earth as an integrated system of interact- have given us the first global view of the need to expand our scientific vision to ing components. We are just beginning to Earth from space. Recent advances in infor- include global questions that seek solutions understand the forcing mechanisms of the mation technology include the capacity to to problems that threaten everyone. We Earth’s climate system (solar fluctuation, model global systems and analyse the huge need to look beyond geographically limited changes in orbit, atmospheric composition, databases necessary to look at the Earth as problems and join with scientists from other ocean currents) and particularly the role of an integrated system. countries on global-scale research pro- the polar regions (the cryosphere). Also, Possibly the most important develop- grams. Furthermore, we need to take the after years of debate there is both wide- ment, beginning with the Rio Earth Summit lead on scientific initiatives in areas where spread consensus that human activities are in 1992 and culminating in the Kyoto Proto- Canadian scientists are internationally causing global climate change and clear col in 1997, is the decision to take responsi- recognised, like polar science. Canada evidence that these changes have already bility for human impacts on the Earth. Earth remains a world leader in polar science and begun. system science recognises the need to look at engineering despite decades of political whole Earth questions. Polar regions repre- myopia marked by cutbacks to northern sent one of the biggest unknowns in our research infrastructure and under-funding. attempt to understand the Earth system. 2 Five themes are emerging as foci of cry- ospheric research: The cryosphere as a major driver of the global climate – Research on the dynamics of the cryosphere contributes to our capacity to understand, monitor and predict the impacts of global change, in particular anthropogenic global warming. Climate change at the poles is forecast to be up to four times the global average and thus will provide early warning and validation of global and regional models. SPRING/SUMMER 2002 Palaeoclimate – In both polar regions ice, ocean and atmosphere coexist to form an intimately coupled system with a highly non-linear response to external forcing and complex internal variability. Large spatial and temporal variations exist with both short-term fluctuations and long-term trends. Meteorological records illustrate the degree of natural short-term variability in climate worldwide. However, there is a need to know in more detail how climate Photo: Courtesy Canadian Space Agency,2002. has changed both within the Holocene and POLAR SCIENCE on longer time scales. The polar regions AND THE of organisms and the structure and func- contain unique deep ice sheets which pro- CRYOSPHERE tioning of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. vide potential records of climate change The Earth’s planetary properties and geo- Through atmospheric and ocean circulation through many glacial cycles, while lake and space relations combine to give our polar pathways (and biological migrations), the marine sediments provide complementary regions their extreme environmental char- cryosphere is linked to lower latitudes and is details for both longer and shorter periods. acter. Polar regions cover at least 20 percent a major driver and modulator of climate. Depletion of the stratospheric ozone and of our planet and play a fundamental role in The survival and welfare of northern popu- enhanced UV-B radiation at both poles – the physical, chemical and biological opera- lations are linked intimately to the cryos- The spatial and temporal dynamics of tion of the whole Earth system. The predom- pheric environment. An understanding of stratospheric ozone provide insights into inance of very low temperatures that char- the cryosphere is highly relevant to under- future change at lower latitudes as well as at acterise polar regions produce an integrated standing the global environment and under- the poles. environmental system called the cryosphere. pins resource utilisation and other activities The cryosphere is formed through the inti- in polar regions and at lower latitudes.
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