How do you get audio, text, images, and video from the frozen Arctic to connected people everywhere? Although there are still several challenges to overcome, today's advances in satellite technology have brought Will Steger's expeditions a long way from the days of the 1989-90 TransAntarctica Expedition and text messages limted to a handful of characters.

The Global Warming 101 Expedition's goal was to provide frequent and informative dispatches during the expedition. To do this we had to look at different options that would meet each of the particular needs. Although at times a bit cumbersome and time consuming, it has been worth it to connect everyone.

Here is how we did it

Audio Dispatches:

There is no better way of making a phone call in a remote location than with the Iridium satellite network. Using the Motorola 9505a Iridium satellite phone Will and the team make a telephone call to our voicemail dispatch service. This audio dispatch is then emailed to our basecamp as an attachment and from there it is edited if necessary and uploaded to our website.

This technique of getting an audio message out to the world was something Will started doing during Arctic Transect 2004. It worked so well during that expedition that we've continued to use it with great success.

Trail Dispatches - Text, images and video:

Leaving an audio dispatch is far easier than creating a text dispatch with images and video, but to provide a visual experience as well as audio we needed to look to a different solution. We knew going into this project that we wanted as few satellite connectivity limitations as possible and that we could make our Trail Dispatches as rich as possible.

To do this we looked to the Inmarsat BGAN satellite system and specifically the Hughes 9201 Terminal. Not much larger than the Apple MacBook we use to compile the dispatches, the Hughes 9201 terminal is the king of mobile satellite internet. Properly configured and running off a charged battery, the terminal creates an ultra-portable, highspeed, wi-fi network that our team can connect to and send out their dispatches to the world. We like to call it the Global Warming 101 Expedition Internet Cafe. Although it lacks the hustle and bustle of internet cafe's in the city; you can always get a cup of hot tea and find people working on their laptops.

Once the trail dispatch is compiled, it is sent via email to the base camp and from there posted to our website. All told, the dispatch travels from the Canadian Arctic, to our internet host in the US, back to the Arctic and our basecamp for editing, and finally back to the States where it is made available on our website.

Portable Power

On any expedition, a portable power solution is critical to being connected to the outside world and telling your story. Between satellite phones, computers and cameras, power is a hot commodity and in an environment where temperatures are constantly well below freezing, it can be extremely difficult to come by. On this expedition we weighed many different solutions and settled on sealed lead acid, rechargable battery packs. Between charging sessions we can keep all of our technology charged and get about 9 days out of the packs. The biggest sacrifice of going with a rechargable system instead of a disposable, cold weather friendly lithium system is weight. We have 4 AC/DC battery packs weighing in a about 9 pounds each. These packs are kept in a single hard case that the team has affectionately nicknamed, El Diablo. Everyone knows the importance of bringing El Diablo on the trail, but no one relishes its added weight on their sled.

The expedition looked into several solutions for charging the battery packs. On shorter legs, such as between Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq, the battery packs will last the entire distance. But on longer legs they need to be fully charged at least once. Options available to the expedition were wind, solar and a gas-powered generator. Solar was out of the question because of the sheer size of the panels required to generate enough electricity at Arctic lattitudes to be useful. Wind, although a very tempting option was just to impractical, dangerous and weather-dependent for an expedition like this - Global Warming 101 Expeditions is continuing to research reneawable solutions for future expeditions. In the end, the only reliable means for generating power to charge batteries was to go with a gas powered generator. It wasn't the solution the team wanted, but it was the only solution that met most of the criteria necessary.

Website

After expedition content has been created and transmitted it lands at its final destination, www.globalwarming101.com. The Global Warming 101 website is powered by a Content Management System (CMS) known as Joomla!. It is with tools such as Joomla! that Global Warming 101 can provide visitors with a literal library of content and still be easy to navigate and powerful enough to handle the volume that a project like this needs.

Wrap up

The Global Warming 101 website has no shortage of information for visitors, and it is the dedication of the expedition team members and the complexity of the above technology that make it all possible.

Jim Paulson

Global Warming 101 Expedition Webmaster and Technology Logistics

Inuit people from across Alaska and Canada delivered a petition to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. Quotes from members of the communities through which the Global Warming 101 expedition has traveled are highlighted in the petition. These quotes give an intimate perspective on day-to-day realities of living in a warming climate:

“Even areas with little current are not freezing over and they have non-recurring polynias [areas of open water] all over the place now. This used to only occur at the areas where there were really strong currents… [T]hese were known areas of strong currents. These days, even in place where we have no known polynias, there are occurrences now happening all over the area. Near Pangnirtung we are starting to get polynias where the never used to be one.” Inuk elder from Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, Canada

“We used to stay in igloos most of the winters those days, these days we mostly stay in tents…. [During] winter the tents get cold due to not enough insulation.” Inuk elder from Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, Canada

“When the snow layer has not frozen during the evening, then it is difficult to travel. When the snow does not freeze ‘qiqsuqqaq’, then it is really soft and hard to travel on. It seems to be really soft now once it starts to melt.” South Baffin Island elder

“That is the biggest worry, these caribou, and others that feed off the land. When there should be snow on the land, instead ice forms and the food is then not accessible.” Tsa Piubgituq, Clyde River, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada

“The food for the caribou is less abundant. Exact same things with rabbits. Rabbits are starting to come into the community more because they are finding more food that they have never had before. Different grasses, different plants. These sort of things are changing. New plants are growing up here in the north that the rabbits have never seen….Different plants are unique for our elders, but they are beginning to say that there is so much climate change that plants from down south are coming up here and plants from different communities are coming here. Different plants, almost like bushes, are growing. These are the changes the elders are seeing.” Pitseolak Alainga, Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada

“The vegetation is different. Caribous are not getting fatter quicker than they used to be. Right now, when you go out here and get a caribou, they’re not fat anymore. It’s almost the end of August, but when you go back thirty years by this time they should be well-fed and well fat.” Ben Kovic, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

“It used to be that [the rivers from the glaciers] were very clear….They looked so clear you wanted to drink from them and now they are foggy even in the late summer. They’re not as clear as they used to be.” James Qillaq, Clyde River, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada

Source:
Watt-Coultier, S., & The Inuit Circumpolar Confernece, et al. (2005) Petition to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights Seeking Relief from Violations Resulting from Global Warming….

Inuit activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Shelia Watt-Cloutier testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on March 1, 2007. Her message was clear: Climate change threatens to undermine the culture, health, and livelihood of the Inuit and other indigenous people around the world. Here is a portion of her testimony:

“While Inuit are not an agricultural people, we depend on the bounty of the land for our survival. The traditional Inuit diet is being eroded as animals are less plentiful, less healthy and more difficult to harvest. Further, as the planet warms, more persistent organic pollutants, of which Inuit are the net highest recipients on the planet, find their way to our homeland through the additional runoff from watersheds that empty in the Arctic. We can no longer rely on the traditional practice of food caching as food rots and insects invade caches. Often, our access to our traditional hunting is cut off as sea ice is depleted and permafrost slumps or melts. These changes undermine the realization of our rights to culture, life, health, and means of subsistence….

“Human health will be affected by changing disease vectors, extreme heat, and reduction of air quality. Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and possibly avian flu are spreading to higher elevations and newly warming regions. For the first time in my history, my hometown had to start to use air conditioners. Imagine, air conditioners in the Arctic. It's almost unbelievable. And our homes are not meant to be breathing because of the cold, and so it becomes very difficult even in our homes. So all of these things are starting to affect, of course, the vulnerable members of society: the elderly, young children, those that suffer from respiratory diseases -- such as asthma and emphysema -- and the poor, who lack access to air conditioning and adequate health care. Areas already suffering poor air quality will be hardest hit….

“The individual rights of many are at stake. The collective rights of many peoples to their culture is also at stake. I encourage the Commission to continue its work in protecting human rights. In so doing, you will protect the sentinels of climate change -- the indigenous people. By protecting the rights of those living sustainably in the Amazon Basin or the rights of the Inuit hunter on the snow and ice, this commission will also be preserving the world's environmental early-warning system.

The entire text of her testimony, as well as an interview, video, and other testimonies, are available at: http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/007/nobel-prize-nominee-testifies-about-global-warming.html

“The sun rises in a different place than it used to,” the elder told the Global Warming 101 Expedition Team. We shot a look at each other across the room. “How could this be?” we asked ourselves later. Elders all across Baffin had told us the same thing, but it just didn’t make any sense to us. The elders weren’t reporting just a small shift in the sunrise location; they were telling us that it was rising as much as three sun-widths to the side. Many told us they believed it was connected with the warming, but they weren’t sure how.

At home in our basecamp we would try to figure out how these observations from the local elders could fit with our understanding of the way the earth’s spin, tilt and orbit work. We thought, if the earth had indeed shifted on its axis, wouldn’t we have heard about it from scientists?

Finally we found a possible explanation. Locals in Clyde River told us about Wayne Davidson, a meteorologist in Resolute Bay in the High Arctic, north of Baffin. He thinks that an unusually warm layer of air over the cold snow refracts the light from the sun over the horizon. To get an idea of how this works, stick a fork into a glass of water and look at how the tines appear to bend at the waterline.

As part of the International Polar Year (IPY) scientists from around the world will be studying the Arctic and Antarctic. Locals here on Baffin are hoping the scientists will be able to shed some more light on the environmental changes happening in their home region.

As I travel through Baffin, speaking with the locals about their observations of environmental change, I marvel at their knowledge. I am hopeful that the IPY will provide another opportunity for western scientists and Inuit people to share knowledge with each other.

Elizabeth

Local people tell us that when the snow comes right after the sea begins to freeze, it can keep the ice from thickening. It may seem strange to think of snow keeping something warm. Snow traps air, however, just like a fluffy comforter on a bed or the modern insulation in the outside walls of your house. This trapped air is a good insulator.

Even when the air temperatures get very cold, a thick layer of snow on the newly-formed sea ice can insulate the water from the cold air. The warmer ocean waters can then keep the ice from freezing to its usual depth.

Hunters and elders across Baffin Island have been telling us that with a warming climate, the snow often comes right after the ice begins to freeze. In addition to making the ice form not as thick, the layer of snow on the top can make it difficult for local travelers to notice if the ice is starting to melt from the bottom.

Many hunters and elders have told us that the ice used to melt from the top down. Now they say it melts from the bottom up. They say the snow blanket on top insulates the ice from the cold air and the warm ocean currents melt the ice from the bottom.

Because the ice still looks the same from the surface, it can confuse some travelers. There have been cases of people on snowmobiles falling through thin ice that looked fine from the top.

For much of the year the sea ice makes up a large part of the world of the local Inuit people. They travel over the ice to reach hunting grounds, neighboring communities and outpost camps. They stake their dogs on the sea ice and build fishing shacks.

Their safety and traditional way of life depends on ice and their ability to read it. Even a seemingly small change like the timing of the snowfall in relation to the ice freeze-up can have wide impacts.

Elizabeth

The Global Warming 101 Expedition Team will mush along the edge of the Foxe Basin on our way to Iglulik. Strong ocean currents flow though parts of the Foxe Basin, keeping the ice from freezing solidly like it does in some other areas. For this reason people who travel between Iglulik and Clyde River, instead of traveling in a straight line across the Foxe Basin, hug the coastline and cut over land in some areas to avoid open water.

The Global Warming 101 Expedition Team will mush along the edge of the Foxe Basin on our way to Iglulik. Strong ocean currents flow though parts of the Foxe Basin, keeping the ice from freezing solidly like it does in some other areas. For this reason people who travel between Iglulik and Clyde River, instead of traveling in a straight line across the Foxe Basin, hug the coastline and cut over land in some areas to avoid open water.

Marie Airut, the wife of expedition member Lukie Airut, has lived on the land and in an outpost camp for much of her life. She told me that in the past the ice in Foxe Basin would go out near the end of July or beginning of August. She says now the ice goes out at the end of June or beginning of July.

The Global Warming 101 Expedition Team hopes to arrive in Iglulik around the tenth of May, so that should give us plenty of time before the ice goes out. Even so, we have been looking on the web page of the Canadian Ice Service to check ice conditions. Every few weeks they publish a color-coded map of the ice conditions.

According to their maps, the ice in Foxe Basin is starting to thin. The map from February 26 showed thick ice across Foxe Basin. By March 12, however, the ice along the edge of Foxe Basin near Iglulik had started to thin. By April 9, the area of thin ice had increased around 600%.

Even though we will be skirting the edge of the Foxe Basin and cutting over the land to avoid open water and poor ice, it is difficult for me to not feel a tiny bit of apprehension about the thinning ice.

Elizabeth

(written April 25th, 2007)

How do people from different communities use sea ice? How is sea ice changing in different parts of the Arctic? How can different Arctic cultures share knowledge about the environment? How can GPS and GIS technology help Inuit compile their knowledge of the land into maps and databases for understanding environmental change? The community of Clyde River is active in researching these and other questions.

One of the goals of the newly-formed Clyde River Research Committee is to involve communities in the growing number of research projects focusing on the Arctic. Funds from the Government of Nunavut helped purchase a building in Clyde River to house a new community-based research center. In the next year the citizens of Clyde will decide on a name for their new center, begin to renovate the building and begin new research projects as well as continue current investigations.

One question the researchers and community members will ask is how can the people of Baffin Island adapt to climate change? The Government of Canada, the Government of Nunavut and several communities on Baffin, including Clyde River, are working to improve community planning.

One goal expressed by some community members is to make Clyde River capable of being self-sufficient. Clyde River has strong winds and ocean currents that could be harnessed to provide energy.

The forward-looking attitude of the people of Clyde River has attracted the attention of groups outside of the community. Many outside research projects will be working with Clyde River especially during the International Polar Year.

The Global Warming 101 Expedition Team would like to thank the people of Clyde River for sharing their vision with us.

Charlie Alikatuktuk, a professional clam-diver from Qikiqtarjuaq, prepares to submerge beneath the sea ice. Global Warming 101 Expedition Team members and students from the local school stand around to watch.

Although air temperatures around 20°F (-6°C) make the day relatively balmy for the Arctic in March and despite the fact that Charlie is wearing a dry-suit with long underwear underneath, those standing around can’t help but feel a bit of dread at the thought of his impeding dive beneath the ice.

Charlie’s dives usually last about thirty to forty-five minutes. He may do up to three dives a day. He collects clams off the bottom, putting them in a basket strapped to his body and hauling them up to the ice hole with the help of a rope as a guide.

Under the ice a world exists that few people ever get to see. Seals and fish are the most noticeable occupants. The most numerous inhabitants, however, are the microscopic organisms that form the base of the food web. Ice algae clings to the underside of the sea ice, coloring it a brownish-green.

As warmer weather causes the sea ice to melt, a thick layer of relatively fresh (not salty) water forms below the remaining ice. Researchers have found that this freshwater layer is one-third deeper than it was twenty years ago.

Freshwater algae is now replacing the saltwater algae that once covered the underside of the ice. The freshwater algae is not as productive as the saltwater algae it replaces. Except for below-the-ice divers like Charlie and a handful of researchers, most people do not see these changes.

Elizabeth

(Source: ACIA, 2004)

Back at Steger’s Minnesota homestead when we were packing our expedition food, we wondered, “Will the Inuit team members want to eat oatmeal for breakfast?” We contacted Theo to ask. His reply: “I would prefer to eat char.”

Arctic char, the northernmost species of freshwater fish, is a mainstay of the Inuit diet. A member of the Salmonidae family, its flesh is pink like salmon but has a more mild taste. Some populations of char stay in freshwater lakes for their whole lives while others migrate to the sea in the summer to feed.

The Inuit members of the Global Warming 101 Expedition Team eat char not only in the mornings, but anytime during the day when they need nourishment and energy. When the dog-sleds pause during the day, we Minnesota team members eat dried fruit, nuts, chocolate and chunks of frozen cheese out of plastic bags. The Inuit members, on the other hand, pull a 15 pound frozen Arctic char from a wooden crate on the back of their komatiq sled.

With a sharp knife the Inuit expertly cut slivers of the flesh and pop the frozen morsels into their mouths. It’s the Arctic version of sashimi. At first we Minnesota members joked that we would like some wasabi and pickled ginger to accompany the raw char. We have now, however, come to appreciate the flavor and texture of the char.

As the climate changes and water warms, Arctic char increase their rates of respiration. This increases the amount of heavy metals that build up in their flesh. These heavy metals can then accumulate in the bodies of animals and people who eat the char. Heavy metals are especially worrisome in children and in women of childbearing age. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause birth defects, learning disabilities and other health problems. To the Inuit, for whom a large portion of their diet comes from char and marine mammals, mercury contamination is a serious threat.

When our energy is low and our stomachs are rumbling with hunger pains, however, the threat of mercury is far from our minds. We pause for a snack break, enjoy the delicious char, and share in a cultural tradition that is thousands of years old.

Elizabeth Andre

(Source: ACIA, 2004)

After leaving the Inuit village of Pangnirtung, the Global Warming 101team mushed along the edge of the retreating Penny Ice Cap on their way through the Auyuittuq National Park. The Inuktitut name of the park translates as “the land that never melts.” The Expedition Team, however, saw only the truncated ends of the glaciers that once snaked down from the Penny Ice Cap and surrounding peaks. They crossed over naked rock and jumbled moraines left behind after the glaciers’ retreat.

Rebecca Anderson, a researcher from the University of Colorado, told the Global Warming 101 team that much of the Baffin Island plateau was covered by permanent snow and ice during the Little Ice Age (about 1600-1900 AD), but that now there are only a few residual ice caps and these are disappearing rapidly. Anderson and Prof. Gifford Miller at the University of Colorado have been studying the retreat of some of these remnant ice caps on Baffin Island.

The tools Anderson and the other researchers use are aerial photography, sediment cores, stakes, dead moss emerging from beneath the ice caps as they retreat, and cosmogenic dating, which reveals the total time that rocks have been exposed at the surface. The University of Colorado research team flies in helicopters to the edge of the ice caps. They then camp near the edge, spending their days measuring the telltale signs of the ice caps’ retreat.

Anderson reports some of the Baffin ice caps have been around even longer than the Little Ice Age, but they are all now retreating rapidly. The Orion Ice Cap on the north end of Baffin Island has lost more than half of its area since 1958. If the small ice caps the researchers are studying continue to melt at their current rate, they will eventually disappear.

These and other Arctic ice caps hold large amounts of water. As they melt they will continue to contribute to world sea-level rise.

The Global Warming 101 Expedition Team will mush along the edge of the Barnes Ice Cap on their way from Clyde River to Iglulik. Daily updates of the team’s progress are available at www.globalwarming101.com .

 

Elizabeth