The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), an indigenous peoples’ organization, has asked the world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference to listen to the Inuit voice and act now to protect the Arctic. 

The council expects to be in Copenhagen for the 15^th Conference of the Parties (COP15) with its call to action.  In a press release, ICC Chair Jim Stotts says, “Our message to global leaders is simple: there is no more time to waste.” He adds, “…the Arctic is at the epicentre of climate change. Inuit traditions and subsistence practices have already been assaulted.”

In the document, the Inuit ask the COP15 to –

– ratify an agreement to stabilize greenhouse gas at 350 parts per million, ensuring temperature increases “well below 2 degrees Celsius.” 

– designate avoidance of climate change impacts on the Arctic as a benchmark for effectiveness of future agreements. The Inuit note that the Arctic environment often is the first to show the effects of changes in global climate and ocean systems.

– incorporate traditional knowledge of native peoples into future assessments of climate change and future policy decisions.

– create an international fund, financed by G20 countries, to help those affected by current and inevitable changes.

– adopt a mechanism to commit adaptation assistance to those most affected by climate change, including vulnerable populations living in developed states.

– support green-energy technology to foster economic well-being among vulnerable populations.

Learn how Western scientists are now tapping into traditional knowledge of native peoples to assess the impacts of climate change in the October issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears. The article “Fruitful Collaboration: Western Science and Native Ways of Knowing”describes the work of researchers who are seeking the input of indigenous peoples in the Arctic regions.

Also in Copenhagen. Along with delegations from the world’s major economies, the tip of an iceberg will make an appearance at COP15 in Copenhagen next month. Greenlandic artist Inuk Silis Høegh created the 68-foot tall sculpture and installed it on the outside of a cultural center called North Atlantic House in the city’s harbor.

The image is made of a collage of photographs of icebergs taken along the Greenland coast. The country hopes to draw attention to Greenland’s position at the center of the climate debate.

According to the Siku News,an iceberg with a tip of this size would have a volume of some 30,000 cubic meters (85,000 cubic feet) and would measure well over 100 meters (328 feet) from tip to base.

The Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Network has added a regional center in Alaska. With a team of ocean scientists and educators, COSEE Alaska will stage science fairs, teacher workshops, and hands-on sessions for scientists.

Involved in the center’s work are educators and scientists from the Anchorage School District and state agencies such as the Alaska Ocean Observing System, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and Center for Cross-Cultural and Rural Development, and others. The web site offers links to resources, including lesson plans.

This fall, COSEE Alaska launched SEANET, a network of scientists, educators, communicators and community members interested in promoting ocean research and climate change literacy.

SEANET has a social networking site — http://oceanseanet.ning.com/ — open to everyone.

COSEE is funded by the National Science Foundation with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Twelve centers are located on coastal regions throughout the United States.

In an exhibit titled “Climate Change in Our World” at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is displaying 5-feet tall photographs that show the effects of global warming. A concurrent exhibit for kids, parents and school groups, “How We Know About Our Changing Climate” highlights how scientists learn about climate change and show, in videos and photos, kids taking action.

The 21 photographs in the climate change display are from Gary Braasch’s book Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World. (Univ. of California Press, 2007, 295pp.). Photojournalist Braasch has been documenting climate change for a decade. Each photograph is captioned, explaining where it was shot and the effect of rapid climate change. Among them are photos of a polar bear on an ice-free beach in Alaska, villagers caught in Bangladesh floodwaters, and the retreating Athabasca glacier in the Canadian Rockies.

Images in the companion teaching exhibit are from the children’s book How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate co-written by Lynne Cherry and Braasch (Dawn Publications, 2008).Videos and photos from the Young Voices on Climate Change series show middle school students doing projects to reduce carbon footprints in their communities.

The exhibits, free and open to the public, are in the gallery at AAAS headquarters, 12th and H Streets, N.W., in Washington, D.C. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. The exhibits run through March 15, 2010, and then are expected to travel to museums after March 2010.  

Find a preview of photographs from the kids’ exhibit at http://www.earthunderfire.com/pages/exhibit2.html

Mount Kilimanjaro’s very name evokes the image of snow-covered peaks, perhaps because we’ve so often heard the title of Ernest Hemingway’s 1936 short story and the 1950s movie. The real association between the volcano peak and its glaciers may disappear in the near future. Researchers predict the remaining ice fields maybe gone within two decades or sooner.

According to a press release from the National Science Foundation, researchers generally agree that the likely cause of glacier melting is the rise in global temperatures. Changes in cloudiness and precipitation may play a role, but in recent years temperature changes appear to be more significant.

Twenty-six per cent of the ice on Mount Kilimanjaro in 2000 is now gone. Lonnie Thompson, a paleoclimatologist with the Byrd Polar Research Center (and one of the first researchers to be featured in Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears), can use 2000 as a baseline because he amassed data from six cores drilled on the mountain’s ice fields in that year.

Data show that the glaciers are shrinking in size and thinning rapidly. Thompson says: “If you look at the percentage of volume lost since 2000 versus the percentage of area lost as the ice fields shrink, the numbers are very close.”

The summits of both the northern and southern ice fields atop Kilimanjaro have thinned by 1.9 meters (6.2 feet) and 5.1 meters (16.7 feet), respectively. Thompson cites a small glacier, a remnant of the once enormous ice cap, that has thinned as much as 50 per cent since 2000. At that rate he predicts: “In the future, there will be a year when Furtwängler is present and by the next year, it will have disappeared. The whole thing will be gone!”

Thompson and his team published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues unabated .

Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the highest peak in Africa and a triple-peak volcano. Some 20 volcanoes are nearby.

Glaciers on other famed mountains are exhibiting the same thinning and retreating. To bring worldwide attention to the impact of global warming on the glaciers of the Himalayas, the government ministers of Nepal will hold a cabinet meeting on Mount Everest, earth’s highest peak.

Scheduled for late in November, the meeting will take place at a base camp where mountaineers begin their final ascent of Everest. Cabinet members will fly to the camp.

A government spokesperson said the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and creating lakes that could flood villages. The glaciers feed some of the region’s largest rivers—the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the Brahmaputra—and irrigate farmland in Tibet, Bangladesh and India.

The Nepal event and a government meeting held underwater in Maldives highlight those countries’ concern about the effects of global warming on glaciers and their efforts to make other nations aware before the United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen, December 7-18. (The Maldives, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, is the world’s lowest lying country.)

According to a BBC news story, the Maldives government is hosting a conference in mid-November for about 10 nations vulnerable in different ways - African countries threatened by desertification, mountain ones whose glaciers are melting, large Asian ones affected by floods and typhoons, and other island nations like itself vulnerable to rises in sea level.

Attend the Teacher Workshop at International Polar Year Science Conference in Oslo, Norway! 

http://www.polararet.no/conference/esc/article/2009/1257950088.29

 The International Polar Year (IPY), from March 2007 to March 2009, was a large scientific program focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic.IPY involved thousands of scientists from more than 60 nations in a wide range of physical, biological and social research. The IPY Oslo Science Conference (IPY-OSC 2010) will be the first major meeting of scientists to share results from IPY research. Education, outreach and communication (EOC) has been a central part of IPY and we would like to give teachers and other educators the opportunity to share their experiences. If you have not been involved in IPY, but want to use polar issues in your classroom, you are also welcome to participate.

If you are selected as a participant at the teacher conference you automatically become a participant at the science conference during the rest of the week. You are expected to attend both the teacher and science conferences. You need to arrive on June 5 and depart June 11 at the earliest.

When and Where:

The introductory part of the teacher conference will take place at The University of Oslo June 6 and June 7 2010. The science conference lasts from June 8 until June 12.

Teachers will attend the science conference and meet regularly during the week to share their experiences and ideas.

Who Can Participate:

It’s wide open to teachers and educators worldwide including pre-service teachers.

How to Apply:

To participate in the PolarTEACHERS conference you need to register and apply. There are two ways to be selected:

1. Present a paper to one of the Theme 6 parallel session <http://www.ipy-osc.no/article/2009/1245943735.35>  in the IPY-OSC  2010 by submitting an abstract on a project or activity that you were involved in during IPY.

2. Write an application describing how you plan to use polar science in your classroom.

Check out the website to learn more!

http://www.polararet.no/conference/esc/article/2009/1257950088.29

Or, contact Louise Huffman

lhuffman@andrill.org

ANDRILL Coordinator of Education and Public Outreach

630-460-3688