The Pace And Face Of Rapid Change: Canadian Inuit Have Created Words For "Robin", "Bumblebee" [View all]

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But the Arctic is changing, rapidly. On Monday night at the Vancouver Aquarium, two researchers from the ArcticNet group reported on the changes they’ve seen and the research they’re doing to figure out the future of the Arctic.

Dr. David Barber, who is the Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba spoke about the dramatic changes he’s seen over his career in the Arctic. In the 1980s, he wasn’t sure what climate scientists were talking about when they were warning of climate change, but today in the Arctic, the rapid spiralling of sea ice loss in the last decade has led to changes so fast the researchers can barely keep up with it.

Last summer, Dr Barber was in contact with a German research group studying the sea ice around the North Pole. The research group was unable to find sea ice solid enough to land the research group, and all their research had to be conducted from the boat, which is a remarkable change from only five years ago when the British TV show Top Gear drove an SUV to the North Pole.

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What’s happening in the Arctic now is what will be happening to us in the next few decades as we watch the natural world around us change rapidly. Because when we live in a planetary ecosystem, saying that I live in Vancouver (far from the Arctic) doesn’t matter. Physics doesn’t negotiate. This means that something is happening rapidly now to our habitat, rapidly enough that it can be observed by a researcher over one career. It’s happening so quickly that Inuit communities are creating words for animals never seen in their area like bumblebees and robins. It’s happening so quickly that researchers still haven’t worked out whether the carbon cycle in the Arctic will be a net carbon sink or carbon source with climate change.

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http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/climate-change-inuit-now-have-words-%E2%80%98bumblebee%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98robin%E2%80%99