Eastern Canadian Arctic, Last Holdout Region, Yielding To Rapid Warming

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IQALUIT -- "Canada's eastern Arctic, one of the last places on the planet to resist global warming, is finally succumbing to the greenhouse effect. The warming of these lands, among the world's coldest, becomes obvious even in the middle of winter. The glaciers are retreating. The pack ice is growing thin. Freezing rain causes problems at a time the snow should be falling. Just about everywhere in Nunavut, everybody has a story to tell that documents the warming. "The winter is shorter, the summer is longer. In autumn, the ice takes more time to firm," said Olayuk Akesuk of the Nunavut environment ministry.

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"Climate change has already wreaked havoc in the western Arctic -- the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Alaska. Whole villages sink into the ground. Houses cave into the sea. Erosion eats away the coasts at an alarming rate -- as much as three metres' worth in a single storm. Now in the eastern Arctic, and especially on Baffin Island, signs of warming are becoming apparent.

A wildlife officer in Broughton Island, east of Baffin, learned the hard way that the everlasting ice of winter is no longer what it was. I was chasing a polar bear on a snowmobile to make sure that it didn't stay on the island, near the residents," he said. "Suddenly, I saw the bear fall through the ice some 50 feet in front of me. It was incredible. I've never seen that! I had the fright of my life."

Simon Nattaq, one of the best hunters of Iqaluit, was less fortunate three years ago. The ice where he fished all his life, in Frobisher Bay, collapsed under his weight. Arctic warming cost him his two legs, amputated below the knees. Nattaq barely managed to get out of the freezing water, but the worst was still in store: He suffered for 53 hours on the pack ice and in an unheated hunting camp to which he managed to drag himself. "The weakness of the ice really took me by surprise," explained Nattaq at his home in Iqaluit, Baffin Island. "I've hunted all my life on that pack ice. I know that place in intimate detail. The ice was always sound in the past. "Not this time. The upper layer of the ice looked solid enough to support me, but it was an illusion." Nattaq will never forget that day. It was February 17, 2001. The temperature was -33 degrees Celsius. It was the heart of winter in one of the coldest places on the planet."

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http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun/News/2005/06/19/1094755-sun.html