Northwest Passage: No more warm and fuzzy ideals
The front yard of the average Inuit home will contain several snowmobiles, some of them working, some of them being repaired, some in a state of despair. There will also be a few quad bikes, and, if the resident works for the government or one of the town’s big companies, they will have a late model truck or SUV parked in the driveway. Mounted on a wooden stand next to their modest bungalow will be a steel tank containing diesel that slowly drips into their furnace and keeps them warm. Spread around the rest of the yard will be an array of broken toys, wooden sleds, chained dogs and the other detritus of modern northern life.
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Northwest Passage update: Sea ice report
There was more sea ice in the Arctic this summer than in the past two years, contrary to early spring ice forecasts and the longer term trend of melting sea ice. “Arctic ice is holding in there, with about 20 percent more than in 2007,” Dr Humfrey Melling, a research scientist with Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences, told me.
Also posted in Northwest Passage expedition Tagged Arctic, cameron dueck, climate change, global warming, Northwest Passage expedition, WWF 1 Comment
Northeast Passage: Opportunities for the Arctic
When I come up for my final watch, we are at Unalaska Island, making our way into Dutch Harbour! It is still twilight, but the view is beautiful: steep mountains still mostly green, but with a dusting of fresh snow at higher elevations. The Aleutian Islands are among the most dramatically scenic places anywhere and I always hoped to see them someday. I just never imagined I would arrive to them from Russia!
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Northwest Passage: Homeward bound through the icebergs
Silent Sound has crossed the Arctic Circle marking her official transit of the Northwest Passage! We entered the Arctic via the Bering Sea two months ago to the day, and since then we’ve sailed some 3,400 nautical miles, seen a lot of ice and learned a lot about the Canadian North.
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Northwest Passage: A successful mission