The Latest Results from Study of the Tagish Lake Meteorite and Fireball
by Dr. Peter Brown
The Tagish Lake meteorite fell on January 18, 2000. The associated fireball was widely observed over the Yukon, Alaska and Northern British Columbia. Subsequent recovery of meteoritic material from the ice surface of the Taku Arm of Tagish Lake occurred between January and May, 2000.
The fireball associated with this meteorite fall was widely observed from the ground and from satellites in space. Analysis of these records now permits reconstruction of a complete picture of the collision of this small asteroid with the Earth. Ongoing studies of the Tagish Lake meteorite are revealing that it is unlike any other meteorite previously recovered. This unique specimen, now called "Tagish Lake" is likely the most primitive (unaltered) meteorite ever documented; it has a high abundance of interstellar grains, low amino acid content and unusual mineralogy.
In this talk Peter Brown presented final results from the analysis of the fireball entry; what it has revealed about the object before it encountered the atmosphere, aspects of the recovery effort and a summary of the laboratory work carried out to date on this enigmatic meteorite.
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Was Oetzi Murdered?
by Dr. James Dixon, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Fascinating discoveries are still being made about the Iceman who lived 5,300 years ago in the area of the Oetztal Alps, on the borders of Austria and Italy.
There are very recent claims that he was killed by an arrow in the back and that a stab wound in his right hand shows that he had been in a fight. But are these claims really true?
In the last year much more has been found out about Oetzi's last meals by microscopic analysis of his chyme (the undigested food in his stomach) and his chyle (the food from the intestines below his stomach). For instance, there are no less than four different types of moss and so had he eaten these unpalatable plants deliberately?
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Pleistocene Mammals in the Yukon: Life at a 3.5 Million-Year-Old Beaver Pond in the Canadian High Arctic
by Richard Harington
Remains of fishes, frogs, birds and about a dozen mammal species are known from ancient (Pleistocene) beaver-pond deposits at Strathcona Fiord (about 78°30'N) on Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere. Of particular interest are species of an ancestral black bear, a massive forerunner of the wolverine, the first record of a Eurasian badger from this continent, the northernmost three-toed horse; as well as a small "deerlet". The boreal-forest margin environment of this beaver pond stands in marked contrast to the stark tundra landscape now surrounding the fossil site.
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Keeping Track of the Ugly Duckling: How swans and schools connect in Alaska
by Norv Dallin
Trumpeter Swans have met new friends in Alaska. Norv Dallin is a teacher in McGrath, Alaska, a remote village in the heart of Trumpeter Swan nesting grounds. His classes have a unique working relationship with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, where school children participate in the capturing, banding, collaring (with satellite transmitters) and tracking of swans. They study these birds and work with a school in Utah to post location and other information on the web (http://www.uen.org/swan/).
This presentation featured the students of McGrath school talking about their project and their unique role in this important international conservation effort.
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Living with bears: Images and conclusions from 35 years of research and experience
by Steve Herrero
Few people go into bear habitat without thinking about possible interactions with bears. Almost everyone has "their" bear story. Bears are loved, hated, enjoyed, feared and more. Bears, especially grizzly bears, have little resilience, the ability to adapt to major changes in numbers or habitat. People can recognize this and use bear habitat sustainably if they avoid unwanted affects on bear populations, ecology or behavior. Living with bears is my understanding of how to do this. It is based on five topics I'll cover in my talk: accepting modest risk, managing attractants, not killing too many, managing habitat, and fostering respect for bears.
Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project: www.canadianrockies.net/grizzly/
Sponsors: Canada, DIAND, Parks Canada, Year of the Great Bear
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Mercury in fish from northern Canada
by Lyle Lockhart
Mercury is a natural element present throughout the earth's crust. Human activities, especially over the last century, have dispersed mercury throughout the planet in ways that do not occur naturally. In the late 1970s, surveys of mercury in human blood revealed that people living in northern communities, notably those along the seacoast, generally had blood mercury levels above the normal range. We cannot draw upon traditional knowledge on this problem because people cannot see or taste or smell the mercury in the fish.
Northern fish grow slowly and often live for long periods and so even a slow rate of accumulation of mercury can lead to a high body concentration over time. Furthermore, most of the mercury in fish muscle is in the form of methylmercury, the neurotoxic form. In Canada, modern regulations are aimed at defining a safe level of consumption in terms of the amount of fish that can be eaten each week.
Surveys of mercury in fish from Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut show widespread presence of mercury across the whole region with no obvious relationship to geological settings. About one third of lake trout collections have above average acceptable mercury levels, while almost all of the whitefish do not. The data obtained to date do not give a clear indication about whether levels of mercury are changing. However, cores from several Yukon lakes suggest that inputs of mercury have increased relative to pre-industrial times. Levels seem to be increasing in beluga whales from the Beaufort coast and several hypotheses may be advanced to explain that trend, perhaps the most ominous being that the increases are being driven by climate change.
How much of the mercury is natural and beyond human control and how much of it is anthropogenic and within human control? We don't know. It seems likely that this question together with the processes driving any temporal trends will be subjects of research over the coming years.
Sponsors: YTG Heritage, Yukon News, Westmark Hotel, Northern Contaminants Program, Yukon Conservation Society.
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The Five Ws of Green Buildings (What, Why, Where, When, Who... and How)
by Elisa Campbell
Buildings have a significant impact on the health of the environment and on the livability of our communities. If not designed and built properly, new buildings can destroy local ecosystems and can impact negatively on our sense of place. The construction and operation of buildings consume vast quantities of energy, materials, water, and land, and result in significant creation of waste. Buildings are a major source of the pollution that causes urban air quality problems, and the pollutants that cause climate change. The materials we place in our buildings can lead to occupant health problems, lower productivity, and to a reduced sense of well-being.
The concept of 'green buildings' attempts to address this situation. Through constructing and operating high performance green buildings, we can become stewards of our natural environment and advocates of healthy and livable communities. The challenge is to build smart, so that buildings use a minimum of non-renewable resources, produce a minimum of pollution and wastes, and cost a minimum of dollars, while increasing the comfort, health, and safety of the people who live and work in them.
This presentation will provide information and details about green buildings. It will talk about what makes green buildings different from conventional buildings, and how we can go about designing and building them. It will demonstrate who is building green, and why. By presenting a wide range of case studies, this presentation will show that the concept of green buildings is not only better for the health of our communities and our ecosystems, but also for our wallets.
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Volcanoes in the Yukon and Alaska: An Eye-Opening Look at Eruptions of the White River Ash
by Kim West
Volcanic activity is a dynamic and invigorating natural force which progressively shapes the face of our planet. Volcanism not only affects us by the creation and destruction of continental landmass, but it also affects our global economy, climate, and is a major component in our historic stories, literature, and art. This lecture examined:
Kim West graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Geology. Since then, she has been enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Ontario. She has been coming to the Yukon and Alaska for 3 consecutive years studying the White River Ash deposit. She is the author of a several publications on the White River Ash, including a recent article in the Yukon News, entitled "There's a volcano in the neighborhood." She is also preparing a general education brochure on the White River Ash to be distributed in visitor centres across the Yukon and Alaska in the near future.
Related sites:
The White River Ash
Evidence for winter eruption of the White River Ash
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Environment and Native Cultures
by Wayne Grady and Steven Hume
Yukoners had an opportunity to listen to two of Canada's foremost author-explorers read from their works and share their backcountry adventures. Grady and Hume are nationally admired for their ability to find the right words to evoke landscapes and the lives of the people formed by them. Both men write from a strong commitment to the health of wilderness and rural regions, and both men know how to tell great stories, many of which have been gleaned from treks into regions many of the rest of us will never be fortunate enough, or daring enough, to see. Grady has dug for dinosaurs in the wilds of Mongolia and Argentina and traveled by ice-breaker to the North Pole - among many other adventures.
Of the Louis S. St Laurent's 1994 expedition he says: "We were the first ship to get to the North Pole from the western approach and we were the first ship to make a complete crossing of the Arctic Ocean over the North Pole."
Grady has won the Governor-General's Award for Translation. Hume has wandered far and wide over the backcountry of BC, Yukon and NWT to learn about the lives of trappers and fishers and the creatures that sustain them.
A senior writer with the Vancouver Sun, Hume has gathered many honours, including the Southam President's Award, the Jack Webster Award and the Marjorie Nichols Memorial Award. While these writers have returned from the hinterlands with salient warnings about the fate of life on this planet and the damaged state of our water and air, they balance seriousness with humorous insights into the human condition.
Perhaps best known for their nonfiction prose, Hume and Grady have mastered other literary forms as well. Hume has published two books of poetry. Grady recently completed his first novel while serving a term as Writer-in-Residence with Yukon Libraries and Archives.
This joint reading was made possible by the generosity of local businesses and organizations, including the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Yukon Science Institute, Mac's Fireweed Books, Libraries and Archives, the Yukon News, and Whitehorse Westmark. The event was hosted by Yukon News editor, the duplicitous doofus (sic) Peter Lesniak.
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Arctic Nature Takes in All the Sciences
by E.C. Pielou
"It has always bothered me that 'natural history' is usually taken to mean mammals and birds and flowers and butterflies, and that's the end of it. Of course there's much more: Atmospheric science -- there's so much to see in the sky. Astronomy for the same reason. Earth Sciences, especially geomorphology or why the ground has the shape it has, which is so easy to see in the Arctic. Also Hydrology, or why, where, and how fast water moves, above ground and below. And so on. Conservation is my main preoccupation nowadays, and it will take more than the birds-and-flowers people to protect our world. That's why it's so important to engage the interest of those who work in the physical sciences. They miss so much that would interest them if they keep their interests indoors. My aim in this talk is to show you what you miss. And some flowers too."
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Lakes, Permafrost and Climate Change
by Chris Burn, Carleton University
Lakes cause the greatest natural disturbance to ground temperatures from conditions determined by climate. Permafrost cannot be maintained beneath lakes where the water is deep and winter ice does not reach bottom. Many lakes in permafrost regions are in depressions formed by the melting of ground ice. Some of these lakes expand every year as they continue to melt the permafrost surrounding them. The expansion of thermokarst lakes near Mayo over the last century and especially over the last 20 years was described, and compared with the growth of lakes in the Takhini Valley near Whitehorse, and in the western Arctic. Changes in lake water temperature over the year were also described for small thermokarst lakes in central and southern Yukon. The pattern was contrasted with the annual cycle in Stewart River near Mayo and with data from larger and deeper lakes in the western Arctic. The effect of climate change on lake temperatures and the thickness of winter ice, through warmer air temperature and deeper snow cover, were discussed.
Thanks to Northern Tutchone Fish and Wildlife (YTG), and our sponsors YTG Heritage, Yukon News, Westmark Hotel.
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Pollutants in the North: POPs, Grasshopper Effect, Bioaccumulation and the Precautionary Principle
by Ross Norstrom, Canadian Wildlife Service
Ross Norstrom spoke on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) - what they are, and how they get into and move around the environment. Part of the talk looked at whether polar regions are more at risk than temperate and tropical regions simply because of lower temperatures (the grasshopper effect). POPs enter and move up the food chain (bioaccumulate) in aquatic and terrestrial food chains differently; they bioaccumulate in certain animals as opposed to others and then effect them differently.
He treated both the firm convictions of journalistic and environmental activists on the one hand, and the conservative scientific approach requiring hard and fast evidence before acknowledging problems on the other, with a certain bit of skeptisim. There is much that the scientific community does not know, but that should not be an excuse for inaction. The precautionary principle was discussed in regards to POP's, particularly 'new' contaminants such as fluorinated and brominated flame retardants.
Dr. Ross Norstrom has been with Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service since 1973. He has mostly done research on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in wildlife. Contributions have ranged from identification of new POP chemicals in the environment, development of monitoring programs for them, developing computer models of bioaccumulation of POPs in fish and birds, and toxicology. He has done research on dioxins in BC (herons, eagles, otters), POPs in the Arctic (polar bears), the Great Lakes (herring gulls), and the St. Lawrence River (beluga whales). His research contributions were recognized in 1999 by an honorary Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the University of Stockholm.
For more information about contaminants, go to www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/NCP/index_e.html.
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Climate Change: Predicting and Preparing
a. Understanding Climate Change and Predictions
by Dr. Francis Zwiers, Chief of Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Meteorological Service of Canada
The human race has been conducting a large-scale experiment with the climate system over the past 150 years by steadily increasing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. Substantial changes in the climate have been observed during the past century, including a 0.6 degree C rise in global mean temperature and some considerably larger regional changes. Whether these changes are a result of the human experiment with the climate system has been a matter of strong debate and intense investigation for at least the past two decades. Recently, however, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed of the last 50 years is attributable to human activities." Climate models developed in Canada, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. were among the main tools used to draw this conclusion. This talk will describe the Canadian climate model, its ability to reproduce changes observed in the 20th century, and some of the characteristics of the 21st century climate that it projects.
b. Vulnerability to Climate Change: Highlighting Concerns for Canadian Communities
by Dr. Don Lemmen, Research Manager, Natural Resources Canada's Climate Change Adaptation Liaison Office
The recently completed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report highlights that polar regions are expected to experience among the largest and most rapid climate changes of any region on Earth. Documented changes in sea ice, permafrost, coastal erosion, glaciers and biological ecosystems all evidence ongoing climate change. Furthermore, natural systems in the arctic are considered to be particularly vulnerable to climate change because of low adaptive capacity. The potential economic, social and cultural impacts on the north are less documented, but are likely to be significant.
An effective response to climate change requires both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions as well as adaptation to inevitable impacts. The former is critical at a global scale to reduce both the magnitude and rate of climate change, allowing time for local scale adaptation to occur. Adaptation refers to activities that minimize the negative impacts of climate change, and position us to be able to take advantage of new opportunities that may be presented. There are many key northern sectors where climate change should be considered as part of long-term planning, including transportation, community / industrial infrastructure and forestry.
An improved understanding of northern Canada's vulnerability to climate change is critical for directing future research. This involves identification of critical thresholds, beyond which an activity becomes non-sustainable. Communities that are dependent on non-commercial food supplies are an important example of where such thresholds need to be defined.
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From London to Whitehorse - Some New Ideas About the Mammoth Steppe
by R. Dale Guthrie, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
New evidence sheds light on the nature of the Ice Age landscape which connected North America to Asia. The core of this Mammoth Steppe was in Central Asia, in the lee of the Himalayas. During the Pleistocene, this regional aridity periodically extended in a broad belt westward in Western Europe and eastward to North America and northward to the Arctic, where the exposed continental shelf magnified its size. But there were two major interruptions of this zone. One was the obvious incompleteness across the northern Altantic. The second was between North America and Asia.
During Glacial maxima a band of maritime cloud cover, created by the narrow bite on either side of the Bering strait, produced an ecological breach or 'buckle' in the extensive steppe belt. This special habitat became a minor refuge for some moisture-loving plants and animals. While this moist tundra-like buckle did not serve as an ecological barrier to some steppe-adapted species like woolly mammoths, ferrets, saiga antelope, steppe bison, and horses, it does seem to have limited the distributions of woolly rhinos, camels, American asses, short-faced bears, badgers, and some others.
The presence of this moist buckle has important ramifications as to how we envision Beringia. This zone was the source of local plant species which, after the last Glacial maximum, expanded into northeast Asia and northwest North America. Hultén noticed the resulting floristic cross-strait pattern and called it Beringia. However, this cross-strait unity is mostly a Holocene artifact; it is only a recent expansion of a narrowly regional habitat. This raises the question of - what is Beringia? Perhaps there is not now nor ever was such an entity.
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The G.M. Dawson Memorial Lecture
Horizons Without End - Early Geological Investigations and Ideas
by E. Frederick Roots, Science Advisor Emeritus, Environment Canada
Improved knowledge of Yukon's basic geology has been a critical factor in defining the Yukon Territory and its values. This talk focused on the period from early geological exploration and response to mineral discoveries, to the beginning of systematic mapping:
Yukoners and the Land - Some Geological Vignettes
by John J. Clague, Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University
This presentation will illustrate how geology has impacted, and continues to affect, the lives of Yukoners. This theme will be developed through a series of geological stories, including the history of the Yukon River, volcanism and Miles Canyon, Whitehorse's Ice Age lake, Whitehorse copper belt, Klondike placer deposits and permafrost.
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Greenland Geoarchaelogy and Vanishing Vikings
by Charles Schweger, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton
At its height, the Eastern Settlement of Greenland Norse was populated by 4000-5000 people, 1000-2000 cattle and 100,000 sheep scattered among nearly 200 farms. During their time, these were the most distal settlements of Medieval Europe and from them flowed trade items such as wool cloth, hides, furs, falcons and walrus ivory.
Abandonment of the Norse settlements and disappearance of the settlers, apparently without a trace, has remained one of the enduring mysteries of European history and archaeology. No less than a disaster should have dislodged them. Explanations range from plagues, intermarrying with or being killed off by Skraelings, caterpillar infestations, collapse of North Atlantic trade, capture by pirates, and climatic change.
Climatic change as a cause is of particular interest here. In fact, the extinction of the Medieval Norse from Greenland may be one of the best archaeological examples of the impact of global climate change on a society. Settled during the Medieval Warm Period, the Greenland settlements may have been particularly susceptible to the cooler and less predictable climate of the Little Ice Age.
The climate change hypothesis suggests that societies adapt to a predictable or static climate environment and that significant departures may stress the society leading to changes or even extinction. How the process of social/cultural change under the influence of climate change occurs is not well understood, but there is the hope that by identifying such mutual changes in the archaeological past we may gain insights that may be useful to our own situation as we adjust to anthropogenic global changes such as greenhouse warming.
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Sustainable Energy Options: Wood-Residue, Wind and Solar
and
Presentation of Alternative Energy Options
Both talks by Andrew Pape-Salmon, Pembina Institute
The Pembina Institute is an independent, citizen-based think tank, and a non-profit consulting group with a solid reputation for technically reliable and innovative results. Since 1985, the Institute has been committed to protecting the environment and to developing environmentally sound solutions to meet human needs. See their web page at www.pembina.org.
Guest speaker Andrew Pape-Salmon is Director of the Community Eco-Solutions Program at the Pembina Institute. He is actively involved in implementing sustainable energy opportunities in First Nations communities in the Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta. His key focus is on low-impact renewable energy technologies.
by Dr. Peter Brown
The Tagish Lake meteorite fell on January 18, 2000. The associated fireball was widely observed over the Yukon, Alaska and Northern British Columbia. Subsequent recovery of meteoritic material from the ice surface of the Taku Arm of Tagish Lake occurred between January and May, 2000.
The fireball associated with this meteorite fall was widely observed from the ground and from satellites in space. Analysis of these records now permits reconstruction of a complete picture of the collision of this small asteroid with the Earth. Ongoing studies of the Tagish Lake meteorite are revealing that it is unlike any other meteorite previously recovered. This unique specimen, now called "Tagish Lake" is likely the most primitive (unaltered) meteorite ever documented; it has a high abundance of interstellar grains, low amino acid content and unusual mineralogy.
In this talk Peter Brown presented final results from the analysis of the fireball entry; what it has revealed about the object before it encountered the atmosphere, aspects of the recovery effort and a summary of the laboratory work carried out to date on this enigmatic meteorite.
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Was Oetzi Murdered?
by Dr. James Dixon, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Fascinating discoveries are still being made about the Iceman who lived 5,300 years ago in the area of the Oetztal Alps, on the borders of Austria and Italy.
There are very recent claims that he was killed by an arrow in the back and that a stab wound in his right hand shows that he had been in a fight. But are these claims really true?
In the last year much more has been found out about Oetzi's last meals by microscopic analysis of his chyme (the undigested food in his stomach) and his chyle (the food from the intestines below his stomach). For instance, there are no less than four different types of moss and so had he eaten these unpalatable plants deliberately?
____________________________________________________________________________
Pleistocene Mammals in the Yukon: Life at a 3.5 Million-Year-Old Beaver Pond in the Canadian High Arctic
by Richard Harington
Remains of fishes, frogs, birds and about a dozen mammal species are known from ancient (Pleistocene) beaver-pond deposits at Strathcona Fiord (about 78°30'N) on Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere. Of particular interest are species of an ancestral black bear, a massive forerunner of the wolverine, the first record of a Eurasian badger from this continent, the northernmost three-toed horse; as well as a small "deerlet". The boreal-forest margin environment of this beaver pond stands in marked contrast to the stark tundra landscape now surrounding the fossil site.
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Keeping Track of the Ugly Duckling: How swans and schools connect in Alaska
by Norv Dallin
Trumpeter Swans have met new friends in Alaska. Norv Dallin is a teacher in McGrath, Alaska, a remote village in the heart of Trumpeter Swan nesting grounds. His classes have a unique working relationship with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, where school children participate in the capturing, banding, collaring (with satellite transmitters) and tracking of swans. They study these birds and work with a school in Utah to post location and other information on the web (http://www.uen.org/swan/).
This presentation featured the students of McGrath school talking about their project and their unique role in this important international conservation effort.
____________________________________________________________________________
Living with bears: Images and conclusions from 35 years of research and experience
by Steve Herrero
Few people go into bear habitat without thinking about possible interactions with bears. Almost everyone has "their" bear story. Bears are loved, hated, enjoyed, feared and more. Bears, especially grizzly bears, have little resilience, the ability to adapt to major changes in numbers or habitat. People can recognize this and use bear habitat sustainably if they avoid unwanted affects on bear populations, ecology or behavior. Living with bears is my understanding of how to do this. It is based on five topics I'll cover in my talk: accepting modest risk, managing attractants, not killing too many, managing habitat, and fostering respect for bears.
Eastern Slopes Grizzly Bear Project: www.canadianrockies.net/grizzly/
Sponsors: Canada, DIAND, Parks Canada, Year of the Great Bear
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Mercury in fish from northern Canada
by Lyle Lockhart
Mercury is a natural element present throughout the earth's crust. Human activities, especially over the last century, have dispersed mercury throughout the planet in ways that do not occur naturally. In the late 1970s, surveys of mercury in human blood revealed that people living in northern communities, notably those along the seacoast, generally had blood mercury levels above the normal range. We cannot draw upon traditional knowledge on this problem because people cannot see or taste or smell the mercury in the fish.
Northern fish grow slowly and often live for long periods and so even a slow rate of accumulation of mercury can lead to a high body concentration over time. Furthermore, most of the mercury in fish muscle is in the form of methylmercury, the neurotoxic form. In Canada, modern regulations are aimed at defining a safe level of consumption in terms of the amount of fish that can be eaten each week.
Surveys of mercury in fish from Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut show widespread presence of mercury across the whole region with no obvious relationship to geological settings. About one third of lake trout collections have above average acceptable mercury levels, while almost all of the whitefish do not. The data obtained to date do not give a clear indication about whether levels of mercury are changing. However, cores from several Yukon lakes suggest that inputs of mercury have increased relative to pre-industrial times. Levels seem to be increasing in beluga whales from the Beaufort coast and several hypotheses may be advanced to explain that trend, perhaps the most ominous being that the increases are being driven by climate change.
How much of the mercury is natural and beyond human control and how much of it is anthropogenic and within human control? We don't know. It seems likely that this question together with the processes driving any temporal trends will be subjects of research over the coming years.
Sponsors: YTG Heritage, Yukon News, Westmark Hotel, Northern Contaminants Program, Yukon Conservation Society.
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The Five Ws of Green Buildings (What, Why, Where, When, Who... and How)
by Elisa Campbell
Buildings have a significant impact on the health of the environment and on the livability of our communities. If not designed and built properly, new buildings can destroy local ecosystems and can impact negatively on our sense of place. The construction and operation of buildings consume vast quantities of energy, materials, water, and land, and result in significant creation of waste. Buildings are a major source of the pollution that causes urban air quality problems, and the pollutants that cause climate change. The materials we place in our buildings can lead to occupant health problems, lower productivity, and to a reduced sense of well-being.
The concept of 'green buildings' attempts to address this situation. Through constructing and operating high performance green buildings, we can become stewards of our natural environment and advocates of healthy and livable communities. The challenge is to build smart, so that buildings use a minimum of non-renewable resources, produce a minimum of pollution and wastes, and cost a minimum of dollars, while increasing the comfort, health, and safety of the people who live and work in them.
This presentation will provide information and details about green buildings. It will talk about what makes green buildings different from conventional buildings, and how we can go about designing and building them. It will demonstrate who is building green, and why. By presenting a wide range of case studies, this presentation will show that the concept of green buildings is not only better for the health of our communities and our ecosystems, but also for our wallets.
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Volcanoes in the Yukon and Alaska: An Eye-Opening Look at Eruptions of the White River Ash
by Kim West
Volcanic activity is a dynamic and invigorating natural force which progressively shapes the face of our planet. Volcanism not only affects us by the creation and destruction of continental landmass, but it also affects our global economy, climate, and is a major component in our historic stories, literature, and art. This lecture examined:
- what volcanoes are,
- where the world's active volcanoes are located,
- the mechanisms behind volcanic eruptions,
- the principal types of volcanoes and eruptions,
- the link between oral histories and volcanic eruptions,
- and, the benefits/ hazards of volcanic activity
Kim West graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1998, with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Geology. Since then, she has been enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Ontario. She has been coming to the Yukon and Alaska for 3 consecutive years studying the White River Ash deposit. She is the author of a several publications on the White River Ash, including a recent article in the Yukon News, entitled "There's a volcano in the neighborhood." She is also preparing a general education brochure on the White River Ash to be distributed in visitor centres across the Yukon and Alaska in the near future.
Related sites:
The White River Ash
Evidence for winter eruption of the White River Ash
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Environment and Native Cultures
by Wayne Grady and Steven Hume
Yukoners had an opportunity to listen to two of Canada's foremost author-explorers read from their works and share their backcountry adventures. Grady and Hume are nationally admired for their ability to find the right words to evoke landscapes and the lives of the people formed by them. Both men write from a strong commitment to the health of wilderness and rural regions, and both men know how to tell great stories, many of which have been gleaned from treks into regions many of the rest of us will never be fortunate enough, or daring enough, to see. Grady has dug for dinosaurs in the wilds of Mongolia and Argentina and traveled by ice-breaker to the North Pole - among many other adventures.
Of the Louis S. St Laurent's 1994 expedition he says: "We were the first ship to get to the North Pole from the western approach and we were the first ship to make a complete crossing of the Arctic Ocean over the North Pole."
Grady has won the Governor-General's Award for Translation. Hume has wandered far and wide over the backcountry of BC, Yukon and NWT to learn about the lives of trappers and fishers and the creatures that sustain them.
A senior writer with the Vancouver Sun, Hume has gathered many honours, including the Southam President's Award, the Jack Webster Award and the Marjorie Nichols Memorial Award. While these writers have returned from the hinterlands with salient warnings about the fate of life on this planet and the damaged state of our water and air, they balance seriousness with humorous insights into the human condition.
Perhaps best known for their nonfiction prose, Hume and Grady have mastered other literary forms as well. Hume has published two books of poetry. Grady recently completed his first novel while serving a term as Writer-in-Residence with Yukon Libraries and Archives.
This joint reading was made possible by the generosity of local businesses and organizations, including the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Yukon Science Institute, Mac's Fireweed Books, Libraries and Archives, the Yukon News, and Whitehorse Westmark. The event was hosted by Yukon News editor, the duplicitous doofus (sic) Peter Lesniak.
____________________________________________________________________________
Arctic Nature Takes in All the Sciences
by E.C. Pielou
"It has always bothered me that 'natural history' is usually taken to mean mammals and birds and flowers and butterflies, and that's the end of it. Of course there's much more: Atmospheric science -- there's so much to see in the sky. Astronomy for the same reason. Earth Sciences, especially geomorphology or why the ground has the shape it has, which is so easy to see in the Arctic. Also Hydrology, or why, where, and how fast water moves, above ground and below. And so on. Conservation is my main preoccupation nowadays, and it will take more than the birds-and-flowers people to protect our world. That's why it's so important to engage the interest of those who work in the physical sciences. They miss so much that would interest them if they keep their interests indoors. My aim in this talk is to show you what you miss. And some flowers too."
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Lakes, Permafrost and Climate Change
by Chris Burn, Carleton University
Lakes cause the greatest natural disturbance to ground temperatures from conditions determined by climate. Permafrost cannot be maintained beneath lakes where the water is deep and winter ice does not reach bottom. Many lakes in permafrost regions are in depressions formed by the melting of ground ice. Some of these lakes expand every year as they continue to melt the permafrost surrounding them. The expansion of thermokarst lakes near Mayo over the last century and especially over the last 20 years was described, and compared with the growth of lakes in the Takhini Valley near Whitehorse, and in the western Arctic. Changes in lake water temperature over the year were also described for small thermokarst lakes in central and southern Yukon. The pattern was contrasted with the annual cycle in Stewart River near Mayo and with data from larger and deeper lakes in the western Arctic. The effect of climate change on lake temperatures and the thickness of winter ice, through warmer air temperature and deeper snow cover, were discussed.
Thanks to Northern Tutchone Fish and Wildlife (YTG), and our sponsors YTG Heritage, Yukon News, Westmark Hotel.
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Pollutants in the North: POPs, Grasshopper Effect, Bioaccumulation and the Precautionary Principle
by Ross Norstrom, Canadian Wildlife Service
Ross Norstrom spoke on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) - what they are, and how they get into and move around the environment. Part of the talk looked at whether polar regions are more at risk than temperate and tropical regions simply because of lower temperatures (the grasshopper effect). POPs enter and move up the food chain (bioaccumulate) in aquatic and terrestrial food chains differently; they bioaccumulate in certain animals as opposed to others and then effect them differently.
He treated both the firm convictions of journalistic and environmental activists on the one hand, and the conservative scientific approach requiring hard and fast evidence before acknowledging problems on the other, with a certain bit of skeptisim. There is much that the scientific community does not know, but that should not be an excuse for inaction. The precautionary principle was discussed in regards to POP's, particularly 'new' contaminants such as fluorinated and brominated flame retardants.
Dr. Ross Norstrom has been with Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service since 1973. He has mostly done research on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in wildlife. Contributions have ranged from identification of new POP chemicals in the environment, development of monitoring programs for them, developing computer models of bioaccumulation of POPs in fish and birds, and toxicology. He has done research on dioxins in BC (herons, eagles, otters), POPs in the Arctic (polar bears), the Great Lakes (herring gulls), and the St. Lawrence River (beluga whales). His research contributions were recognized in 1999 by an honorary Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the University of Stockholm.
For more information about contaminants, go to www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/NCP/index_e.html.
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Climate Change: Predicting and Preparing
a. Understanding Climate Change and Predictions
by Dr. Francis Zwiers, Chief of Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Meteorological Service of Canada
The human race has been conducting a large-scale experiment with the climate system over the past 150 years by steadily increasing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. Substantial changes in the climate have been observed during the past century, including a 0.6 degree C rise in global mean temperature and some considerably larger regional changes. Whether these changes are a result of the human experiment with the climate system has been a matter of strong debate and intense investigation for at least the past two decades. Recently, however, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed of the last 50 years is attributable to human activities." Climate models developed in Canada, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. were among the main tools used to draw this conclusion. This talk will describe the Canadian climate model, its ability to reproduce changes observed in the 20th century, and some of the characteristics of the 21st century climate that it projects.
b. Vulnerability to Climate Change: Highlighting Concerns for Canadian Communities
by Dr. Don Lemmen, Research Manager, Natural Resources Canada's Climate Change Adaptation Liaison Office
The recently completed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report highlights that polar regions are expected to experience among the largest and most rapid climate changes of any region on Earth. Documented changes in sea ice, permafrost, coastal erosion, glaciers and biological ecosystems all evidence ongoing climate change. Furthermore, natural systems in the arctic are considered to be particularly vulnerable to climate change because of low adaptive capacity. The potential economic, social and cultural impacts on the north are less documented, but are likely to be significant.
An effective response to climate change requires both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions as well as adaptation to inevitable impacts. The former is critical at a global scale to reduce both the magnitude and rate of climate change, allowing time for local scale adaptation to occur. Adaptation refers to activities that minimize the negative impacts of climate change, and position us to be able to take advantage of new opportunities that may be presented. There are many key northern sectors where climate change should be considered as part of long-term planning, including transportation, community / industrial infrastructure and forestry.
An improved understanding of northern Canada's vulnerability to climate change is critical for directing future research. This involves identification of critical thresholds, beyond which an activity becomes non-sustainable. Communities that are dependent on non-commercial food supplies are an important example of where such thresholds need to be defined.
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From London to Whitehorse - Some New Ideas About the Mammoth Steppe
by R. Dale Guthrie, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
New evidence sheds light on the nature of the Ice Age landscape which connected North America to Asia. The core of this Mammoth Steppe was in Central Asia, in the lee of the Himalayas. During the Pleistocene, this regional aridity periodically extended in a broad belt westward in Western Europe and eastward to North America and northward to the Arctic, where the exposed continental shelf magnified its size. But there were two major interruptions of this zone. One was the obvious incompleteness across the northern Altantic. The second was between North America and Asia.
During Glacial maxima a band of maritime cloud cover, created by the narrow bite on either side of the Bering strait, produced an ecological breach or 'buckle' in the extensive steppe belt. This special habitat became a minor refuge for some moisture-loving plants and animals. While this moist tundra-like buckle did not serve as an ecological barrier to some steppe-adapted species like woolly mammoths, ferrets, saiga antelope, steppe bison, and horses, it does seem to have limited the distributions of woolly rhinos, camels, American asses, short-faced bears, badgers, and some others.
The presence of this moist buckle has important ramifications as to how we envision Beringia. This zone was the source of local plant species which, after the last Glacial maximum, expanded into northeast Asia and northwest North America. Hultén noticed the resulting floristic cross-strait pattern and called it Beringia. However, this cross-strait unity is mostly a Holocene artifact; it is only a recent expansion of a narrowly regional habitat. This raises the question of - what is Beringia? Perhaps there is not now nor ever was such an entity.
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The G.M. Dawson Memorial Lecture
Horizons Without End - Early Geological Investigations and Ideas
by E. Frederick Roots, Science Advisor Emeritus, Environment Canada
Improved knowledge of Yukon's basic geology has been a critical factor in defining the Yukon Territory and its values. This talk focused on the period from early geological exploration and response to mineral discoveries, to the beginning of systematic mapping:
- First glimpses, from the South, from the North
- Sovereignty and geology
- A little gold everywhere
- Geography and the outlines of geology
- Filling in the outlines
- Fitting Yukon onto the planet
- Real gold!
- Specimen collectors
- Geology and the mineral imperative
- From reconnaissance to mapping
Yukoners and the Land - Some Geological Vignettes
by John J. Clague, Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University
This presentation will illustrate how geology has impacted, and continues to affect, the lives of Yukoners. This theme will be developed through a series of geological stories, including the history of the Yukon River, volcanism and Miles Canyon, Whitehorse's Ice Age lake, Whitehorse copper belt, Klondike placer deposits and permafrost.
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Greenland Geoarchaelogy and Vanishing Vikings
by Charles Schweger, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton
At its height, the Eastern Settlement of Greenland Norse was populated by 4000-5000 people, 1000-2000 cattle and 100,000 sheep scattered among nearly 200 farms. During their time, these were the most distal settlements of Medieval Europe and from them flowed trade items such as wool cloth, hides, furs, falcons and walrus ivory.
Abandonment of the Norse settlements and disappearance of the settlers, apparently without a trace, has remained one of the enduring mysteries of European history and archaeology. No less than a disaster should have dislodged them. Explanations range from plagues, intermarrying with or being killed off by Skraelings, caterpillar infestations, collapse of North Atlantic trade, capture by pirates, and climatic change.
Climatic change as a cause is of particular interest here. In fact, the extinction of the Medieval Norse from Greenland may be one of the best archaeological examples of the impact of global climate change on a society. Settled during the Medieval Warm Period, the Greenland settlements may have been particularly susceptible to the cooler and less predictable climate of the Little Ice Age.
The climate change hypothesis suggests that societies adapt to a predictable or static climate environment and that significant departures may stress the society leading to changes or even extinction. How the process of social/cultural change under the influence of climate change occurs is not well understood, but there is the hope that by identifying such mutual changes in the archaeological past we may gain insights that may be useful to our own situation as we adjust to anthropogenic global changes such as greenhouse warming.
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Sustainable Energy Options: Wood-Residue, Wind and Solar
and
Presentation of Alternative Energy Options
Both talks by Andrew Pape-Salmon, Pembina Institute
The Pembina Institute is an independent, citizen-based think tank, and a non-profit consulting group with a solid reputation for technically reliable and innovative results. Since 1985, the Institute has been committed to protecting the environment and to developing environmentally sound solutions to meet human needs. See their web page at www.pembina.org.
Guest speaker Andrew Pape-Salmon is Director of the Community Eco-Solutions Program at the Pembina Institute. He is actively involved in implementing sustainable energy opportunities in First Nations communities in the Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta. His key focus is on low-impact renewable energy technologies.