ICE: Inuit Climate Experiment

摘要：这项提议的背景来自于提议人在2008年春季对QAANAAQ地区(格陵兰岛西北部)周围的海冰进行的科学实地考察。这一气候变化驱动的实地方案的目的是评估当地的海冰厚度。由于目前还没有卫星技术可以远程完成这项工作，我们聘请了当地的猎人带我们乘坐他们的雪橇来测量和记录不同地区的海冰厚度。在我们与因纽特猎人在一起的时间里，我们了解到由于气候导致海冰状况的变化，当地社区面临着严重的困难。随着实地考察的进展，很快就变得明显的是，科学家和土著人民应该能够为每个社区的共同利益而共同努力。气候变化对许多北方土著社区的可持续性、经济、健康和福祉具有直接影响。在许多方面，海冰可以被视为将这些北方社区联系在一起的粘合剂，因为它既被用于商业(狩猎/捕鱼)，也被用于社会(交通网络)手段。然而，海冰正在发生变化；它融化得更早，形成得更晚，因此它变得更薄，更不稳定。这些戏剧性的变化影响到全球气候以及冰上人们的安全，也影响到因纽特人的狩猎能力，从而威胁到这些人的文化生存。多年来，这些社区一直在向国际社会强调这些变化。然而，他们的证据一般是经验性的，即通过个人观察获得的知识，因此很难被世界科学界吸收。这可以通过对通常用于测量冰层厚度的科学仪器EM31-SH进行新颖的改装来克服。通过将这种仪器安装在雪橇上，这些社区能够在穿越冰层时获得具有科学价值的海冰厚度数据。这些数据将通过卫星自动传回SAMS，在那里可在项目网站上近乎实时地获得这些数据。一个类似的系统，渡箱，已经革命性地通过商船收集海洋数据，我们设想了一场类似的革命。通过将知识和创新与传统技术相结合，可以在空间和时间尺度上收集关于冰层厚度的科学数据，这在以前的后勤工作中是不可能的。近实时获取这些数据将加强在海冰覆盖地区旅行的所有人的安全，从而为这些社区的长期可持续性奠定基础，为所有人带来积极的经济、社会和生态效益。对科学界的好处不能用货币手段来衡量，因为不可能用任何其他手段连续收集每天和每天的冰层厚度数据。因此，他的时间序列将受到观察界和模型科学界的热切期待。我们的提议使当地社区能够通过获取科学家和政策制定者在真正全球范围内迫切需要的具有科学价值的数据，在气候变化辩论中发挥带头作用。通过发展当地收集气候变化研究科学数据的能力，我们为社区提供了一个额外的论坛，通过科学测量向世界强调他们所在区域正在发生的变化。目前，因纽特人在很大程度上被排除在关于气候变化的科学辩论之外。

SUMMARY: The background for this proposal originates from scientific fieldwork performed by the proposer on the sea ice around the Qaanaaq region (NW Greenland) in the spring of 2008. The aim of this climate-change driven field programme was to evaluate the local sea ice thickness. Because no satellite technology is presently available to do this remotely we hired local hunters to take us out on their sledges to measure and document the sea ice thickness in different regions. During our time with the Inuit hunters we learnt of the severe difficulties that the local communities face because of the climate driven changes to sea ice conditions. As the fieldwork progressed it soon became apparent that it should be possible for scientists and the indigenous population to work together for the mutual benefit of each community. Climate change has immediate implications for the sustainability of many northern indigenous communities, their economies, health and well-being. In many ways sea ice can be viewed as the glue that binds these northern communities together because it is utilised both for commercial (hunting/fishing) and social (transport network) means. However the sea ice is changing; it is melting earlier and forming later and as a result it is becoming thinner and less stable. These dramatic changes influence global climate as well as the safety of people on the ice, but also the hunting ability of the Inuit, thus threatening the cultural survival of these people. For many years these communities have been highlighting these changes to the world community. However their evidence is generally empirical in nature, i.e. knowledge gained through personal observations, and therefore it is difficult to assimilate by the world scientific community. This can be overcome by the novel adaptation of a scientific instrument that is commonly used to measure ice thickness, the EM31-SH. By combining this instrumentation on their sledges these communities are able to obtain scientifically valuable data on sea ice thickness whenever they travel across the ice. These data will be automatically transmitted, via satellite, back to SAMS where it will be available in near real time on the project website. A similar system, the ferrybox, has revolutionised the collection of oceanographic data via commercial vessels, we envisage a similar revolution. By combining knowledge and innovation with traditional know-how the collection of scientific data on ice thickness can be achieved on scales, both spatial and temporal, that have not been logistically possible before. Access to these data in near-real time will enhance the safety of all persons travelling in sea ice covered areas and thereby laying the foundation for the long-term sustainability of these communities by bringing about positive economic, social and ecological benefits to all. The benefit to the scientific community can not be measured by monetary means as the continuous collection of ice thickness data, day-in and day-out, would not be possible by any other means. As a result his time series will be eagerly anticipated by both the observational and modelling scientific community. Our proposal empowers the local communities to take a lead in the climate change debate by obtaining scientifically valuable data that is urgently needed by scientists and policy makers on a truly global scale. By developing the local capacity to gathering scientific data for climate change studies we provides an additional forum for the community to highlight to the world the changes that are occurring in their region through scientific measurements. At present the Inuit are very much shut out of the scientific debate regarding climate change.