ICE: Inuit Climate Experiment

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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.