ICE: Inuit Climate Experiment

摘要：这项提案的背景来自于2008年春天，提案人在卡纳克地区（格陵兰岛西北部）周围的海冰上进行的科学实地考察。这个气候变化驱动的实地方案的目的是评估当地海冰厚度。由于目前没有卫星技术可以远程完成这项工作，我们雇佣了当地的猎人，让他们用雪橇带我们出去测量和记录不同地区的海冰厚度。在与因纽特猎人相处的过程中，我们了解到由于气候变化导致海冰状况的变化，当地社区面临着严重的困难。随着实地工作的进展，很快就清楚地认识到，科学家和土著居民应该有可能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及其经济、健康和福祉产生直接影响。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，因为它既用于商业（狩猎/捕鱼），也用于社会（交通网络）。然而，海冰正在变化；它融化得更早，形成得更晚，因此它变得更薄，更不稳定。这些剧烈的变化不仅影响了全球气候，也影响了冰面上人们的安全，还影响了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，这些社区一直向国际社会强调这些变化。然而，他们的证据通常是经验性的，即通过个人观察获得的知识，因此很难被世界科学界吸收。这可以通过一种通常用于测量冰厚的科学仪器EM31-SH的新改造来克服。通过在他们的雪橇上结合这些仪器，这些社区能够在他们穿越冰面时获得有关海冰厚度的有科学价值的数据。这些数据将通过卫星自动传输回SAMS，在那里可以在项目网站上获得近乎实时的数据。一个类似的系统，ferrybox，已经通过商业船只彻底改变了海洋数据的收集，我们设想一个类似的革命。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厚的科学数据，这在后勤上是不可能的。近乎实时地获取这些数据将提高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金钱来衡量，因为日复一日地持续收集冰厚数据是不可能通过任何其他手段实现的。因此，他的时间序列将被观测和建模科学界热切期待。我们的提案通过获取科学家和政策制定者在真正的全球范围内迫切需要的有科学价值的数据，授权当地社区在气候变化辩论中发挥带头作用。通过发展当地为气候变化研究收集科学数据的能力，我们为社区提供了一个额外的论坛，让他们通过科学测量向世界强调他们所在地区正在发生的变化。目前，因纽特人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.