The 22nd annual Environmental Sciences Symposium, themed “Frozen Places,” was held on Jan. 22, 2016. Hosted in the University of Guelph’s Summerlee Science Complex atrium, the event sold out for the first time ever. Over 180 students, faculty, and community members attended the symposium.
The evening began with a sit-down dinner and an opportunity to visit booths set up by Wild Ontario, the Parks Education and Adventure Club (PEAC), and Students on Ice—among other organizations. Three speakers shared past research projects and anecdotes from their travels to the polar regions.
After dinner, symposium director Laurissa Christie introduced the first speaker of the evening, James Raffan. Raffan is an author of 16 books and the executive director of the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario. Raffan has also worked with Canadian Geographic, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel, and was chair at the Arctic Institute of North America.
Credentials aside, Raffan offered an account of his interactions with different communities in the polar arctic, focusing on the cultural changes associated with the dramatic climate change taking place in the north.
“The Arctic has a human face,” said Raffan. “We’ve got to acknowledge there are people there.”
Raffan spoke mainly about his time in north-western Russia and the resilience of many communities there.
“Three-quarters of homes are food insecure,” explained Raffan. “There are things we don’t know that if we did, we might act differently. We think the issue is out there—we are the issue.”
Next to speak was Dr. Bailey McMeans, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Guelph. McMeans specializes in Arctic food web structure, focusing on the Greenland shark, one of only two sharks consistently present in Arctic waters. McMeans spent five field seasons in the Canadian Arctic studying this predator. She explained that the Arctic food web structure is naturally extremely varied.
The Greenland shark is the garburator of the Arctic waters. It will eat anything from seals to invertebrates. Growing up to six metres in length, most Greenland sharks are partially blind due a systemic infection of the corneas. The shark’s eyes are typically used only as light sensors.
Additionally, McMeans participated in testing that proved that the Greenland shark is the slowest-moving fish ever recorded. She explained how unprecedented changes to the Earth’s climate will undoubtedly impact energy transfer networks.
“Understanding the adapting food web responses to existing variation in the environment provides us with an opportunity to anticipate the possible consequences of altered environmental conditions on Arctic ecosystems,” said McMeans.
The final speaker of the night was Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Healthy Communities, and assistant professor in the Departments of Nursing and Indigenous Studies at Cape Breton University. In 2014, Cunsolo Willox directed and produced the film Lament for the Land, in partnership with the five Inuit Nunatsiavut communities in northern Labrador. Her research has primarily focused on these communities.
There are four official Inuit territories, called Nunangat, across Canada. None are accessible by car, but can be reached by plane and sometimes boat. Nunatsiavut translates to “Our Beautiful Land,” and that quickly became the focal point for Cunsolo Willox’s talk: a new reality of a beautiful land.
“It’s a centre of healing and solace,” said Cunsolo Willox. “But it’s changed so much it’s no longer recognizable.”
Cunsolo Willox spoke about health sovereignty for Indigenous peoples in northern Canada, evoking the direct connection between a people and the land they inhabit. She cited the colonial legacy in northern Labrador and the repercussions of the loss of language and land skills in the wake of the residential school system.
Moreover, the general decline of sea ice and changing precipitation patterns mean that traditional knowledge is quickly becoming obsolete in current conditions. The periods of time when the ice is unfit for travel—called shoulder seasons—are lengthening. Shoulder seasons are increasingly correlated with stress and other mental health implications.
“The way that we frame the north needs to change,” she said.
The three speakers formed a brief discussion panel moderated by Dr. Ben Bradshaw, professor of geography at the University of Guelph. Panelists faced questions on the human dynamic of the North.
“I think people were inspired—were engaged—by the message of the most recent international polar year,” said executive director Laurissa Christie. “What happens at the poles affects the rest of the world. We really got that from our speakers tonight.”