InfoBits: Additional details about things in the news
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Nunatsiavut: The Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement
The Call of the North: Address by the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Yellowknife, NWT, 17 August 2006: "[My trip] has also been an opportunity to draw the attention of southern Canadians northward. To get them thinking about how important northern development and Arctic sovereignty are to all of us."
See also CBC News, "Nunatsiavut: Our beautiful land," 2 July 2004.
Here are some questions people have asked:
Who is the premier of Nunavut?
Paul Okalik
What tribes lived in the Arctic?
See "The Peoples and Cultures of the Circumpolar World," a course module from the University of the Arctic's Introduction to the Circumpolar World. See also the Arctic Human Development Report (2004), a comprehensive overview of the state of the peoples of the Circumpolar North.
What is the population of the Inuit?
That's not so easily answered, since they live in four different countries who count their people differently. Using online sources, I think that in round numbers you'll be close enough if you say about 150,500. See this additional page for information on how I came up with that number.
Where did global warming begin?
Good question. I don't know. If I find some sites or sources that sound as though they might know, I'll post them here. I have read that the increases in carbon dioxide that are linked to climate change (preferred over "global warming") began to increase dramatically with the Industrial Revolution in Europe. That would mean that we've been doing serious damage to the atmosphere for over two centuries.
What fur-bearing animals are found in the Arctic?
Seal, Arctic fox, polar bear, wolf, caribou.... In addition, coyote, wolverine, lynx, beaver, , reindeer, squirrel, muskrat, etc., are trapped in the Subarctic. I'll see if I can find a source that gives a more comprehensive list.
How cold does Greenland get?
Not as cold as you might think. The coldest area in the northern hemisphere is the interior of the Russian Far East, in particular, the northeast part of the Sakha Republic. (See the Pole of Cold in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Here's a table that shows Greenland average temperatures
Source: International Journal of Climatology, Int. J. Climatol. 22: 1829–1847 (2002). Published online in Wiley InterScience (http://www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/joc.852
SURVEY OF GREENLAND INSTRUMENTAL TEMPERATURE RECORDS: 1873–2001 by Jason E. Box found at
http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/jbox/pubs/Box_2002_Greenland_Temperature_Analysis.pdf
Why are the temperatures different in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, and in Narvik, Norway?
The main reason is geography and oceanography. Narvik, on the coast of Norway, is bathed by the tail end of the Gulf Stream, which continues northeasterly as the North Atlantic Drift. This current brings warm(er) water up from the Carribean to the Norwegian and Barents seas. This moderates the climate a lot. Iqaluit, on the other hand, while having a climate that's more moderate than those well inland, does not receive the influence of warm water, so it's much colder. See this map for a visual explanation.
Where can I find pictures of Russian nuclear waste?
A good source of information on nuclear issues in Northwest Russia is Bellona, whose web site is at www.bellona.org. Many of the items on the site have accompanying pictures.
When was Mount Veniaminof, a volcano in Alaska, discovered?
I did a bit of a search and find that the volcano was named 1849 by Estonian geologist Constantin Grewingk, who published a geology of Alaska and Northwest North America in 1850. I don't have other details.
email to: agra...@yukoncollege.yk.ca
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