Oslo at a glance

I spent my last night in Norway wandering the streets of Oslo. Amazing city. I will be back.

And then I met Charlie at the train station.

The End ....until Montreal 2012

Wow. It is all over. The days flew by. I'm heading to downtown Oslo to check out the sights. I fly home tomorrow (Sunday). More about the conference's final days a little later.

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Final Days

Dr. David Barber of the University of Manitoba is the principal investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study (CFL). A flaw lead is a natural opening in sea ice which allow scientists a chance to study the otherwise frozen ocean. David's research looks at climate, marine ecosystems, contaminants greenhouse gases and carbon cycles in the Arctic Ocean.

(More to come on David's presentation)

Dr. Shari Gearheard (above) is one of the few Canadian polar scientists who lives and works in the North. Shari lives in Clyde River, Nunavut, where she's working on the Igliniit Project. For the last two years, Shari has tested and refined a pocket computer for Inuit hunters. The device allows hunters to log what they see while they're on the land. It also records hunters’ observations using a touch-screen in English and Inuktitut. The machine has icons for a variety of Arctic animals. Shari is also becoming known as an accomplished sled dog racer having recently completed the Nunavut Quest for the second time.
Here's a great link to Shari's work tp://polarfieldservice.wordpress.com/category/social-and-human-sciences/

Dr. Bill Montevecchi is a leading seabird ecologist at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland.

He says the migratory birds that return to Newfoundland and Labrador each year are being killed by oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of the of white gannets nest in the bluffs of Newfoundland and Quebec each spring where they lay eggs and raise their chicks.

I have some fantastic clips from Bill to come.

Power of the Poster

Each day the room goes from this.... to this. That's because close to 1,000 scientific posters must be hung during the five-day conference in a large but limited space. This means each day 300 posters go up for a couple of hours. Researchers stand by them and field questions. Then the removable walls are stripped and new posters put up the next day.

Ginny Coyne (below) is a student of the Yukon Native Teachers Education Program (YNTEP) at Yukon College in Whitehorse. Ginny's poster focused on IPY Polar Days. She's speaking with Yellowknife's Bob Reid, director of INAC's water division. Bob's wife, Suzanne Carriere of the NWT's Environment and Natural Resources gave a talk titled "Invasive and introduced specie in polar environments."

Frances Ross (below) is a graduate student at Dalhousie University. She worked with the group PPS Arctic. PPS stands for "Present processes, Past changes, Spatiotemporal dynamics."

Her research looked at how the treeline is being effected by climate change in Old Crow, Yukon and focused on traditional knowledge.

Yukon IPY coordinator Bob Vandjken answering questions.

Isla Myers-Smith is a graduate student at the University of Alberta studying shrub changes in the Canadian Arctic. Her poster is about the education and outreach initiatives carried out on behalf of the ArcticNet' student's association.

Hundreds of

people check out the posters each day.

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Canadian Content

Several hundred Canadian scientists, young researchers and teachers are here. Their presentations range from plenary to posters. From understandable to outrageously academic.

Dr. David Hik (above left) is the Canada Research Chair in Northen Ecology at the University of Alberta. David's research focuses on the southwest Yukon where rapid warming is an example of how ecosystems adapt to climate change. His research looks at how climate has changed regionally over time and how alpine ecosystems are affected by this change. His work provides a past and present snapshot of the alpine areas which will improve predictions of future change. He describes this meeting of the minds as "mind blowing."

Dr. Sharon Smith (left) talked about the thermal state of permafrost in North America, with an emphasis on the east, central and western Arctic, including Alaska. Sharon is with the Geological Survey of Canada.

Suzanne Robinson (right) represents the University of Essex and works as an adult educator at Aurora College in Inuvik, NT. Her research is about cross cultural communications through film with a focus on the Beaufort Delta region. "Take it from the top" is a collection of films about the north by Northerners. Her project can be found on Facebook Films "Take it from the Top."

Tristan Pearce, seen here at the Fram Museum, works in the high Arctic. His project is Inuit vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change in Uluhaktok, NWT. His work is part of CAVIAR - Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Arctic, led by Dr. Barry Smith. Tristan is with the University of Guelph. The soft-spoken but gregarious researcher is also the proud owner of a Fort McPherson canvas tent.

This page will be continually updated.

The Fram

Tonight I stepped aboard the Fram, the 128 metre, three-masted schooner that reached the Antarctic in 1912. For more on the Fram go to http://www.fram.museum.no/en/

The initial site of the bow took my breath away.

Such an amazing piece of polar history. While touring the creaky ship, I spoke with 23-year-Gaute Otnes, who is a descendant of one of the crew. Aaron Spitzer of Up Here magazine, that interview is for you!!

The evening included delicious BBQ of moose, grilled bread and wieners. Oddly, it was easier to get a third glass of wine than it was to get an additional wiener.

As as side note, I'm running into several scientists and students whom I spoke with via phone while hosting the radio show The Ends of the Earth. Fantastic to put faces to names.

One such person is Harry Borlase, who just graduated with a masters in law from Iceland. Harry is originally from Labrador.

This is Harry (centre) chatting with fellow Canadians Karen Edwards (left), former co-coordinator of the Canadian IPY secretariat and PhD candidate studying sexual health in Tlicho communities of the NWT. To the right, is Alan Mero, the Northern IPY coordinator for the Northwest Territories.

If you're reading this Julie Green, Harry remembers you from your days in Labrador and wants to get in touch. I have his email.

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More about the Sami

Remember Josephie Stenersen? She's British by birth but has lived in Norway for 37 years. She speaks Norwegian fluently.

I sat beside her on the flight from Tromso to Oslo.

This clip is about her work to protect and preserve the Sami language.

This is Ante Siri

This interview is in response to a question Joanne Stassen of Yellowknife asked about Sami traditional clothing.

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Canadian tax dollars at work

This familiar face is Chuck Strahl, Canada's federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and Economic Development. Strahl thanked scientists for their work in the Canadian arctic. He also welcomed all delegates to the final IPY conference in Montreal in 2012.

Strahl said, "We now have more knowledge about the polar atmosphere, oceans, ice, land and people. We also know more about tundra permafrost, freshwater systems, vegetation and animal populations.

"Canada is proud to have actively participated in IPY. We were one of the largest contributors...We sponsored specific projects that captured the collaborative spirit. For example, the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System study that involved more than 600 researchers, northerners, journalists and artists from 27 different countries.

IPY was an exceptional undertaking. It inspired practical, policy, relevant research. It has promoted international collaboration and partnerships at a level we've not seen before. It has encouraged the development of new researchers. As we move from knowledge to action, I call on everyone here to continue to work together on these vital endeavours, not only for the benefit of our own nations, but for all of humanity.

"Thank you very much for all your work. Two years from now, many of us here will gather in Montreal for the [final] IPY Conference 'From Knowledge to Action'. I hope to see you there."

Dr. Katherine Richardson focused on oceans and sea ice. Richardson is a professor of biological oceanography at the University of Copenhagen. She is a dynamic, engaging speaker with great hand gestures. This is a portion of her talk on melting Arctic sea ice.

"It has global implications in terms of shipping and safety. There are a lot of military people who are really, really worried about all those tourists coming into Arctic regions and what happens if there is an accident up there. We really don't have the facilities at the moment to do very efficient search and rescue in that part of the world.

"And of course (melting sea ice) has resource implications, which can have global implications in terms of going after more oil. Here I think we should just respect for a moment what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico in the US and thank goodness that accident (oil spill) did not happen in a polar region where the water is cold and it will take microbial activity much longer to break the oil down."

Inger Anne Siri Triumf deciding where to go next.

Scientists Gone Wild

IPY International Program Office director Dr.Dave Carlson dips into a garbage bin held by Jenny Baeseman, director of APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) .

Dave drew a piece of paper with the mock theme for the next International Polar Year in 2032.

The theme's acronym was IHUGE. Trust me, it was clean and it related to polar science.

The exercise was part of an interactive mixer that had scientists, journalists and teachers working together. It was part communication exercise, part "mingle outside your scientific comfort zone." The crowd loved it.

The mixer was the brainchild of Jenny Baeseman, who was later seen walking on air.

A Royal Start

Prince Albert II of Monaco provided opening remarks. Security was tight but the prince was accessible and spoke of his concern for the environment.

Recreating the sounds of whales and ice.

The heir to the Norwegian throne HRH Crown Prince Haakon (above)

Dr. Nicolayevich Chilingarov (below) . Dr. Chilingarov was part of a team of international scientists who planted a Russian flag on the sea bed below the North Pole in 2007.

Professor Steven Chown (right) of South Africa during his presentation "Biodiversity Change: an unintended legacy." Dr. Chown officially received the $100,000 Martha T. Muse prize for Science and Policy in the Antarctica during the conference. He is the inaugural recipient.

A lively performance by the Oslo Soul Children.
The conference includes an excellent photography exhibit Polar Expo. The images are of IPY research in the Arctic and Antarctic.

The challenge of a conference of this size (more than 2,000 registered delegates) is that sessions run concurrently. Which means you are running from room to room to keep up.

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Archived Photos