Arctic Essay

In the podcast “Alone Across the Arctic,” Pam Flowers talked about her dream of crossing the Arctic border by dog sled and after 40 years, it came true. No one sponsored Flowers, and on top of that, when she told her neighbor Dave about her money problems, he bluntly said, “Will what did ya’ expect? You’re five feet nothing, what are ya’ one hundred pounds soaking wet, and those eight dog of yours are nothing but a bunch of clunkers. No body believed in you and you’re gonna fail.” Flowers didn’t listen to a word he said and set out on her journey. She found wonder in the scenery but encountered problems like storms. Furthermore, the one time she put her dog Robert, with her lead dog, Robert got the whole team running towards a bear. Everything

The Arctic Circle runs through the far north of Canada. This is considered the Canadian Arctic. The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. “The Arctic Circle, incidentally, is an imaginary line located at 66º, 30'N latitude, and as a guide defines the southernmost part of the Arctic. The climate within the Circle is very cold and much of the area is always covered with ice. (World Atlas) Although this is the case, the position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed. It directly depends on the Earth's axial tilt.

In the Northeastern part of Russia, summers are cold and winters are colder. The Siberian Tundra is home to many abiotic factors such as strong winds, little precipitation, and short summers days. With poor soil and permafrost, the tundra could soon be gone, or at least cause dramatic changes to the earth. According to Evans (2002), the grounds of the Siberian Tundra are misty during the summer. The average temperature in the Tundra is 37 to 54 degrees yet, in these short months of summer, the Siberian tundra has a permafrost layer that is starts to disappear. This loss of permafrost is resulting in the rise of carbon emissions, which contributes to global climate change. Through research, we can better understand the disappearance of the permafrost layer in the Siberian tundra. How and why is it disappearing, and what impact this disappearance is having on the tundra, and on a much larger scale, the Earth?

Kolbert provides compelling evidence of Global Warming in the Arctic from her hands-on experience accompanying scientists in the field. From the storm surges that threaten the Alaskan village of Sarichef to the warming (and even melting!) permafrost, the evidence all point to the irrefutable fact that the planet is warming up extraordinarily fast. In fact, the Keeling Curve gives us a rather explicit visualization of how greenhouse gases levels (CO2, in particular) are rising at unprecedented rates.

The biggest threat to the tundra is from oil and gas development that results in global warming. As the planet warms the permafrost melts and tundra ecosystems will collapse. Another, threat comes from airborne pollutants, which have brought measurable levels of pollutants such as DDT and PCB's to even remote areas because it is a great technical challenge to effect efficient sewage treatment in a cold environment. Lastly, the overpopulation of Canadian geese pose a threat to the tundra because the balance of the biome will be offset.

While our team was composed of completely different preference types (as classified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), we believe that such varying opinions led to our group’s success in the Subarctic Survival Simulation. In fact, our group boasted the highest team percentage change in the activity—43 percent. The team percentage change represents the improvements made in the ranking of survival tools through our team’s discussion from our individual assessments. The change shows how the group’s gain score (24.4) relates to the average individual score (56.4). Additionally, our gain score was the highest in the class, further showing the strengths of our teamwork during the survival simulation.

One man's trash is another man's treasure as the old adage goes, but what about when one man's trash is another species pandemic. Pollution has been plaguing humans for centuries, and as a result, the accumulation of this garbage has begun to significantly affect populations other than human beings. A striking example of this is found in Arctic Polar bear populations which as of recently are beginning to display some eerie side effects. Most individuals tend not to think about where their trash goes the second it leaves their hands, but it has to go somewhere. This somewhere is often times the ocean where the trash congregates and migrates around the world where it is consumed by the various species which dwell in its depths. The concentration of these toxins builds slowly within the various species that are exposed to it. Consequently, these concentrations increase as one moves up the food web, and at the top of the Arctic food web sits the beloved polar bear which bears the brunt of these ever increasing concentrations expressed through various health complications.

The increasing global temperatures have caused many problems in Arctic ecosystems. The increasing warmth has caused ice caps to melt, and permafrost to thaw, causing shifts in the ecosystems around them. 1According to Harris (2005) “Permafrost is soil, rock or sediment that is frozen for more than two consecutive years. In areas not overlain by ice, it exists beneath a layer of soil, rock or sediment, which freezes and thaws annually and is called the "active layer".” (p. 17). While the melting of ice may not seem like a big issue at first glance, its effects are truly catastrophic. Many professionals in this field, such as Houghton (2009) have said 2“Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic, with the continuing retreat of

In recent months, scientists have been taking notice to record cool temperatures observed in the North Atlantic Ocean, while the rest of the world is experiencing record warmth. They believe this cooling of the water to be due to the accelerated melting of the Greenland ice

Economic growth is vital to sustain human life; however, the unsustainable consumption of natural resources to attain this demand is leading to self-destruction. The Earth is facing environmental changes, including climate changes, which are altering the Earth system. Significantly higher thermal expansion is inescapable if the increasing pollution by carbon dioxide emission continues relentlessly. One evidence of this change is global warming and its impact in the Arctic Ice. The critical role of the Arctic in the global climate system implies that Arctic Ice changes will have far-reaching connotations for, and feedbacks to, the entire Earth. Currently, the warning signs include: rapid diminishing of sea ice, increased mass

What is the federal government’s strategy to support its claims to sovereignty in the high Arctic?

The first argument examined on the man-made global warning side is that increasing greenhouse gases caused by human activities is causing directly observed climate changes. The first resulting climate change discussed is warming global surface temperature. There has been an increase in global surface temperature of 0.74 degrees C since the late 19th century. In the last 50 years alone the temperature has increased by 0.13 degrees C per decade. North America and Eurasia have seen the largest increase in warmth. However, some areas of the earth have actually cooled some this past century (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para6). After the mid 20th century 70% of the global land mass saw reduced diurnal temperatures. From 1979 to 2005 the maximum and minimum temperatures have shown no change; both indicate warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para10). Furthermore, borehole temperatures, snow cover, and glacier recession data all seem to agree with recent warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para11).

It has been observed through various researches that in the last century, average temperatures across the globe increased by over 1.3°F with an increase of more than two times in the Arctic. (Bates, Kundzewicz, Wu, & Palutikof, June 2008). The results of climate change can also be seen in changing precipitation patterns, increases in ocean temperatures, changes in the sea level, and acidity and melting of glaciers and sea ice (USEPA, 2014).

In the summer, the amount of sunshine received in the Northern Hemisphere can control the advance and retreat of ice sheets because of changes in Earth’s orbit. This has been the cause of ice ages in the past, when Earth has experienced long periods of cold temperatures (NRC, 2010).

I chose the song Tundra by Ola GJeilo because of its unique sound. The song sounds like no other song, and it is very original in my perspective. The song is performed beautifully by this choir, and it has a lot of potential. This song is a short, yet sweet piece that shows the beauty of Norway. This song exemplifies how poetry can be turned into music.