Theo Ikummaq

The group spent several hours shuttling the dogs and gear from the airport to the base camp and out onto the ice. The two large komatiq sleds were pushed to the house, where walrus, caribou, and seal meat were loaded in a makeshift outdoor freezer. Both Theo and Lukie’s wives and daughters make the trek from Iglulik as well to see the team off. The small base camp, which was quiet all week, began to buzz with activity.

After a busy afternoon, the team gathered in the evening for a pizza dinner at the Frobisher Inn. Conversation was lively, touching on expedition logistics, trail conditions, life in Iqaluit compared to the United States, and a host of other interesting topics. The team met bright and early the following morning to talk over the logistics of pack-out in more detail.

Spirits are high as the two groups get to know each other and learn about different styles and techniques. Contrasts can be seen between contemporary and traditional clothing (seal and caribou fur versus nylon and polar fleece), tools (knives and spears versus axes and saws), and dog gear (nylon harnesses with metal clips versus seal skin harnesses and bone toggles). Both groups seem eager to learn from the other while sharing their own knowledge of life on trail.

The team will spend the evening celebrating the expedition and upcoming departure at a dinner party hosted by polar explorer, Maddy McNair.

Lukie Airut and Simon Qamanirq

The Expedition Team and family members

The Baffin Island Expedition is complete, but the lessons learned and Inuit voices are just beginning to be reflected upon and shared. We have returned to Minnesota and to a new season - May in Minnesota is green and lush; lilacs bloom and spill over back yard fences; maples, elms and birches show off their brand new leaves. Up on Baffin Island it is spring too, with snow melting off the black rocks, ice opening up on the long rivers that run down from the interior, young seals learning to swim and polar bears mating.

The Arctic, though beautiful beyond words, is an unforgiving host. Those who wish to live and thrive there must learn to adapt as a means of survival. We came to listen to the voice of the Inuit people. Of course, as in any culture, there are a million voices each one with its own unique perspective on the world. Despite differing perspectives, however, we did hear common threads.

This post was written originally for Canadian Geographic magazine's blog

Copenhagen-- A giant orb glows in a major city square, while in another part of Copenhagen, new steel cages await unruly protestors. Denmark’s capital is prepped for the Monday’s kickoff to 12 days of United Nations climate negotiations.
On Sunday, I sat down with Amber Church, the national director for the Canadian Youth Climate coalition, to get her take on the Canadian negotiating team for the next two weeks.

The 28-year-old calls Canada a “lost lemming” in the global climate negotiations, which has even fallen behind the U.S. with its inaction.
“Right now Canada is not leading—it’s not even following very well because Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s line is ‘We can’t do anything until the U.S. does something,’” Church says. “To be perfectly honest, the U.S. is ahead of us and we’re not even following very well.”

Her advice for Canada in Copenhagen? “Canada should lead, follow or get out of the way,” Church says.

Church, who lives in Whitehorse, will be leading the Canadian youth delegation at the talks. The delegation is composed of a 35 activists from around the country, making up one of the largest youth delegations at the conference. This doesn’t count another 50 or so more Canadians who are attending with student delegations from universities such as the University of Toronto.

Church says the Canadian youth will lobby hard for strong reduction targets, holding the Conservative government’s negotiating team accountable for not supporting a climate bill earlier this year in the House of Commons, which called for certain emissions reductions.

“The Canadian public along with the House of Commons supports these targets and so we’d like to make sure our government is actually speaking for our people.”
With this goal in mind, Canadian youth will be meeting with a growing list of Canadian politicians while in Copenhagen, including Prentice, NDP leader Jack Layton, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, environment ministers from the territories, and Canada’s chief negotiator, Michael Martin.

A meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper is still in the works.

Church said these lobbying sessions with politicians will not be soft photo-ops, since the Canadian youth will be driving home their message, Church says.

“Canada needs to stop being obstructionist and Canada needs to come to the table and actually start participating,” Church said.

Check back soon for more developments on the Canadian youth delegation in Copenhagen.

Liana B. Baker, a former intern with the magazine, is Canadian Geographic climate policy correspondent in Copenhagen.

I hit the trail early this morning, trekking with my fellow Will Steger delegates to COY, the Conference of Youth. As we were walking, I noticed how many people bike in town. There is actually a separate lane for cyclists, and I’ve heard rumor that there are more bikes than in people in Copenhagen. Whether or not this is true, it’s a far cry from some of the places I biked through earlier this autumn.

Young people from all across the world gathered today for our first day of training in preparation for the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (COP-15) which begins on Monday.

The air was vibrant with the energy of a thousand young people, ready to call for a strong, fair, and legally binding treaty over the next couple of weeks. Today, I met with youth delegates from India, Sweden, Cameroon, Canada, Australia, Belgium, China, Japan, from all across the world. I ran into fellow 350 organizers from across the world, who were organizing events internationally while I was biking 350 miles around the state of Minnesota to talk to people about climate solutions.

Stay tuned for breaking news from behind the scenes at COP-15!

Until tomorrow,
Reed Aronow

Revolution never come with a warning. 
Revolution never send you an omen.
Revolution just arrives like the morning, ring the alarm time to wake up this morning. ~Michael Franti & Spearhead

With just a few short weeks & a few long days before landing at the climate movement's ground zero, I feel like a Scooby Doo character who is running in place before setting off in an all out sprint!

The other week Al Gore made a great appearance on David Letterman to promote his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis and to talk Copenhagen. Gore stated that although the grassroots movement is the largest this world has ever seen, it has yet to reach a critical mass. It is up to us to prove that statement wrong.

All the amazing folks I've had the opportunity to talk to here in Wisconsin on the platform of climate solutions are ready for revolution -- we want climate justice, climate equality and REAL, BINDING, SUSTAINABLE climate solutions. That is the message that I will carry to and advocate for in Copenhagen.

To the folks I have talked to and to all those readers that I have not yet had the opportunity to meet -- revolution is ours to make. It is every voice, every song, every noise that we create that will break the barrier to create a critical mass. The volume is rising... I hear it... I feel the vibrations... it moves my soul and moves me to act... we need it to be LOUDER.

It's like the end of Horton Hears A Who... there is a jungle of doubt willing to fight to prevent change, to spout all the reasons that a world with 350ppm, a world run on sustainable energy, a world led with a positive, green foot forward and the creation of a dramatic, binding, just climate treaty is not logical or possible. Amidst the clamor of doubt, we must stand strong with loud voices, clanging every pot and drum and using our voices to let them know that WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! WE ARE HERE! We can break the sound barrier and create a critical mass that is impossible to ignore.

We are the movement. We are the ones that create the revolution. And just like Horton, we will stand strong amidst powerful, threatening opposition. And just like every Who in Whoville, we will yell and make every noise possible to let global leaders and communities know that WE ARE HERE.