On the edge: a life-changing experience

JOHN THOMPSON

Sixteen lucky students from around Canada, the United States, China and Saudi Arabia traded their classrooms for the floe edge past Pond Inlet last month, where they spent a week watching beluga and narwhal dive through the sparkling blue waters, and the odd polar bear saunter by in the distance.

The trip, organized by Students on Ice, left its participants with a sense of awe and wonder – and galvanized them to fight global warming, according to the online journal entries of participants.

“This whole experience has made me want to change the life I am living and be proud of our earth. I have never been more shocked, inspired, altered or touched by anything else I have ever experienced. I just can’t believe I had the honour of seeing it,” wrote Ophelia Snyder, 15, from New York City.

“This trip has proven that climate change exists at a serious level and has inspired me to become an environmental leader when I return home: an obligation I believe I have now for the rest of my life,” wrote Deeva Green, 17, from Toronto.

It’s the seventh year Students on Ice has taken teens to the Arctic and Antarctic, led by explorer Geoff Green. Major backers of the program include the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

The most recent trip began with an extraordinary first day at the floe edge, on June 19, when as many as 100 belugas swam within sight.

“Beluga after beluga kept coming, it was so beautiful. They swam so gracefully and even though you could only see their creamy-white backs and the ends of their tails, it was still so breathtaking. Some as far as 20 metres away, others only two metres,” wrote Maggie Clark, 14, from Richmond Hill, Ontario.

To put things in perspective, Dr. David Gray, who joined the expedition to share his knowledge from 37 years of studying birds and mammals in the Arctic, had never seen a beluga until then.

What’s more, Inuit guides said spotting beluga in that area was almost unheard of.

As the belugas swam by, the group listened to the whales’ singing voices with a hydrophone dropped into the water. “It just overloaded all the senses,” Green said. “It took us a while to recover.”

Later that day, Gray gave a lecture about seabirds of the Arctic, including the rare ivory gull, which has suffered a severe population decline over the last decade. As if on cue, as Gray spoke an Ivory gull circled the group – another first sighting for the esteemed researcher.

“It’s one of those moments when you were speechless,” Green said.

By the trip’s end, the group also saw polar bears, narwhal, curious seals, and thousands upon thousands of seabirds at Cape Graham Moore, on the southeastern tip of Bylot Island.

“Visiting the bird cliff during our expedition was like visiting a city of birds; the caves were filled with their music and all that one can see on the cliffs and the surrounding air were white kittiwakes that looked like flying snowflakes. Stunning, breathtaking, and absolutely humbling,” wrote Tereen Alireza, 16, from Jedda, Saudi Arabia.

Forget Microsoft PowerPoint presentations in the classroom, Green said. “You just point.”

The group also visited Thule sod huts, where the skulls of bonehead whales jutted through the walls.

As a long-time leader of expeditions to both polar regions, Green first dreamed up Students on Ice after he noticed how jaded stockbrokers reacted to the environment with a newfound sense of wonder of the natural world.

“Imagine if we could eject that message to people in the beginning of their lives, and not the end,” he said during an interview last Thursday.

Since then, Students on Ice has led about 600 students, including about 50 Inuit, on their expeditions.

When Students on Ice first began, climate change in the Arctic wasn’t the hot issue it is today. But the program’s graduates have become prominent voices in the discussion on global warming.

When the United Nations held its climate change conference in Montreal last November, three of the five youth who appeared as a special committee were Students on Ice alumni.

“They think they can save the world, and I think they’re right,” Green said.

A film based on the recent floe edge expedition will be produced by the Inuit Broadcasting System, to be broadcast on APTN. As well, podcasts created by students will produced by the National Film Board and Science North in Sudbury.

Two Students on Ice expeditions are planned next summer, during International Polar Year. Students from Nunavut are encouraged to apply. For more information, visit www.studentsonice.com.

While Students on Ice alumni are galvanized to fight climate change, Green said it’s disappointing that the country’s political leaders, including Nunavut’s premier, send mixed messages about the warming Arctic.

“The Harper government is going in the absolute opposite direction, and it was particularly shocking to see that Premier Okalik jumped onto Harper’s anti-Kyoto bandwagon recently. Of all the leaders in this country, Premier Okalik should be the one that is most concerned and proactive about climate change.”