China looks to Nunavut for clues to climate change

IQALUIT — Driven by concern over the effects of global warming, a group of Chinese polar experts made the long journey to Nunavut last week to attend the Arctic Science Summit in Iqaluit.

The scientists want to explore the possibilities for research projects in the Canadian High Arctic.

The Chinese government already sends up to 100 scientists per year to Antarctica, at the opposite end of the Earth, where it operates two permanent research stations.

But if the Canadian High Arctic can provide additional clues on how global warming works, deploying more researchers from China will be well worth the effort, according to Professor Chen Liqui.

Liqui, who was one of the Chinese contingent visiting Iqaluit last week, heads China’s Arctic and Antarctic department and its advisory committee for polar research.

“We would like to send our young scientists to learn about the Canadian Arctic.”

— Professor Chen Liqui

“We have a good relationship with Canadian scientists, and we would like to send our young scientists to learn about the Canadian Arctic, too,” he said.

Though China is not in the Arctic, it does have several regions with polar-type climates.

But Liqui said China’s interest in polar research is mainly motivated by its need to better understand climate change.

According to Liqui, China’s climate is already warming, and changing relatively quickly. Liqui said older people in his home city of Beijing can remember when the climate was much colder.

United Nations scientists who met recently in Shanghai, China, said the world’s climate could rise by as much as 6 degrees C. But even small changes severely affect China.

To date, warmer, wetter and more unstable conditions have led to increased flooding and other extreme weather events in China — such as massive dust storms whose haze recently reached North America.

These natural disasters have the potential to threaten millions of lives.

Flooding of the Yangtze River recently caused nearly 14 million people to leave their homes, and led to countless deaths and widespread loss of property. If the worst-case predictions for rising sea levels come true, 70 million “environmental refugees” may have to flee China’s coasts.

Liqui said there is increasing uncertainty and unease about what the future holds for China. Liqui pointed to the ambitious project underway to build a railroad from Qinghai to Tibet — over permafrost.

“But what will happen if it melts?” Liqui said.

China is the second-largest emitter in the world of so-called greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming, but it has been actively trying to cut down the emissions, Liqui said. In China, industries that produce dirty emissions are being forced to turn towards cleaner, higher-tech procedures.

China is also trying to reduce its reliance on burning coal to produce electricity, by switching to cleaner sources of energy.

An entire government ministry is devoted to working on environmental issues in China.

As well, China supports the Kyoto Protocol, an international deal that sets timetables for the worldwide reduction of emissions.

Given these circumstances, Bruce Rigby of the Nunavut Research Institute says it’s no surprise Chinese scientists, and those from many other countries, are interested in working in the High Arctic.

And for many cash-strapped Canadian researchers, collaboration with better-funded scientists from other countries is the only way they can pay for their projects.

“That’s the reality,” Rigby said. “It has already been like that in other places.”

Rigby said what he calls the “stovepipe” mentality of research, which looked only in one limited direction, belongs to the past.

Making links to internationalize research efforts in Nunavut was one of the aims of the summit, he said.

This development will bring money to both Nunavut businesses and to other supporters of science teams such as the Canadian Polar Continental Shelf Project in Resolute Bay.

The potential of more outside cash from scientific research is not lost on Nunavut’s premier, Paul Okalik.

“Nunavut is looking for partnerships and opportunities where we can establish and develop long-term relationships, not only within Canada, but also within the circumpolar world and the global community,” Okalik told the visiting scientists.

“There are many agencies, organizations and bodies that have great ideas and the resources to advance them. We look forward to working with these bodies.”