A Frozen-Ground Cartoon: Explaining international permafrost research using comic strips.

• Main Authors: Bouchard, Fréderic, Deshpande, Bethany, Fritz, Michael, Malenfant-Lepage, Julie, Nieuwendam, Alexandre, Paquette, Michel, Rudy, Ashley, Siewert, Matthias, Sjöberg, Ylva, Veillete, Audrey, Harbor, John, Weege, Stefanie, Ross, Noémie, Nääs, Heta
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Canada; International Permafrost Association; permafrost
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/41123/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/41123/1/Bouchard_ICOP2016_Frozen_Ground_Cartoon.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48133; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48133.d001

Apart from people in cold region communities and a small – although steadily growing – scientific community, the general public knows very little about permafrost properties, its dynamics in response to climate change, and the research going on in the field. We are addressing this by making permafrost science accessible to children, youth, their parents, and teachers. We are producing a 100% outreach-related project that aims at ‘Fostering permafrost research to the ends of the Earth’ (http://ipa.arcticportal.org), but with a casual approach via a series of comic strips. Cartoons are excellent ways to communicate messages in today’s media landscape: they are graphic, funny and direct, and can be rapidly shared via social media to reach many people. Our outreach project targets the general public, focusing on young students who have to choose career paths at the high school or college levels. By introducing them to permafrost research activities, particularly fieldwork, our ‘Frozen-Ground Cartoon’ will enhance the dissemination of permafrost knowledge and broaden the international community of permafrost ‘lovers’. This new project is coordinated by a core group of permafrost early career researchers from Canada, Germany, Sweden and Portugal (in collaboration with an ‘external senior advisor’), and is endorsed by the International Permafrost Association (IPA) as a targeted ‘Action Group’ (http://ipa.arcticportal.org/activities/action-groups). Here we present an overview of our Action Group, including main objectives, significance, and potential future outcomes.