• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Ellesmere Island; Nunavut
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.654.7481; http://fatlab.biology.dal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IversonMeridian04.pdf

Different climate models vary in their pre-diction of how fast the world is heating up in different regions, but almost all converge on the conclusion that the north polar region will experience greater temperature increas-es than elsewhere, and that these changes are likely to become ever faster because of the positive feedback effects of melting snow and ice. This “runaway change ” scenario makes northern Canada a particularly im-portant place for monitoring the global cli-mate system. Of course apart from our inter-national responsibilities in this regard, we also have a vital self-interest in knowing how fast the Canadian environment is changing. One of the remarkable features of Cana-dian geography is that the landmass spans 41 degrees of latitude, with the northern tip of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, extending to latitude 83°N, only a few hundred nautical