Innovation Anthology #157: Intensive Wood Management Specialist
Imagine the Arctic ocean without ice.
For almost three decades, Dr. David Barber has studied sea ice in Canada’s high Arctic. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Arctic Systems at the University of Manitoba.
Not all sea ice melts during Arctic summers. That which survives is called multi-year ice.
Dr. Barber first noticed a decline in the amount of multi-year sea ice in the late 1980’s. Averaging a loss of 70,000 square kilometers a year, this increased to a stunning 1.4 million square kilometers in 2007.
DR. DAVID BARBER: . As the earth tilts towards the sun you get this 24 hour daylight. So It used to be that there was a lot of white over top of the ocean that was reflecting all of this sunlight back to space. And as we started to reduce the amount of multi-year sea ice, we opened up more ocean, And all of this sunlight that is coming in at the northern hemisphere is now being absorbed by the ocean. That, of course, warms up the ocean. And because you’re warming up the ocean, you melt more ice.
Dr. Barber predicts with global warming, the high Arctic will be free of sea ice by 2030, and possibly as early as 2013.
Thanks today to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Richard Krygier MSc RPF,
Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Canada Foundation for Innovation
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure—state-of-the-art equipment, laboratories, databases, and the buildings necessary to conduct research. The CFI’s mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
Since its creation in 1997, CFI investments in research infrastructure have lead to breakthroughs in areas such as health, natural resources, information and communications technology, energy, and the environment.
La Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation (FCI) est un organisme autonome créé par le gouvernement du Canada pour financer l’infrastructure de recherche—l’équipement de pointe, les laboratoires, les bases de données de même que les bâtiments nécessaires pour mener des travaux de recherche. Le mandat de la FCI est de renforcer la capacité des universités, des collèges et des hôpitaux de recherche, de même que des établissements de recherche à but non lucratif du Canada de mener des projets de recherche et de développement technologique de calibre mondial qui produisent des retombées pour les Canadiens.
Depuis la création de la FCI en 1997, les investissements qu’elle a faits dans l’infrastructure ont mené à des percées dans des domaines tels que la santé, les ressources naturelles, les technologies de l’information et des communications, l’énergie et l’environnement.
Program Date: 2008-08-05