Malin Jennings

Malin Jennings is a Fellow at the Conservation Science Institute. She will participate in a panel discussion on poverty and climate change at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, January 17, 2006, from noon-2:30.

The Arctic I.Cc.E. project (formerly known as the Aujaqsuittuq Project) is an initiative to link scientists studying Arctic climate change with indigenous people of the far north who are living with that change. Through this project, we are recording ethnographies and oral histories throughout the Arctic about the impact climate change is having on the lives, culture and environment of the far north.

Taping begins in February 2006 in the Thule district of Greenland, among the most northerly communities on earth: Siorapaluk, Qaanaq, Qeqertat and Moriasaq. Between three and four dozen hunters live subsistence lives there. But because of climate change, their ability to survive off the land is ebbing. The ice isn't strong enought to support them in late spring hunts. And without those hunts, the Thule can't survive all winter. Many fear that their way off life can't last more than another 10-15 years.

Then in June of 2006 I will attend the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in Barrow where people from around the Arctic Circle gather to discuss issues of common concern.

In the years to come, I will travel throughout Canada's Nunavut and Northwest Territories, to Western, Central and Eastern Siberia and to Alaska's Kuskokwim River Valley region.

The resulting archive of traditional knowledge will be made available to climate scientists and anyone else who is interested on the Arctic I.Cc.E web site (www.aujaqsuittuq.com)

You may notice the use of the pronoun "I" in this narrative, rather than "we". That's because so far there is no we. I am working to raise money to support this effort, but until I become something other than an utter fundraising failure, I'll continue paying for the project out of my own frayed wallet.

However, if you think this work is of value, I have two inticements to offer to donors. Your very own Arctic I.Cc.E mouse pad. Or an Inukshuk, an Inuit cairn, built just for you, by me in the Arctic. I'll take a picture of it, give you its exact location and even leave a note of your choosing inside it if you like. Now show me one other website in the world that can make that offer.