Project News
- Feeding the Family in times of stress – Public Dissemination Booklet
- Iqaluit Food Security Videos – The Iqaluit Community Tukisigiarvik Society
- Sara – Food Security in Iqaluit – Dissemination website
- Nauvikhaq – Ulukhaktok Oral History Database (temporary username: reviewer password: forreview1)
Will gave a talk at IPY this afternoon about our group’s recent communication efforts. You can download his slide deck below:
The projects will discussed were:
You can get in touch with Will by email at wvanderbilt@gmail.com.
An interview with Elisapi Davidee-Aningmiuq, the program coordinator at the Iqaluit Tukisigarivik centre. The drop in center is open every weekday, and provides a breakfast program, free country food, and land skills training to the community of Iqaluit, Nunavut.
The center is one of three community organizations in Iqaluit which our research group has partnered with on the project, “Feeding the family during times of stress: Food security, climate change and globalization in the Canadian North (2009 – 2011).”
To watch this video in HD, click here.
Press Release: McGill Researchers: Aboriginal Canadians need better health support in face of climate change
Download the release here (pdf).
“Climate change has been identified as potentially the biggest health threat of the 21st century,” says a study by researchers from McGill, Trent, and the University of Alberta which examines the vulnerability of Aboriginal health systems in the face of climatic change. “Intervention is needed to prevent, prepare for, and manage climate change effects on Aboriginal health but is constrained by a limited understanding of vulnerability and its determinants.”
This presentation was given to guests at a dinner hosted by the CIHR and IAPH in Iqaluit, May 11, 2010.
Press Release: McGill Professor: Inuit Can Adapt to Climate Change with the Right Support Mechanisms
Download the PDF here.
For Immediate Release
January 21st, 2010.
McGill Professor: Inuit Can Adapt to Climate Change with the Right Support Mechanisms
“Inuit are not powerless in the face of a rapidly changing climate”, says McGill Geography Professor James Ford. “But communities, businesses, regions, and governments in the Canadian Arctic need to think now about how climate change will affect them in the future.”
Ford’s most recent research explores policy options for adaptation for Inuit communities facing the impacts of climate change.
“Compromised food security, increasing danger of engaging in traditional practices, and the inability to hunt at certain times of the year have been noted across northern Canada. Increasing sea levels, coastal erosion, and permafrost thaw are also threatening the viability of some Inuit settlements, damaging important heritage sites, and compromising municipal infrastructure and water supply,” says Ford’s paper, published in the current issue of Global Environmental Change. Entitled “Climate change policy responses for Canada’s Inuit Population: The importance of and opportunities for adaptation”, the research was completed with colleagues from Trent University, the University of Guelph, and Ryerson University.
Ford emphasizes the urgency of implementing adaptation policy now.
See the original article here.
A new study suggests the financial burden of Arctic climate change is already falling on Inuit people and the heaviest costs are hurting those families least able to pay.
The study backs demands made by Inuit leaders for a share of global funds being proposed to help adapt to a warming planet. It says governments should shift some of their funding focus to help the Inuit meld new tools with traditional knowledge to survive in today’s North.
“Inuit can adapt to climate change,” says James Ford, a geographer at Montreal’s McGill University, whose paper will be published early in 2010. “We have a number of concerns about whether Inuit can afford to adapt.”
Press Release: McGill Professor: We Owe “Climate Debt” to Canada’s North, Not Only to Developing Countries
Download the PDF here.
Press Release: Ford: We Mustn’t Forget About Climate Change “Adaptation Gap” in Canada’s North
Download the PDF here.
For Immediate Release
November 25th, 2009.
Ford: We Mustn’t Forget About Climate Change “Adaptation Gap” in Canada’s North
With many environmentalists cheering over the success of Tuesday’s Bloc Quebecois motion to significantly reduce carbon emissions, Canada must not forget about the importance of adaptation. We risk leaving our Northern communities—already experiencing significant climate change—on thin ice.
“There is an adaptation gap—the gap between what we need to know to help communities in the north to adapt to climate change, and what we already know,” says James Ford, Assistant Professor in Geography at McGill University in Montreal. “Adaptation research is ten years behind mitigation research.”
“There is limited planning for climate change impacts at the territorial level. Consequently, current development is based on a stable climate and may be unsustainable in the face of climate change,” says Ford. “For instance, infrastructure may be built on land that is vulnerable to rising sea levels or melting permafrost.”