"The theory comes in with what warming is going to do," he said in an interview this week.

That emissions and global temperatures are on the rise are uncontested facts, Sparling said. And one tangible recent response is the Dec. 10 Kyoto Agreement signed by Canada and several other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada has agreed to cut emissions by six per cent and the document calls for other signatories to cut the emissions by about 5.2 two per cent on average.

Sparling will join Jesse Jasper from Environment Canada's atmospheric branch to speak at a luncheon at the Explorer Hotel Jan. 26.

Hosted by the association of professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists of the NWT, the two will speak on how global warming will affect the territories.

"I will speak on the whys and what we know about global warming," Jasper said. "There is the melting of permafrost and the possible sea level change."

Jasper cited ice-core samples from deep into the earth which contain ancient air pockets. From them, scientists have determined that the levels of greenhouse gases have increased dramatically and continue to rise at about three per cent per year.

But despite improved scientific methodology, there is still no consensus on what a warmer atmosphere will mean.

"We have trouble predicting the weather in three days. The question is what will happen 50 years from now," Sparling said. "One possibility is more extreme events and storms like the ice storm around Montreal."

Yellowknifers may also be concerned about living in a region with the fastest-depleting ozone at the dawn of an era where much polar ice could permanently melt.

But though our ozone layer is thinning faster than other areas, the real skin cancer danger is still in the South, Sparling said. "The greatest risk is still going down to the Caribbean and getting a sunburn."

Though cancer-causing ultraviolet rays may be more prominent up here, people are still covered all winter. Things only get dangerous in the spring.