Yellowknife (Feb 23/05) - About 150 science geeks, young and old, opted to spend Valentine's Day with Bob MacDonald, host of CBC's Quirks and Quarks science program.

"The temperature here (Yellowknife) is about the temperature of Mars," he quipped during opening remarks, reminding the audience at least they didn't need to wear spacesuits to walk outside.

And if you think that's bad, MacDonald says try Titan, a moon of Saturn where a robotic probe landed this January. The temperature is a chilly -200C.

It's so cold methane turns into liquid and water becomes like rock, forming rocky highlands. "You think it's cold in Yellowknife?" he asked, prompting guffaws from the crowd.

MacDonald was one of several speakers in Yellowknife this week for a week-long lecture series organized by Ecology North.

On the subject of climate change, he spared the audience doom-and-gloom predictions: technology can be harnessed to solve ecological problems.

"I really believe we can do that. I have faith in science, and I have faith in ourselves," he said.

As global warming continues, he said it could be possible to sail to the North Pole in the next 50 years. This image captured the imagination of more than one audience member.

"What implications will that have for us? It's startling," said Jen Mckay a few nights afterwards, as a group of the ecologically-minded celebrated the Kyoto agreement over beer and champagne in a downtown restaurant.

"It's something people around the world should really be raising a toast to."

Just as music technology has evolved from vinyl to eight-tracks to CDs to iPods, so MacDonald suggested the internal combustion engine - a technology now 150 years old - must change.

Even a fuel-efficient car uses just 20 per cent of the energy stored in gas, with 80 per cent lost by the constant heating and cooling of the engine.

"I'm not saying don't have SUVs, trucks and cars," the science guru said. "But how else can we turn these wheels? It's engineering."

Still, he dismissed current hybrid electric-gas vehicles like the Toyota Prius as something for "eco-weenies," and suggested what the world really needs is an eco-hotrod.

On Kyoto, MacDonald and other speakers said they knew the agreement to lower fossil fuel consumption wasn't enough to end global warming, but it was an important start that Canada could pioneer by developing new technology.

Worry about humans

And don't worry about the world - worry about humans. MacDonald said dinosaur fossils reveal that giant reptiles used to roam Baffin Island. Mammoths once stomped across grasslands that grew across the Northwest Territories up to the Arctic ocean.

It's a question of whether humans will be around to witness the resilience of Earth.

"What always goes is the top of the food chain. It's not about saving the planet," MacDonald said.