Documentary looks at physiology and psychology of cold weather
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Gjoa Haven (Apr 23/01) - Northerners take a certain amount of pride in the level of cold they can withstand.
We often scoff at our southern neighbours who complain of chilly winter days when the mercury drops below the freezing.
All that said, the results of a recent scientific study conducted in Gjoa Haven produced a surprisingly set of results.
The guinea pigs? Two residents of Gjoa Haven versus two documentary filmmakers from the south.
Louis Kamookak and his father George were the two local men who volunteered their time and warmth.
Kamookak said he got a call one day from two men who were working on a film about cold weather and human adaptability.
He said they told him they wanted to measure the body temperature of Nunavummiut and compare it to the body temperature of southerners.
"It's for a documentary on how people adapt to the cold. They had us wired up to these computers," said Louis Kamookak.
All four participants dipped their hands into 10 degree Celsius water for 25 minutes. Their body temperatures were measured to see how fast it would take their hands to return to normal temperatures.
"Before we started, we thought me and my father's hands would warm up quicker and the guys from the south would take longer," said Kamookak.
"But it was the other way around."
Kamookak also said that while their hands were immersed in the water, the computer showed that his and his father's hands stayed at an even temperature, while the hands of the men from the south showed constant dips and rises in temperature.
Used to the cold
Filmmaker Andrew Gregg explained the results.
"Their bodies were so used to the cold that there was no emergency, no rush to warm up," said Gregg from his home in Toronto.
He lived in the North on and off for a period of years, and Gregg said the inspiration for the film, entitled The Cold Embrace, came during a particularly frigid trip to Clyde River a few years ago.
"It was so frigging cold and we were watching these Inuit guys walk around with no gloves on. That started us thinking about how on these (film) shoots, conversation is completely taken up by the cold," said Gregg.
He and his partner Gordon Henderson pitched their idea to the Discovery Channel.
"They were interested in having us develop it," he said.
Essentially about people and the cold and how people adapt to the cold -- both physiologically and psychologically -- the documentary has taken Gregg and Henderson to Nunavut, the Yukon, Alberta, Manitoba, northern Norway and northern Sweden.
The finished product should be ready for viewing on the Discovery Channel and CTV by January of 2001.
Gregg said he learned a great deal about the human ability to adapt to climate over the last few years.
"It's startling how much the human body can do over time with lifestyle and its ability to adjust," said Gregg.
"Going to Gjoa Haven ... was a lovely way to finish off the film," he said.
