Yellowknife (July 14/03) - It has been a strange six months in Paulatuk.

Residents of the tiny hamlet on the Arctic shore of Darnley Bay near the Beaufort Sea saw the spring ice break up earlier than anyone can remember.

XXXX A decrease in sea ice limits polar bear feeding areas. - NNSL file photo

Fishermen caught dog salmon in the Hornaday River, even though the species doesn't usually venture north of Whitehorse.

And hunters were astounded by the number of underweight polar bears they came across on the winter ice sheets.

"I've lived off the land my whole life and I've seen some strange things happen this year," said John Kudlak, a Paulatuk hunter.

"It makes me worry."

Earlier this year, Ralph Klein sat in an Edmonton TV studio preparing for his annual address to Albertans. His hair is neatly parted to the left and his blue suit buttoned all the way up.

"My fellow Albertans," he says to the camera with Caesarean inflection. "If the federal government's plan to implement Kyoto ever threatens to interfere with Alberta's right to manage its own resources... we'll go to court to defend that right."

The Northern problem

It's getting warmer in Paulatuk. In fact, it's getting warmer all across the North.

According to Environment Canada, the mean temperature in the NWT and Nunavut has increased by 1.5 degrees over the last 40 years. While that may not seem like a lot, it's enough to alter migration routes, melt ice caps, buckle foundations and tear up roadways.

"This shift in temperature represents a colossal change," said Bob Bromley of Ecology North. "As a point of reference, if things keep going like this, the Columbia Ice Field will be gone in 50 years."

At the root of the problem are greenhouse gas emissions -- emissions the Kyoto Protocol is designed to reduce.

In massive amounts these gasses -- composed mainly of carbon dioxide -- act like a blanket, trapping heat near the earth's surface and raising temperatures.

The result is climate change and there's little doubt who's responsible.

"The body of modern science says that in all likelihood the temperature change is too drastic to be natural," said Emery Paquin, head of the Environmental Protection Service, an arm of the GNWT. "Man is altering the environment."

At the center of the fight over global warming is the Canadian North. Thanks to a complicated combination of natural factors, the Arctic acts like a magnet for these gasses. The temperature is rising faster here than anywhere else in the world.

"We will be the first to pay," Bromley said.

The Canadian government estimates that by the beginning of the next century, the mean temperature in the NWT will be five degrees higher than it is today.

Hot and getting hotter

The issue is so serious, the Senate recently released a report warning "climate change is predicted to accelerate this century at a rate beyond that to which we have historically been able to adapt."

That's the government's way of saying, "Hold onto your hats folks, it's going to be a rocky ride."

None of this is news to John Kudlak. He's experienced first hand the effects of climate change.

"I've seen shorelines so badly eroded that it looks like somebody drove a bulldozer over them," he said.

"I've seen ptarmigans and grizzly bears that don't usually come this far north. And I've seen polar bears with hardly any fat on their body."

He said a decrease in sea ice has limited the bear's feeding area while late freeze ups last year and early breakups this year cost them a month of prime feeding time.

"There is no reason for a bear to be starving like that," said Kudlak. "I worry that in 10-15 years there could be no more polar bear hunting. That would really hurt our economy and our way of life."

In Coral Harbour, Nunavut, hunter Willy Nakoolak has noticed similar changes.

"At first we didn't know what was going on," he said. "The seals were in really bad shape. Their fur was (sparse) and they looked skinny."

"Now we know. Climate change has affected many of the animals around here, especially the ones who live on the (sea) ice."

Increasing temperatures have had a dramatic effect on dozens of Northern species.

Goodbye sparrows, hello mosquitoes

In Yellowknife, the tree sparrow has been displaced by the house sparrow, a bird usually restricted to areas below the 60th parallel. That was good news for mosquitoes, whose most vigorous predator was, you guessed it, the tree sparrow.

Warmer weather has also aided migration of grizzly bears into Northern latitudes. According to Fort McPherson elder Neil Colin, that's affected small game populations.

"We're seeing fewer of them than in years past," he said.

"It seems like everything has been affected by the (warming) temperature: the small animals all the way up to the caribou."

Bromley says rising temperatures have wrought havoc on ecosystems throughout the North, altering a number of well-established food systems.

At the current rate of temperature change, Northern animals and plants would have to cram several millennia of evolution into a few decades, or face extinction.

Back in Edmonton, Ralph Klein continues his well-rehearsed address to Albertans.

"We are serious about climate change," he says. "But if the federal government's plan to implement Kyoto threatens any sector of the economy we will say no and we will say no forcefully."

Many residents of Fort McPherson make their living leading gaming excursions for wealthy Americans looking to bag a caribou.

But changes in the climate around Fort McPherson have many people worried. An unusually warm spring meant the mosquito season got off to an early start this year, and according elder Neil Colin, it has hurt the caribou population.

Caribou crisis

"The mosquitoes are all over them," he said. "They can't stop moving and as a result they're skinnier. They look worn out."

"Lots of people around here rely on caribou and moose," said outfitter Jonah Nakimayak. "Which is why some of these changes worry me. Without caribou, we would be in trouble."

The GNWT is in a difficult position. It's faced with bearing the cost of global warming without being able to do much about it.

The Environmental Protection Service recently created a new strategy designed to reduce greenhouse emissions, but it hasn't been adopted by the legislative assembly.

"Even if the NWT dropped down to a zero output of greenhouse gasses, we would still feel the effects of climate change," said Jennifer Sanders of Yellowknife's Climate Change Centre.

"There's not a whole lot we can do about it."

It's a sad reality. The North is paying the price for a century and a half of industrialization in places like Europe, the United States, Southwestern Ontario and Alberta.

"Over 75 per cent of the people here rely on hunting and trapping to survive," said Celina Ringaut of the Igloolik Hunters and Trappers Association.

"People in the South don't realize the effect that (emissions) are having on our way of life."

"They haven't lived up here. They don't see what's happening. We are the ones who have to deal with it," Ringaut said.

She wonders if a provincial premier in Edmonton understands that.