PAULATUK
Lawrence Ruben says he remembers when iceberg tea was a summertime staple in Paulatuk.

Lisa Illasiak, Grade 12 student at Angik School in Paulatuk, helps to interview her grandfather, Gilbert Thrasher Sr., for a climate change adaptation project. Eric Lede, a researcher with the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, is looking at how people in Paulatuk are experiencing and adapting to a changing climate. - photo courtesy of Eric Lede

"People used to head out to the icebergs or ice chunks and get ice for water," he said. "It was preferable to use that ice than the water you get from the tap for making coffee, making tea, soup and stuff. It was a lot better."

But Ruben, chair of the Paulatuk Community Corporation and board of director for the local hunters and trappers committee, said the days of iceberg tea are gone.

Now, sea ice melts every year and leaves nothing behind but open water.

"Back in the 80s and 90s, that was always the case, every summer we would have multiy-ear ice and big ice chunks sticking around throughout the summer, but no more," he said.

Eric Lede, a researcher with the Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, is looking at how people in Paulatuk are experiencing and adapting to a changing climate.

The project aims to provide climate change information that could help guide decisions about the community.

"This study is very much for Paulatuk so that local and regional decision-making circles, they've got some proof of what's going on and greater evidence to show where to best allocate funding and resources," Lede said.

Lisa Illasiak, a Grade 12 student at Angik School, worked with Lede as a research partner. Illasiak helped to design the research, perform interviews with residents and gathered information.

Illasiak said while her work is being put toward the community service hours she needs to graduate, it's also teaching her interviewing skills.

"I've got the hang of it a little better," she said.

She said she's thankful she was able to earn her community service hours working on the project.

Interviews were conducted with both men and women over the age of 18, Lede said.

Illasiak said the project has made her think about her changing environment, adding that she remembers when snowbanks could get as high as one-storey buildings.

"This year there is about absolutely no snow banks at all," she said. "Just little drifts on the road."

Ruben said he believes El Nino could be to blame for this year's difference in snow accumulation.

"Last year we had an overabundance of snowfall," he said. "We had some snowbanks on the road, some were around 15 or 16 feet high, which was a lot of work of the hamlet to do."

The past five years have brought the most noticeable change to the Paulatuk area, Ruben said. Sea ice has been forming later in the year and breaking up earlier, causing more hunters to fall through ice while hunting.

"It's on a yearly basis it's happening," Ruben said. "The ice is pretty thin now."

Erosion is also eating away at the coastline and the shores of the Hornaday River.

Ruben said fish species not normally found in Paulatuk, including pink salmon, are becoming more common.

"We've been reporting different salmon and other fish species in the region," he said.

Lede said local knowledge is vital to examining climate change.

"Research around adaptation to climate change involves working with people and working with communities," he said. "The information needs to be relevant to and for communities."

Lede said he plans to return to Paulatuk at the end of this year or early 2017 to share the results of the research.

In the meantime, Ruben hopes the newly elected Liberal government will act on its campaign promises to take action on climate change and help communities to deal with its impact.

"For individuals like myself, it does cause some concern because adapting to climate change, we can't do it ourselves," he said. "We need research, we need help, we need the funding to do all of that. (Climate change) does affect largely the Northern region up here."