Youth to be research subjects and scientists
Study will look at effects of climate change on Cambridge Bay's youth
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, May 22, 2017
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
It's a win-win situation for students in Cambridge Bay. Not only will they be some of the main subjects of a research study on the effects of climate change on Arctic youth, they will also get the chance to learn skills involved in putting a scientific study together.
Dalhousie University Professor Michael Ungar |
Dalhousie University professor Michael Ungar, who is leading the five-year, $2-million study, said the research is being funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research.
"We pitched to them ... communities affected by climate change. The research is only starting but what caught our attention and drew us to Cambridge Bay was hearing about young people who wanted to go hunting and the distance they now have to travel to do that," Ungar said. "Young people were saying the elders don't always know where the animals are because the migratory patterns are changing given the changes in the ice."
Ungar also pointed to the cruise ships that are now able to dock in places such as Cambridge Bay as another way climate change is affecting young people in the community. He said there are economic benefits to young people by having more tourists visit their hamlet, but there can also be severe consequences.
"It's a complicated story that needs more discussion. That's why we are approaching young people as co-researchers for a lot of phases for the research. We want to engage with young people, employ them, but also have them be very much a part of the research team so that we know what questions to ask," he said.
"We want to engage young people as citizen-scientists so they'll be helping us gather some of the environmental data. We also want to train local youth to develop the research skills to do surveys and questionnaires and interviews with young kids and elders."
Ungar said researchers hope to make still and video cameras available to young people so that they can document their work. He added that there will be an arts element to the research, whereby young people can use drawings or performance art to retell the stories they have learned while helping to do the research on the changing climate.
Ungar said members of the research team spent eight days in Cambridge Bay in January to introduce themselves to the community. A doctoral student will be arriving in the hamlet later this month to launch the research, Ungar said.
"We'll be working with young people to gather their stories and identify their health concerns and some of the ways they are coping and managing their lives given this huge change both economically, socially, environmentally, culturally," Ungar said.
Ungar is quick to point out he is a social scientist, not an environmental scientist. His study is not going to look at climate change itself, but rather the impacts it has on Northerners, particularly the young people of Cambridge Bay.
Randy Briand, Cambridge Bay's youth ambassador for the mayor's youth advisory council (MYAC) said that researchers have reached out to his organization for help.
"The committee will now talk about it. If it fits into our (mandate) and is going to be helpful for the youth of this community then obviously we will look at it. If MYAC agrees to take it on ... then away we go." said Briand. "We've agreed to liaise with them. We just have to iron out the details."
