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DAWSON ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE August 2008 Project Update This
e-mail update is part of the Dawson Adapting To Climate Change project.
It is to keep the community informed about what has happened so far and
to give notice of upcoming events. |
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1.
CAVIAR Research Continues This summer, three graduate students from Ryerson University, as well as Sebastian Jones and Cholena Smart, conducted interviews in and around Dawson. The project leader is Professor Frank Duerden, from Ryerson University. Over forty in-depth interviews were done to determine how institutions, economic sectors and households in the Dawson region have responded to stress and change. These results form a core part of the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Thank you to those who generously provided their time for these interviews. The information you provided is key to developing an appropriate adapation plan for the Dawson City area. |
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2. Climate Change models now online There is now an online tool for those interested in climate change projections for the Yukon. Thanks to the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium a regional analysis tool has been developed. It can provide projections for the Yukon on temperature and precipitation until the 2080's. Follow the regional analysis links and be sure to read the instructions on how to manipulate the data. Be sure to also check out the specific climate impact projections for the Dawson region. The Dawson specific climate projections for temperature and precipitation were done as part of the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Project. |
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Future stages of the Dawson Adapting To Climate Change project will include technical workshops to be held in late October. These workshops will be aimed at those within the greater Dawson area who make decisions or represent interests that should consider climate impacts. Participants will include those with knowledge relating to municipal issues, lands decisions, emergency response, and representatives from various industrial and commercial sectors such as placer mining and tourism. Invitation to these workshops will be sent out in October. The results from these workshops, combined with the results from the CAVIAR interviews, will form the basis of the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan. At the Fall workshops, a synthesis of information collected so far will be presented. There will be a facilitated planning exercise to identify/review vulnerable areas and assign priority to these. From this a range of adaptation options can be developed. The Plan aims to show how to build capacity within the greater Dawson region, and identify areas where capacity has to be increased and specific adaptation actions need to be taken. The Draft Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan will be presented to the greater Dawson community at what is anticipated will be a community feast in early 2009. This will be an opportunity to gather community feedback, and modify the Plan based on what the community wants. As planning for both the workshops and community presentation starts to come together, dates and locations will be advertised. Watch this space for the 'when and where' of these exciting events. |
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The Dawson Northern Climate ExChange office (located in the Dawson Yukon College Campus building) is the place to go for questions about this project or for more information. General climate change information as well as specific project information is regularly posted on the website. Temperature and precipitation projections for the Dawson region are available on the webiste. Other reports (e.g. the Draft Plan) will be posted there as they become available. Paper copies are available by request. The Northern Climate ExChange also has an extensive resource library with a large selection of books, DVDs and periodicals dealing with all manner of climate change issues. The library can be searched on-line at www.yukon.taiga.net/nce/library/. All items can be borrowed free of charge. Should anyone have questions, please do ask. Sebastian Jones Tel: 867-993-4401 The Northern Climate ExChange Dawson City office is on the second floor of the Dawson City Yukon College building. |
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5 Staff changes at the Northern Climate ExChange Ryan Hennessey will be moving in to the Community Adaptation Project Manager position at the Northern Climate ExChange. He will be replacing Lewis Rifkind who is taking up a position with the Yukon Conservation Society. Ryan has lots of experience in Climate Change Adaptation, having previously worked with the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network in Nova Scotia. His contact information is as follows: Ryan Hennessey Tel: 867-668-8874 Jen Turner, the Coordinator of Northern Climate ExChange is moving to Victoria, British Columbia for a position with the B.C. Government, Climate Change Section. The Coordinator position will be posted soon. For information contact Clint Sawicki, Manager of the Northern Research Institute (867-668-8772). The Northern Climate ExChange main office is in Whitehorse at Yukon College. It is behind the main campus building, in an A-frame type building hooked up to a wind-turbine and some solar panels. And don't forget to check out the Northern Climate ExChange website at www.taiga.net/nce. |
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6 Permafrost
research taking place in and around Dawson Chris Burn's project out of Carleton University has installed a series of electrical sensors in various locations around town that measure the ground temperature at half metre intervals. The results are recorded monthly and track the seasonal change in the ground under Dawson and shows how close the ground is to melting in the permafrost areas. In many spots, the frozen ground is less than half a degree below freezing. Interestingly, the coolest ground is at the hockey rink. The second project is being done by Professor Toni Lewkowicz out of the University of Ottawa. It aims to build a map of the southern half of the Yukon that will show how likely any particular piece of ground is to have permafrost. The map is divided into 30m by 30m squares, each square is assessed for a number of factors including elevation, vegetation, climate, the direction the land slopes and where on the landscape it is (such as on a summit or a valley etc). When this map is complete, Yukoners can find out how likely a particular piece of ground is to have permafrost, and projected changes to the likelihood of permafrost with the changing climate. |
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