Last summer, the western Arctic was uncomfortably hot. Smoke from Canada’s wildfires hung thick in the air, and swarms of mosquitoes searched for exposed skin. It was a maddening combination that left researchers on Qikiqtaruk, an island off the north coast of the Yukon, desperate for relief.
And so on a late July afternoon, a team of Canadian scientists dived into the Beaufort Sea, bobbing and splashing in a sheltered bay for nearly two hours. Later, as they lay sprawled on a beach, huge chunks of the island they were studying slid into the ocean.
“The land was giving us hints of what was to come,” said Richard Gordon, a senior ranger. “Days before, we found all these puddles of clear water. But it hadn’t rained at all in days;…
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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 29 November 2024