Canada’s federal target is 3 per cent below 1990′s level by 2020, equivalent to 20 per cent less than 2006′s level, a target wholly inadequate to address the demands of science and justice that the climate crisis now presents. I am sad to say that Canada has also failed to take a leading role at the talks, instead actually presenting one of the major roadblocks to a fair and legally binding deal. (And all of this is not to mention the public shaming the Canadian delegation received at the hands of the Yes Men).

Why is my government’s performance so troublesome to me? Having spent two weeks in the Arctic this summer, I experienced the land, so far distanced from the stereotypical images of the Arctic I had imagined pre-expedition. The image of snow, ice and polar bears is one of rapid decline. With frightening predictions that polar ice will be non-existent within 30 years, this is no longer an issue we can ignore.

On my expedition this summer, the drastic changes occurring in the North became particularly evident during our hike to the Arctic Circle through Auyuittuq National Park – which means “the land that never melts” – (near Pangnirtung). I had mentally prepared myself for snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Although we crossed frozen rivers that were run-off from the glaciers we could barely see at the tops of mountains, this was as close to snow as we could get.

Seeing this beautiful but so unexpected land was a huge wake-up call. Getting sunburned swimming at the Arctic Circle was my breaking point. How can we continue to watch our world melt away? Having talked to the Elders and the children in Pangnirtung, we saw the unbearable effects of climate change, and could see how climate change is no longer just an environmental issue but also an issue of a way of life, of traditions and of culture.

Canada is known as a promoter of cultures, a peaceful and welcoming country, but with our government’s unwillingness to protect its own citizens, can we still live up to this reputation? The people of the North play such a vital role in our country and we should be taking what’s happening in the poles as a warning beacon as to what will happen in the rest of the world.

“I think it might be illegal to have a climate change presentation without a drowning polar bear.” It was day two of the Development and Climate Change side event and behind the young academic from the University of Hawaii, a giant image of a polar bear floating on a tiny chunk of ice materialized on the screen. A “charismatic megafauna,” she called it with irony in her voice. Beside her on the panel, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, former president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, calmly made a note.

It was August of 2007 when I first had the privilege of hearing Sheila Watt-Cloutier speak. I was on Baffin Island in the Eastern Canadian Arctic working with youth concerned about climate change and she gave us a keynote address. Set to the backdrop of the Sylvia Grinnell River, where a fisherman pulled Arctic char from the water, the beauty of the landscape was only surpassed by the grandeur of Watt-Cloutier’s words. Though the basement studio at the Copenhagen Koncerthuse was somewhat less majestic than the park in Iqaluit, the words were no less inspiring.

“In the Arctic,” she said, “we don’t talk about the polar bears.” It was a phrase I’d heard her say before and one that moved me then as it does now. “In the Arctic, we talk about the people.”

It’s a message that haunts those who hear it. You see it resounding in each video clip of melting glaciers and each powerpoint presentation with a polar bear image. You hear it in radio programs and podcast and read it in books on climate change and headlines about endangered species. It is the message that the Arctic is not a wild, uninhabited place, with threatened animals, but a lived environment with threatened communities and people. In Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, hunters are facing unpredictable weather and dangerous conditions on the water. Across the Northwest Territories, ice roads, the arteries of Arctic transportation are melting, further isolating remote settlements. In Tuktoyaktuk, the community is being washed away by rising sea levels and an eroding coastline.

This is the face of climate change. This is the species that is affected by a warming planet. We are the charismatic megafauna.

Kingnait Harbour is an old arctic station from the first polar year in 1882-1883, the island has since been uninhabited and very few people have stepped foot on the island. It was also home to the first Arctic Stations during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-1958. This place is incredible. Deep valleys, soaring waterfalls, spectacular views, glacier filled rivers, and polar bear footprints made this a day I will never forget. It was an afternoon of discovery, adventure, and reflection that we will never forget.

As the youth of today, it seemed all too perfect to be visiting such a place unplanned because the ice conditions changed the initial itinerary. On the expedition, we discussed the importance of International Polar Year 2007-2009.

Why do we care about what happens at the poles? What happens at the poles, affects the rest of the world. In two decades it is predicted we will have our first Arctic ice free summer. This is going to drastically change the ecosystem, and the rest of the world. The ice is reflecting the ultraviolet rays, known as the Albedo effect. When the ice is gone, all the ultraviolet rays will be absorbed into the Arctic Ocean, warming our planet, and increasing the temperature.

As summer temperatures continue to rise, and the sea ice diminishes, and as a result animals are suffering. Polar bears are having to move inwards, endangering citizens and communities. For the first time, polar bears are being found at landfill sites, searching for food to survive.

Right now, the winter sea ice has not fully froze over in Churchill, Manitoba. Polar bears are unable to make their way onto Hudson’s Bay to find seals to hunt, their means of survival. They are staying on the mainland, running out of food, and as a result there have been cases of cannibalism. While in the Arctic I had opportunities to view these ‘majestic kings’ of the Arctic. They ran so effortlessly, and so free through mountains, on sea ice, and then dipped into the icy waters for a swim. What a life!

We even had an opportunity to view a polar bear eating a seal on sea ice while heading towards Monumental Island. It was extraordinary, and so real to see the bear in its natural habitat eating what could and may very well be its last summer seal. That will not be the case for very long, because when the sea ice is gone, where are they going to go?

Climate change is not only going to affect polar bears, but all of the animals on the planet, as species fight for ecological niches among shifting rains, temperatures, and ranges. Inuit elders are some of the most knowledgeable, loving, and caring people on Earth. They have seen the effects of climate change, and they are suffering because of it.

A fifteen minute clip of a new film called ‘Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change’ was previewed in Copenhagen last week. Hopefully, this film about climate change will increase awareness and help reach an agreement.

For more information, please visit: www.studentsonice.com