Arctic Visiting Speakers Series | 2007 Visiting Speaker Tours

Hosts:
Kati Osgood Dana
kati@cathodemedia.com

Host Institutions:
University of the Arctic

Visiting Speaker:
Angaangaq Lyberth
Sirmiq Aattuq, LLC
meltingtheice@sympatico.ca
http://www.icewisdom.com

Presentations:In November 2007 Angaangaq Lyberth or "Uncle" as he is known traveled to Montpelier, Vermont. While there Uncle delivered a talk at the Montpelier Community Justice Center on the "Use of Circles" in conflict resolution. He also addressed the public about lessons he had learned about the changing world and offered wisdom imparted by the Elders of his community during several events over two days. These events included a public lecture the evening of November 29th at the library in Montpelier, an intensive community workshop all day on November 30th, and a community family night the evening of November 30th. He also performed a Sunrise/water ceremony on the morning of December 1, 2007.

Angaangaq Lyberth is a Kalaallit Inuk, a carrier of the traditional Qilaut-drum, and an Angakkuq-Shaman, whose family belongs to a long line of Traditional Healers from the west coast of Greenland. His name, Angaangaq, means "The Man Who Looks Like His Uncle."

Angaangaq, or "Uncle" as he is known around the Globe, has addressed audiences in more than 40 countries on a wide range of issues, including the impact of climate change on the indigenous peoples of the arctic region. He conveys his message through a combination of storytelling, song and drumming, and dialogue with program participants. Angaangaq is also a skilled mediator and facilitator, helping resolve intra-familial and tribal/community disputes through the use of talking circles.

Hosts:
Mahlon C. Kennicutt II
Director Sustainable Development
m-kennicutt@tamu.edu

Host Institutions:
Texas A&M University
http://www.tamu.edu

Visiting Speaker:
Caleb Pungowiyi
pungowiyi@mtaonline.net

Presentations:In November 2007 Caleb Pungowiyi traveled to Texas A&M University located in College Station, Texas. While in Texas Caleb spoke with 3-5th grade students at Allen Academy and science students at Cypress Grove Intermediate School. He also participated in class discussions and lectured about sustainable arctic communities during a Texas A&M upper level Geology course. After his lecture he met with faculty, and researchers at Texas A&M for more informal discussions. Caleb also met with Geology students in an informal setting while in College Station.

Caleb Pungowiyi is a Yup'ik Eskimo who was born and raised on Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island. He has extensive experience as a spokesperson and advocate for Native concerns and traditional knowledge in regional, national, and international policy matters.

Mr. Pungowiyi is a former President and CEO of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and of the Robert Aqqaluk Newlin, Sr. Memorial Trust in Kotzebue, Alaska. Other past services include the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Advisory Committee, Marine Mammal Commission's Special Advisor on Native Affairs, Inuit Circumpolar Conference Executive Council, the Steering Committee of the Alaska Native Science Commission, the Polar Research Board Committee on Bering Sea Ecosystems, the Advisory Panel on Arctic Impacts from Soviet Nuclear Contamination, the Native American Rights Fund, the Alaska Coastal Policy Council, the Bering Sea Impact Study (a subcommittee of the International Arctic Science Committee), the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S., and the Alaska Conservation Foundation.

Host:
Geralyn Hoffman
Geralyn_Marie_Hoffman@brown.edu

Host Institution:
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Brown University
http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/Haffenreffer/

Visiting Speaker:
Peter Irniq
anaanaga@hotmail.com

Presentations: In late October 2007 Peter Irniq traveled to Bristol, Rhode Island and visited the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology on the Brown University Campus.  On Friday, October 26th, Mr. Irniq presented a lecture entitled "An Inuit Perspective on Global Climate Change" at Manning Hall gallery at Brown University.

Then following on Saturday and Sunday October 27-28, Mr. Irniq constructed an Inuksuk or “likeness of a person,” for an audience on the Bristol Campus.  An Inuksuk is a stone figure that acts as a beacon for travelers in Canada’s north, symbolizing the strength, leadership, and motivation of the Inuit. There were also crafts and activities for kids and families.  Also, on Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Irniq spoke about Inuksuit, Inuit culture, language, Inuit Traditional Knowledge, and the creation of Nunavut.  These talks were more informal for a public audience.

Peter T. Irniq is a former Commissioner of Nunavut, an Inuit cultural teacher and an artist. He has lived most of his life in Nunavut, though he has also lived in the Western Arctic (Northwest Territories), Manitoba and Ontario.  Peter is an Inuit Canadian and served as the second Commissioner of Nunavut from April of 2000 to April of 2005. Mr. Irniq currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario.

Throughout his professional life Mr. Irniq has focused on advancing Inuit culture and language. As Commissioner of Nunavut, he was a respected spokesperson who worked in the territory, nationally and internationally to connect all people to Nunavut, its culture and its history.

Host:
Tony Shawcross
tony@deproduction.org

Host Institution:
Deproduction/Denver Open Media
http://denveropenmedia.org

Visiting Speaker:
Ken Tape
fnkdt@uaf.edu

Presentations: In July 2007 researcher Ken Tape traveled to Denver, Colorado to present a talk titled "Climate Warming and the Changing Arctic Landscape: Repeat Photography of Vegetation, Glaciers, and Permafrost." His presentation used old photographs of the Arctic that have been repeated recently, and the comparison of old and new photos reveal the landscape changes underway in the arctic. He delivered his talk at the Denver Open Media (DOM) studio run by Deproductions. DOM is a public access television station with a live audience of over 50 people in the studio and with a broadcast audience as large as 300,000 viewers in the Denver metro area. His presentation aimed at exposing a diverse audience to climate change issues.

Ken presented a talk titled "Dog-mushing under the Northern Lights" about his winter experiences in the Arctic to a group of students participating in the "Weld County Partners" summer program in Greeley, CO. The program is part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program funded by the United Way. Both talks were promoted and publicized by DOM and the Denver Public Library.

Ken has written for technical and popular journals, and is currently writing a book about climate change for the general public called "Climate Warming and the Changing Landscape of Northern Alaska: Repeat Photography of Shrubs, Trees, Glaciers, and Permafrost” (University of Alaska Press). The book will cover the same topics as his talk in Denver, while also interweaving the experiences and observations of individuals involved in the initial photography (taken in the 1940's). Current photography and ground measurements for future generations will also be discussed.

Host:
Craig Johnson
craig.johnson@uni.edu

Host Institution:
Iowa Academy of Science
http://www.iacad.org

Visiting Speaker:
Dennis Darby
Old Dominion University
ddarby@odu.edu

Presentations: In April 2007, Dr. Dennis Darby attended and presented at the Iowa Academy of Science Annual Meeting held 27-29 April 2007 at Central College in Pella, Iowa. He was a guest at the Iowa Junior Academy of Science Awards Luncheon and the Iowa Academy of Science President's Dinner, after which he presented a talk titled "The Role of the Arctic Ocean in Global Climate Change?" Dr. Darby was on-hand at many different sessions at the Iowa Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting and was thrilled to meet and talk to many of the meeting participants.

Dr. Darby also presented a talk, "HOTRAX and the Effort to Unlock the Past Climatic Secrets of the Arctic," to approximately 100 chemistry students at Pella High School. Additionally, he spoke to six senior environmental science majors at Central College in Pella, IA.

Dennis Darby is Professor of Geological Oceanography in the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University, where he has been since 1977. He earned his B.S. in 1966 and his M.S. in 1968, both in Geology, from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in Geology and Oceanography in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research focuses on the paleoclimatology and paleoceanography of the Arctic. Dr. Darby has served on a number of national committees and organizing groups, including the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Program Ocean-Atmosphere-Ice Interaction Science Steering Committee and the Arctic Program Planning Group of Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES).

Dr. Darby recently led two successful coring expeditions to the central Arctic as part of the Healy-Oden Trans-Arctic Expedition (HOTRAX). This historic expedition, only the second crossing of the central Arctic by icebreakers, collected nearly 500 meters of sediment core and used multibeam swath mapping of the seafloor and chirp seismic to profile the sub-bottom in the upper 50 meters.

Host:
Daqing Yang
ffdy@uaf.edu

Host Institution:
The Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
http://www.uaf.edu/water

Visiting Speaker:
Tingjun Zhang
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado at Boulder
tzhang@nsidc.org

Presentations: In February 2007, Dr. Tingjun Zhang traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska to speak at the 7th International Conference on Global Change: Connection to the Arctic (GCCA-7). He also shared his experiences and knowledge of permafrost, seasonally frozen ground, and their impacts on cold regions climate and hydrological cycles, as well as his experiences in helping to build the Tibetan Railroad, with elementary, undergraduate, and graduate students in Fairbanks. 

Dr. Zhang presented four different seminars about permafrost and climate change to faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He also presented a lecture to UAF engineering students and faculty titled, “Frozen Ground and Hydrological Cycle.” Dr. Zhang met with students and faculty from the International Arctic Research Center (IARC), the Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC) and College of Engineering and Mines (CEM) at UAF. These meetings were structured to foster an informal exchange of ideas between Dr. Zhang and graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Zhang also met with a group of K-5th grade students at the University Park Elementary School in Fairbanks and presented a slide show about his experiences constructing the Tibetan railroad and life at high altitude cold regions verses life at high latitude cold regions. 

Dr. Zhang is a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests focus on land surface processes in cold seasons and cold regions, especially on snow cover, permafrost, seasonally frozen ground, and their impacts on cold regions climate and hydrological cycles. Zhang worked with colleagues on permafrost and railroad construction on the Tibetan Plateau and on changes in permafrost conditions on the Russian arctic hydrological cycle.

Host:
Deborah Williams
dlwilliams@gci.net

Host Institution:
Alaska Conservation Solutions
http://www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com

Visiting Speaker:
Stephen Roe
E.H. Pechan and Associates, Inc.
steve.roe@pechan.com

Presentations: In February 2007 Stephen Roe participated in the Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE), an annual event designed to introduce scientific information, share traditional knowledge, and provide solutions to promote a clean and sustainable environment. The conference recorded over 1,200 attendees last year, and a similar number of participants attended this meeting.  A large percentage of forum participants were Alaska Native, many whom flew in from remote villages throughout the state. Other attendees included scientists, citizens, regulators and tribal leaders. 

As part of his tour, Mr. Roe also participated in a large meeting convened by the Mayor of Anchorage for business leaders; a high school presentation organized by Alaska Youth for Environmental Action; and an evening public presentation that will be widely advertised. Mr. Roe participated in a radio interview, two newspaper interviews, and a meeting with the faculty and students associated with the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research.

Stephen Roe is a Senior Scientist at E.H. Pechan and Associates, Inc., a private air quality consulting firm.  He is also affiliated with the Center for Climate Strategies, a non-profit organization that specializes in assisting states and local agencies in developing climate change action plans.  At Pechan, Mr. Roe directs work on toxic air pollutant emissions studies, climate change, and private sector regulatory support. In recent years, Mr. Roe has consulted for federal agencies (U.S. EPA, Environment Canada), air quality regional planning organizations, many state and local agencies, and private industry.  Mr. Roe’s areas of expertise include the development of emission inventories for toxic and criteria air pollutants and greenhouse gases/aerosols, as well as control programs covering all of these pollutants.  He is a leading expert on the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions in Alaska and on measures to curb emissions.

Hosts:
Jacqueline Poston
poston.jacqueline@epa.gov

Host Institutions:
Alaska Forum on the Environment
http://akforum.com

Visiting Speaker:
Robert Corell
Director of Global Change Program, H. John Heinz III Center
global@dmv.com

Presentations: In February 2007 Corell participated in the Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE), an annual event designed to introduce scientific information, share traditional knowledge, and provide solutions to promote a clean and sustainable environment.

As part of his tour, Corell presented an overview of the state of climate change science to a group of approximately 80 - 100 people in an opening session of the AFE.  The conference recorded over 1,200 attendees last year, and a similar number of participants attended this meeting.  A large percentage of forum participants were Alaska Native, many of whom flew in from remote villages throughout the state. Other attendees include scientists, citizens, regulators, tribal leaders, etc. 

In addition to the AFE presentation, Corell spoke to students at Pacific Northern Academy and Service High School and met with the new Commissioners based in Anchorage for the Arctic Research Commission.  He was also available to meet with the press for interviews.

Robert Corell is the director of the Global Change Program at The H. John Heinz III Center.  He was formerly a senior research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is actively engaged in research concerned with global change and sustainability, in particular the interface between science and public policy. He served as chair of the steering committee for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Corell is an oceanographer and engineer by background and training.