1994 CCGS Henry Larsen’s bridge a fine vantage point; I sketched, painted and photographed the majesty of the Canadian High Arctic for six weeks July 24 till late August. Breaking ice in Lancaster Sound the Larsen escorted ore carriers to Nanasivik, Little Cornwallis Island and provisioning ships piled high with school buses, snowmobiles and other necessities to Kuujjuuaak. Our class four ice breaker continuously rode up on heavy first and multi-year pack ice to crush it opening a channel to allow each ship safe passage. The thick ice swiftly closed again in our wake if the escorted ship did not follow closely. Flights in the Larsen’s helicopter showed me how wide spread the ice cover was throughout that part of the Northwest Passage.

The Larsen broke off escorting in Davis Strait when called into service off the coast of Greenland to rescue a ship held fast in ice then returned to her duties in Canadian waters.

2006 found me delighted to be in the High Arctic once more; I traveled with Arctic Quest a group of 25 Canadian painters. No dense pack ice, heavy seas or brooding skies this year off the coast of Greenland only sunshine and calm seas full of stately ice bergs.

Cruising Frobisher Bay from Iqaluit into Davis Strait aboard the Akademik Ioffe in late July 2006 there was no pack ice to be found. Vast glaciers I trekked on in 1994 in Lancaster Sound near Dundas Harbour were alarmingly diminished; other glaciers that were then blocked by thick, dense sea ice now stopped far short of that same shore.

Searching for pack ice the Akademik Ioffe headed for Greenland looking to encounter animals that forage and give birth on the ice pack. We found polar bears on rocky islands bereft of snow or ice; there was no sea ice, no seal or walrus for the bears to hunt. It would be a long hot summer with no food for the bears, fortunately they had a good layer of fat to hopefully sustain them until the tardy return of the ice pack in the Canadian Arctic.

We finally found the edge of pack ice as we crossed north Davis Strait, the coast of Greenland was clear of ice other than slow moving monolithic bergs. During most of our idyllic two week journey the sun shone and the sea was mill pond still, many of us wore shorts and t-shirts it was a surreal experience.

Even though there is a strong consensus among scientists that we are in a period of non-reversible global warming and mankind’s extravagant use of fossil fuels is accelerating the process our government drags its feet in enacting and following through with legislation to stem this process. Everyone seems to think some one else should be doing something about the situation. This cannot go on. We must all look at our part in this equation and take action to lessen our carbon footprint personally and hold our governments and corporations accountable.

Certainly the people of the Arctic enjoy having a longer more temperate summer. The Arctic is a dark, chill and unforgiving place much of the year. It remains however that these same people can no longer learn from their elders how and where to hunt and forage because the ice is now too thin and melts too early to hunt in the traditional ways. Food and provisions brought in by air or sea are costly. The birth rate is extremely high. There are more and better schools to educate the youth but where will they find their livelihood?

There is much to contemplate besides the majestic beauty of this untamable, ecologically fragile part of Canada when studying my sketches and photographs for my next painting. I sincerely hope I will have the opportunity to return to the Arctic and drink in its magic. The skeleton of this earth is revealed there as the bare bones of our planet break through their bonds of ice and snow revealing a land seemingly barren. In fact land, sea and air are teeming with life. Closer scrutiny reveals plants, lichens and mosses in a huge array of vivid colours clinging to rock strewn slopes and nestled in virtually every nook and cranny. The effect of light and the elements on ice, landforms, air and water cannot effectively be recounted in words and barely described in visual replications. Being there and seeing is the only way to truly grasp its unquantifiable magic.