Expedition Spotlight: Baffin Island Climate Research

In August, a team of nine graduate students from the UK will set off to Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic with team leader Antony Jinman. They will be living with the Inuit people exploring the Auyuittuq National Park and the Penny Ice Cap. The purpose of their expedition is to help continue Arctic Explorer Jinman’s school outreach work, heightening awareness within schools of issues facing the Polar Regions, especially climate change. Auyuittuq actually translates into ‘land that never melts’. The project, supported by the Royal Geographic Society, Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and the University of Plymouth, as well as being a participating project of the International Polar Year, is entering its fourth year visiting the region.


Team members will witness firsthand the arctic environment and apply their individual backgrounds and area of expertise to develop resources for the classroom. The team includes a geologist, marine biologist, zoologist and geography teacher. The team aims to assess the effect of climate change on the landscape of Baffin Island and also on the Inuit people and wildlife.The expedition phase of this project will see the team exploring the interior of Baffin Island, an island two and a half times the size of the UK but with a population of just 25,000. Through logging GPS locations of photographs and film footage, a virtual expedition will be developed upon return so that students of all ages will be able to explore an area of the world that few people have ever been to.

You can follow the expedition here or visit their Facebook page, Baffin Island 2010 – Support Us.

NEMO is supporting the team with Moki’s and Moki Links.

~Kate