The story of how a B.C. man found his birth mother
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
An Arctic oasis that serves as a lifeline to Indigenous populations is at risk of disappearing, according to a recent international study.
The area known as the North Water Polynya, located between northwest Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island in northern Baffin Bay, is home to polar bears, walruses and narwhals.
Researchers from the University of Helsinki and about 24 other universities around the world looked at microfossils and chemical biomarkers preserved in sediment to trace a 6,000-year span of the history of the area and better understand the current state of its ecosystem, as well as its trajectory. Their findings were published in July.
“This area, the Arctic’s most important oasis, is likely to disappear if temperatures continue to rise as forecast,” researcher Kaarina Weckström, of the University of Helsinki’s environmental change research unit, said in a statement Friday.
The area was stable and created good conditions for life forms about 4,400 to 4,200 years ago, when people crossed the frozen Nares Strait between what are now Canada and Greenland.
However, during warmer climate periods 2,200 to 1,200 years ago, the area was unstable and less productive, resulting in reduced populations of zooplankton, fish and marine mammals.
“According to archeological finds, there were no inhabitants in the area during this period,” Weckström said. “It’s a mystery that can potentially be explained, in light of the research findings, by conditions that were unfavourable to people reliant on hunting and fishing.”
In the past 6,000 years, temperatures in the Arctic oasis have never been as high as they now in nearby northwest Greenland. Global warming and a reduction in sea ice are making the area unstable again.
It’s survived mainly due to favourable currents, winds and an ice bridge to the north, which has kept drift ice in the Arctic Ocean away. However, global warming threatens that bridge.
“It would be important to at least slow climate change down, in order for Arctic Indigenous peoples to have some kind of a chance to adapt to their future living conditions,” Weckström said. “Then again, as the history of the polynya suggests, if we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the rising air temperature, both Arctic sea ice and the polynya can be restored.”
The international study, Vulnerability of the North Water ecosystem to climate change, was published in the Nature Communications journal on July 22.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in 'violent rhetoric' from 'extremist actors' that could prompt some in Canada to turn to violence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Israeli army ordered some 100,000 Palestinians on Monday to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent and further complicating efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.