1.
post-glacial Canada CLIMATE CHANGE GEOSCIENCE
Great Lakes
PALEOCLIMATE
ice cores sea ice

2.
Observation

3.
“ The hills look like sawdust, really, that colour.
I've never seen it where the grass didn't turn
green in the spring before.”
JERRY MURPHY
Elnora, Alberta
source: Globe and Mail, 1 July 2009

4.
Historical climate observations at the Environment Canada archives in Toronto

5.
Direct observations provide a critical but short-sighted perspective on recent changes

6.
CLIMATE HISTORY OF CANADA
Younger Demise of Laurentide
Dryas Ice Sheet
20 16 12 8 4 0
THOUSANDS OF
YEARS AGO
Final Drainage
of Lake Agassiz
LAST GLACIAL MODERN
MAXIMUM OBSERVATIONS

7.
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
ice cores
tree rings
sand dunes
relic shorelines
macrofossils

8.
“Jack's a
paleoclimatologist,
and I have
absolutely no idea
what he's up to.”
The Day After Tomorrow, 2004

9.
SCIENCE PARTNER
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change

10.
post-glacial Canada CLIMATE CHANGE GEOSCIENCE
Great Lakes
PALEOCLIMATE
ice cores sea ice

11.
C A N A D A A F T E R GLACIATION

12.
Art Dyke documenting whale remains 23 metres above sea level in the central Canadian Arctic

13.
“ Resolving the timing of regional variability in
ice-sheet maxima is also important for
understanding ice-sheet sensitivity to regional
and global climate change, as well as in
establishing ice-sheet–climate feedbacks.
”
Science
August 2009

14.
PEARLS UNSTRUNG

15.
PEARLS UNSTRUNG?
How will climate change affect Canada’s Great Lakes?

16.
Michael Lewis
GSC Atlantic

17.
EOS
December 2008

18.
“ In the last decade or so, scientists have
uncovered clues that the water level in Lake
Erie — and indeed, the levels in at least
some of the other Great Lakes — fell well
below all natural outlets, rendering those
”
lakes isolated bodies of water.
Science News
August 2009

19.
23

20.
Artist’s rendition of Niagara Falls, circa 8,000 yr B.P.

21.
H I S TO RY F R O Z E N I N ICE

22.
Members of the GSC Glaciology group

23.
High-altitude expeditions show how Canada’s Arctic has responded to past climate change

24.
James Zheng processes an ice core from the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project

25.
The Greenland Ice Sheet holds ca. 7 metres of sea-level equivalent

26.
Fritz Koerner and David Fisher coring at the Agassiz Ice Cap on Ellesmere Island

27.
“ State-of-the-art ice sheet models are generally
found to be underestimating the extent and
changes in GIS elevation and area; our findings
may help to improve the ability of models to
reproduce the GIS response to Holocene
climate.
”
Nature
September 2009
SCIENCE PARTNER
University of Copenhagen

28.
S E A I C E IN THE ARCTIC

29.
The North-West Passage

30.
Maximum sea ice extent
September 2009
median sea ice extent
1979-2009
source: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado

31.
The remains of bowhead whales provide clues about past changes in sea ice conditions

32.
Estimates of sea-ice extent in the Canadian Arctic during the last 10,000 years

33.
“ Historical records indicate that Arctic sea-ice
extent has been declining since the late 19th
century. Although this decline was
accompanied by multidecadal oscillations, the
accelerated ice loss during the last several
decades lead to conditions not documented in
”
at least the last few thousand years.
Quaternary Science Reviews
in the press

34.
SCIENCE PARTNER
United States
Geological Survey

35.
L E S S O N S F R O M THE PAST

36.
PALEOCLIMATE
✓ shows us how critical landscapes and natural resources
have been affected by climate change in the past
✓ gives us a broader perspective on contemporary
environmental and resource issues
✓ provides a major contribution to international initiatives
that assess the dynamics of the global climate system