Image - University of Manitoba
There are few paradoxes like these: a team of scientists from the icebreaker ship CCGS Amudsen has been forced to cancel the first leg of this year's expedition in Hudson Bay due to the melting of the Arctic.
This region of the world is one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, so much so that now even the experts themselves do not feel entirely safe to carry out their research projects there.
The current situation in the waters of northern Canada forces the BaySys scientific project, which has a team of 40 scientists, to turn around. The professionals they have to have more security measures than they had planned, so the first stage has been canceled, as indicated in a official note from the University of Manitoba.
The ice in the Arctic is losing extension and thickness. Thus, its mobility increases so that navigating it is somewhat dangerous. "And this is likely to happen more frequently in the future," explained Professor David Barber, the expedition's chief scientist.
Image - University of Manitoba
This project is expected to resume on July 6, if conditions permit, which we hope will do. it is important to understand how climate change will affect the Arctic and its residents. So far, the results they have obtained aboard the Amundsen and through networks such as ArcticNet show that these changes affect both northern ecosystems and the environments and people living further south, such as the coast of Newfoundland.
The cancellation of this first phase "clearly illustrates that Canada is ill prepared to face the reality of climate change," the experts say in the note.
See if they can resume the project.