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Ingrid Hein

Defining the Eye on the Arctic Project: Looking Beyond Climategate

Print Friday, 12 February 2010 21:45 Written by Ingrid Hein



Ingrid Hein
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Of late, media discussion on climate change has been centered on fraud, hackers, conspiracies, felonies, plagIarism, finger-pointing and sensationalism.

It’s all getting a little out of whack and quite frankly, absurd. Just two days ago, the Daily Mail UK published an article about Donald Trump wanting Al Gore to be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize because it was snowing a lot in eastern America.

There is plenty of information out there to confuse the climate issue and other information that can make one feel that we're heading for Armageddon. It’s been going on for years. Since 2007, over 7,500,000 viewers have watched The most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See on youTube which calculates the odds on the gamble we take when we believe or refuse to believe in global warming. Even the media have a watchdog. The DeSmogBlog offers media accuracy checking to “clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science on climate change”.

It’s all only scratching the surface of the real issues...

Let's get to the point. Through this site, we want to offer something uniquely practical; something straight from the hip, or rather, a view from up there. Eye on the Arctic is not a site about debating climate change. It is a collection of media that brings the climate change issue back to the people, to the nations and the communities most affected by melting glaciers, Arctic exploration, increasing business and political interest in the north, and the issues surrounding the opening of the NorthWeb passage. It is about people and politics, communities and culture and a glimpse into what is to come.

By bringing together journalists from Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the USA (Alaska) and Canada, we offer circumpolar reporting through one portal, from the nations most directly affected by climate changes today. We want to paint a picture of the people of the Arctic, and of the human element as their communities adapt. We are working to cover issues that directly affect life in northern communities and investigating how locals are adapting to a changing environment.

We invite you to comment on the articles, audio and video we present here, and to engage in the ongoing discussion surrounding climate adaptation. How is culture and business evolving? How is melting ice affecting lifestyle and livelihood? How are northern communities accepting their new realities, and how is adaptation evolving? What people and animals will thrive? Who will migrate? How are they planning to cope with new realities?

We hope you will take part. - Offer suggestions, comments and questions. Read, listen to and watch the stories posted here. Visit this blog. Follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook Group.

We hope to give voice to northern communities and to open an Arctic window to the world through the media we produce here.

Join us in our Arctic exploration.

Related external link: Anatomy of Climategate