Student Handout #1
Role-play – Pipeline or Not?

An oil company wants to build a pipeline very close to your community. Members of your community have got together to discuss an important question: When we know that the northern climate is changing due to climate change, should we be supporting oil development (which will bring in immediate jobs), or should we be switching to alternative energies?

Characters

Limnologist – You are a scientist the scientific study of bodies of fresh water for their biological and physical and geological properties. You are concerned about the effects of climate change on water, on temperatures and particularly on fish.

Oil company executive – You are promoting a pipeline to pipe oil to the United States. You hate hearing all this negative stuff about climate change. Personally, you feel that if global warming happens, it’ll be good for the north: warmer, more species of fish and animals, etc.

Fishing lodge operator – Your lodge is built on a small lake. You are worried about what’s happening to the fish in your region. If the fish decline, no one will come to your lodge.

Elder – You love to fish and to smoke fish in the traditional way. You are also a hunter, and concerned about northern animals and your people’s way of life on the land. You wonder what effect climate change will have on the fish and the animals.

Unemployed worker – You are hoping for a job with an oil company, or some other company. If the north slows down industries in order to prevent climate change, you’re afraid that job opportunities will disappear in the north.

Fisherperson – You make your living fishing on a river. You’re worried about the declining fish stocks. If you could be sure that some new species of fish would move northward, it might not be so bad – but who can tell what will happen?

Environment Canada official – You are concerned about the impacts of climate change, and are traveling across the north to encourage northern communities to switch to renewable energies and reduce the GHG emissions that are causing climate change.

Process

Your group will be assigned to one of the roles above. Here are some steps to follow:

• Each choose a different background reading to read and make notes on any points that would be of interest to your character.
• Everyone shares his or her points with the rest of the group. Together, make a list of all the points that your character should raise in the discussion.
• Sit behind your speaker and pass notes if you think of another point he or she should raise in the discussion.

Student Handout #2
Climate Change & Limnology
What will climate change do to lakes and rivers in the north?
By Jamie Bastedo

In the North, the greenhouse effect will be a mixed blessing from the perspective of the northern hydrological cycle and aquatic ecosystems. At worst, it will result in widespread depletions or local extirpations of some organisms that are tied to these systems.

• Large areas of permafrost will likely disappear, reducing future construction and engineering headaches created by frost heaving.
• Water bodies could remain ice-free for 30 to 40 days longer, which would extend opportunities for water-based recreation or transportation.
• Some scientists predict that water-dependent amphibians and reptiles may benefit from warmer waters and spread much farther north. However, many other organisms adapted to the North’s cold waters may undergo significant declines.

Long-term study of lakes in northern Ontario

Over a period of 20 years, biologists measured changes in just about every ecological variable imaginable such as air temperature, lake temperature, precipitation, ice-free season, wind speed, spring run-off, phytoplankton, and so on. Their research provides what they call “a preview of how climatic change may affect boreal lakes and catchments in the next century.” One of their most disturbing discoveries was that a number of cold-adapted species including lake trout and lake whitefish may disappear completely from many smaller lakes as water temperatures increase and the cold, oxygen-rich bottom layers (hypolimnion) shrink.

The likely problem of declining lake trout in northern lakes provides just one illustration of the complex ecological interactions our species has unwittingly set into motion because of the greenhouse effect. During the course of Schindler’s lake study, from 1969 to 1987, many of the changes one would expect from climatic warming were recorded: a rise in air temperature of about 20C, an increase in the frequency and intensity of forest fires, stronger winds, a longer ice-free season, and an earlier disappearance of snow. A combination of these factors contributed to increased warming and thermal mixing of lake waters. The scientists predict that, in some shield lakes, the cold, oxygen-rich bottom layers that lake trout depend on in summer may shrink significantly or disappear altogether. Once the trout and other cold water species are gone from a lake, there is no guarantee that other warm water species like northern pike or walleye will simply move in and take over the “empty” habitat or that ecosystems of comparable diversity would be re-established quickly.

Other proposed impacts of the greenhouse effect on northern waters include:

• increased evaporation in lake-rich areas creating increased atmospheric humidity and increased local rainfall
• an increase in early winter snowfalls
• shrinkage of glaciers and more rapid alpine run-off
• a dramatic rise in sea level causing possible flooding of coastal communities
• reduced sea ice resulting in more ship traffic bringing greater potential for marine oil spills.

Only time will tell how northern hydrological systems and the organisms that depend on them will be affected by the greenhouse effect. In the meantime, the scientific debate goes on as to the potential benefits and costs of this phenomenon.