Launching the Global Warming 101 Initiative, educators and explorers Will Steger, John Stetson, Elizabeth Andre, Nancy Moundalexis and Abby Fenton joined three Inuit hunters on a 1000-mile, four-month-long dogsled expedition across the Canadian Arctic’s Baffin Island. The expedition traveled with Inuit dog teams over traditional hunting paths, up frozen rivers, through steep-sided fjords, over glaciers and ice caps, and across the sea ice to reach some of the most remote Inuit villages of the world.
Each day, the team used innovative technologies to post video, images, sounds and text to the www.globalwarming101.com website, and communicated with online participants around the world. Students and teachers integrated the educational curriculum components developed by the team into their coursework. During the week-long visits to each Inuit village, the team listened to and documented the Inuit’s experience with climate change. These collected images, sounds and stories illustrated the dramatic climate-related changes happening in the Arctic: starving polar bears, retreating pack ice, melting glaciers, disrupted hunting and traveling, and the unraveling of a traditional way of life.