Volume 4, Issue 2, 1999
Table of Contents

Yukon College’s Northern Research Institute to Study Impact of Global Warming

The Yukon and federal governments have joined forces to come up with answers on the possible impact of global warming on the Yukon’s environment and way of life. The Northern Climate Exchange Centre was recently established at Yukon College’s Northern Research Institute (NRI) in Whitehorse. Designed to facilitate local involvement in gathering information and traditional knowledge about the possible changes that may be occurring as a result of global warming north of 60, the Northern Climate Exchange project will also serve as a catalyst for multidisciplinary climate change research. One of the main contributors to the project is the Climate Change Action Fund, a federal government initiative to help Canada meet the commitments it made at the International Climate Change meeting Kyoto, Japan in December 1997.

The NRI was established in 1992 as the research unit of Yukon College. It was recommended as the central agency to carry out the Northern Climate Exchange project because of its ongoing northern research initiatives such as the ten-year Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring project which is developing a territory-wide community-based system for monitoring and assessing biodiversity. Other NRI initiatives include the Yukon Technology Innovation Centre which manages a technology innovation fund and brings together business, community, education and government interests to explore opportunities for developing new information technology applications.

The Northern Endowment Fund, established by the Yukon Territorial Government, allows the NRI to support scholarly research on northern topics in the humanities and the social, pure, and applied sciences through fellowships awarded each spring. The NRI also provides logistical support to researchers from other areas working in the Yukon, as well as to independent researchers working within the territory. In addition, the NRI provides contract research services to government and private sector interests.