George William Manby (1766–1854) was an English inventor best known for his idea of firing a line from shore to a wrecked ship so that the crew might be saved by means of a breeches-buoy. Around 1819 he turned his attention to new typesof whaling harpoons, bothahand harpoon andagun harpoon. In 1821 he went on a voyage to the Greenland whaling grounds on board Baffin, Captain William Scoresby Jr, with the aim of trying out his inventions, but the experiments were foiled by the reluctance of the crew to cooperate. As a result of that voyage, Manby espoused three ideas that he pursued obsessively for the rest of his life: that there might still be Norse survivors in the so-called ‘Lost Colony’ in East Greenland; that Britain should claim the area of East Greenland north of the area claimed by Denmark; and that this area should be developed as a penal colony.

Despite much scientific research, a considerable amount of uncertainty exists concerning the rate and extent of climate change in the Arctic, and how change will affect regional climatic processes and northern ecosystems. Can an expanded scope of knowledge and inquiry augment understandings of climate change in the north? The extensive use of the land and the coastal ocean in Inuit communities provides a unique source of local environmental expertise that is guided by generations of experience. Environmental change associated with variations in weather and climate has not gone unnoticed by communities that are experiencing change firsthand. Little research has been done to explore the contributions of traditional knowledge to climate-change research. Based in part on a collaborative research project in Sachs Harbour, western Canadian Arctic, this paper discusses five areas in which traditional knowledge may complement scientific approaches to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic. These are the use of traditional knowledge as local-scale expertise; as a source of climate history and baseline data; in formulating research questions and hypotheses; as insight into impacts and adaptation in Arctic communities; and for long-term, communitybased monitoring. These five areas of potential convergence provide a conceptual framework for bridging the gap between traditional knowledge and western science, in the context of climate-change research.

At the end of the twentieth century, Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR) has functioned primarily as a domestic marine transport system with Murmansk Shipping Company as the dominant operator and facilitator. Total cargo along the NSR in 1999 was 1.58 million tons; during 1997–99 no through transit cargo was carried on the NSR. The International NSR Programme (INSROP), backed by Japanese, Norwegian, and Russian interests, concluded in November 1999 with a key user conference in Oslo. The six-year (1993–99) INSROP effort produced a large body of new information about the NSR and Russian Arctic that decision-makers will find valuable in planning future ventures in the region. Concerns have been expressed in Russia for the ageing icebreaker fleet that has been the backbone of all NSR operations since the 1950s. Several nuclear icebreakers have been refuelled and, although detailed plans for a replacement fleet of nuclear and diesel-electric ships have been developed, financing has not been identified. As Arctic sea ice continues to decline in extent and thickness, the impacts on future NSR operations will be significant considerations for future operations.

In Article 3 of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties committed themselves to ‘the protection of the Antarctic environment…and the intrinsic value of Antarctica, including its wilderness and aesthetic values.’ The phraseology of the Protocol requires clarification. ‘Wilderness and aesthetic values’ links two disparate concepts, best handled by separation. Annex V, Article 3, of the Protocol covers many topics, and their assessment must be by a composite of frameworks specifically designed for the different purposes set out in the Annex.

A working definition of wilderness in the Antarctic is suggested: ‘Any part of the Antarctic in which neither permanent habitation nor any other permanent evidence of present or past human presence is visible.’ Using this, a very high proportion of the continent will be recognised as having wilderness status. The phrase ‘aesthetic values’ should be seen as part of a wider process—Landscape Character Assessment—that is at present unknown to most in the Antarctic community. It is based on the principle of objective description and classification of landscape character. This basic characterisation can then be put to different uses, one of which may be to make more subjective judgements or evaluations that lead to area designations.