The New Northwest Passage: A Voyage to the Front Line of Climate Change

In the summer of 2009 Cameron Dueck and the rest of the crew of the Silent Sound completed a journey made by fewer people than have climbed Mt. Everest; they sailed through the infamous Northwest Passage. These waters are normally locked in ice, but due to climate change it is now possible to sail here for a few short weeks each summer. Their voyage from Victoria to Halifax carried them through raging storms and mechanical breakdowns and took them into sea ice that threatened to crush their hull. But more importantly it brought them face to face with modern Arctic life in tiny, isolated Inuit communities where the challenge of climate change is added to the already crushing load of social and economic woes. Each person they met along the way added their story to the colourful tale of life in the Arctic; a unique place where the climate change experience is affected by the critical and ongoing debates over sovereignty, resources and cultural assimilation.