Gilbert & Labrecque:  The CMOS committee to plan 50th anniversary commemorative events identified liaison with the Canada Science and Technology Museum as one of its action items. CMOS members John Reid and John Gilbert met with NMST Curator Dr. David Pantalony and his colleagues to explore possible joint areas of interest. The Museum was interested in two artifacts: the thermometer that recorded Canada's coldest temperature at Snag, Yukon in 1947 and the Canadian Snow Kit developed by NRC in 1949

Fisher:  Ice cores from Greenland and Northern Canada tell a consistent story of changes in the climate over many millennium. This story is presented from the end of the last ice age 11750 years ago to the present and the major climate events related to examples of societal response.

Brunet:  In general, observations indicate that only a small fraction in a fixed framework (from 140° W to 20° E) covering African to the eastern Pacific regions of the easterly waves that occur in a single hurricane season contribute to tropical cyclogenesis. However, this small fraction includes a large portion of named storms. In addition, a study by Dunkerton et al. (2009) has shown that named storms in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific basins are almost all associated with wave breaking of tropical easterly waves.

Stewart: Canada's ocean science community which includes the federal government, academia, small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and other research partners, collect and synthesize physical, chemical and biological ocean observations. This information is used for discovery research purposes, to model ocean changes and provide environmental assessment advice, support resource management decision-making, and establish baseline data for long-term monitoring.

Canada's ocean community collects large amounts of data but, aside from building comprehensive ocean observatories (Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) et al. 2010), there is no easy mechanism to integrate data from various sources to allow the exploration of interrelationships among variables, and no coordination and collaboration mechanism for the ocean community as a whole to generate an efficient system (Ocean Science and Technology Partnership (OSTP), for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) 2011). Consequently, we observe fragmented and isolated data - which may never be used outside of a specific project because it is not discoverable by other potential end users.

Canada's ocean science community (Wallace et al. 2014), led and supported by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), is advancing the development of a Canadian Integrated Ocean Observation System (CIOOS) that brings together and leverages existing Canadian and international ocean observation data into a federated data system which will generate value for users. This integrated ocean observing system (Wilson et al. 2016) will improve coordination and collaboration among diverse data producers, improve access to information for decision making, and enable discovery and access to data to support a wide variety of applied and theoretical research efforts to better understand, monitor, and manage activities in Canada's oceans.

Kohfeld:  Ever since scientists discovered from polar ice cores that carbon dioxide levels were about 33% lower during ice ages compared to warm climate periods, they have been proposing theories to understand why. Since the ocean holds approximately 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere, oceanic processes are thought to be responsible. A range of physical and biological oceanic processes have been put forth to explain these fluctuations, and many can explain at least part of the total glacial-interglacial signal. However, Earth system models have yet to simulate carbon dioxide changes over a full ice-age cycle.

This presentation will show how the fossil record can be used to infer long-term changes in marine productivity, ocean temperatures, ocean circulation, westerly winds, and sea-ice cover, and how these data can be pieced together to understand the sequential timing of processes affecting atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the last full glacial cycle (130,000 years).

Moore:  This lecture will include the search, eventual discovery, and ongoing documentation of these two remarkable shipwreck sites. Detailed investigation continues to shed light on the final days of the doomed expedition, while revealing subtle aspects of shipboard life among the imperilled crew, and the detailed manner in which the two discovery ships were outfitted for Arctic Service.

Faber: Over the past 30 years, Adventure Canada has run expeditions to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, using small expedition ships.  As an operator it has faced many challenges and thrills while planning and executing northern tours.  The complexities of navigation and of organizing itineraries in the face of unpredictable ice and weather conditions are key factors in northern tourism travel.

In order to deliver a safe and quality expedition, detailed planning, along with ensuring a highly experienced team, is essential to all northern tourism.  In addition, the development of links and relationships with northern communities is at the crux of all sustainable northern tourism.  Today, with a rapidly changing climate and a highly political region, northern tourism requires dialogue, expert logistics, and problem solving in order to meet the needs of all involved stakeholders.

Strong:  While Arctic regions have been warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, the impacts of global warming have been most severe over the sub-tropics where about half the human race lives. Most disturbing of all is the desertification of the sub-tropics caused by the expansion of Earth's great deserts, leading to severe prolonged droughts and famines rivalling any in recorded history. 

Conditions in those regions most seriously affected by global warming, particularly Africa and the middle east, and how this has translated into climate refugees, will be described. The talk will include speculation on the dynamics that lead to desertification in many regions, but which also allow heavy rains and flooding in immediate adjacent areas. Finally, comparison will be made of today's conditions with the reality of future scenarios, and why action on solutions to the global problem must start at the grass roots, with individuals. This may finally be happening, but the question remains: is it too late?

Black:  Conventional media (television and radio) still plays a huge part in the way weather information is distributed to the public, but digital platforms (mobile phones, Twitter, Facebook, internet sites, etc.) are ever rising in popularity.  How the industry has changed in the last 20 years and where it is possibly heading will be discussed.