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| Photo Credit: Mark Beauregard (no edits; license) |
Much of the Arctic archipelago is incorporated within Nunavut, and as an archipelago, the islands look huge on the map, speaking of Mercator projection. Regardless of that, however, many islands are actually big. The top 5 islands in terms of area (in sq. km.) are:
- Baffin - 507,451
- Victoria Island - 217,291
- Ellesmere - 196,236
- Banks Island - 70,028
- Devon Island - 55,247
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| Photo Credit : Derrick Midwinter (no changes; license) |
The top three are bigger than Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines at 109,965 sq. km. So, one may wonder if they are also densely populated as well. You bet, no. In the warmest community of the region, Kugluktuk, the temperature during winter ranges from -15°C to -40°C, and then there's extensive permafrost, meaning perpetually frozen ground, which prevents vertical growth of trees and other plants. Imagine a large region having this type of climate. From above, it will look like a vast barren landscape, interrupted by hills and mountains, cut by rivers, and in continental Canada, splattered with numerous lakes.
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| Photo Credit : Steve Stayles (no edits; license) |
Taking a look at the top 5 largest communities - or refered to as municipalities - in Nunavut as of 2016, it would really take a long time, hypothetically, before we could see a sprawling metropolis in the Arctic:
Iqaluit - 7,086
Rankin Inlet - 2,441
Arviat - 2,318
Baker Lake - 1,872
Cambridge Bay - 1,619
Nunavut as a territory covers 1,936,113 sq. km. of land, but the population as of 2016 is only 35,944. This gives us a density of 0.0186 person per square kilometer; or, if they divide the land among themselves, each person would own 53.9 sq. km. of land, which is the size of a small city.
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| Photo Credit: Fiona Hunt Iqaluit, NU (license; no edits) |
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| Photo Credit: Michael Swan Rankin Inlet, NU (license; no edits) |
Given this vast land, relatively very small population, and extreme climate, it is indeed impractical to build extensive road networks. Thus, each of these municipalities has an airport that would connect them to the rest of Canada. Currently, Nunavut has 25 municipalities; only one is considered a city, which is Iqaluit, and the rest are categorized as hamlets. It is interesting, however, that they have other categories called "village" and "town". You may guess it right that these are the previous designations of Iqaluit on its way to being categorized as a "city".
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| Photo Credit : Mark Beauregard Arviat, NU (license; no edits) |
The land faces below freezing average temperatures for at least 8 months of the year. Most of the municipalities experience a mild form of summer from mid-Jun to mid-September, with monthly average high temperatures just hovering between 10°C - 20°C and mostly below 15°C. On the other hand, the monthly average low is just hovering around 4°C - 7°C for the months of July and August, while it is 0°C - 3°C for the months of June and September.
From a tropical country perspective, it is at least cold the whole year round. So are these places within the radar of the worldwide dispersion of fellow countrymen? The answer was actually a suprise yes for me, the first time I knew about it. So there are Filipinos out there enduring the mostly tundra climate together with the indigenous inhabitants. They are mostly found in Iqaluit in which they account for around 1% of the city's population.
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| Photo Credit: Northern Pix Baker Lake, NU (license; no edits) |
So, what do we have in store at Nunavut? Well, if you love wilderness in its pristine form, then you have more than a million of square kilometers of untouched land by any human alteration. The area contains numerous admirable little plants, which endured the extreme cold and desert-like condition due to low precipitation. It is actually amazing that Nunavut has around 200 species of plants with extraordinary ability of adaptation. Other than that, thick layers of mosses (considered as flowerless plants) and lichens (well, these are not plants) cover the soil above the permafrost, which allow taller plants to grow.
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| Photo Credit : Alan Sim Cambridge Bay, NU (license; no edits) |
How do these plants survive? Well, apart from genetics - which helped them survive the mostly acidic soil, very low nitrogen content, and of course, the extreme climate - the plants have actually a unique behavior of crowding together to form microclimates that allow photosynthesis to take place. To name a few, Nunavut has Arctic cotton, Arctic willow (a tree in a tundra region?!), Labrador tea, blueberry, and cranberry.
How about the animals? To name a few, we have the polar bear, seal, walrus, muskox, and we shouldn't forget Santa's animal of mobility, but bigger version than what we saw in the usual renditions: the caribou. If we include the caribou in the census, then Nunavut can come up with a figure close to 1 million inhabitants, and surely, the film "The Polar Express" isn't exaggerating anything when it comes to their number.
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| Photo Credit : Derrick Midwinter Arctic Cotton (license; no edits) |
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| Photo Credit : Amanda Graham Arctic Willow (license; no edits) |
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| Photo Credit : Derrick Midwinter Caribou (license; no edits) |
Looking for something extraordinary? Then, look further and seriously north, to Nunavut; and hunt for the Northern Lights as well. However, the world needs to take care of these lands because when a permafrost melts, it looks extraordinarily disastrous as well.
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| Photo Credit : UBC Micrometeorology (license; no edits) -- Permafrost Melting |
