The Arctic Youth Environmental Leadership Expedition 2005 is the most extraordinary educational Arctic expedition for youth ever undertaken. It will serve as a powerful and unique international platform to create change, inspire, educate, give cause for hope, and raise awareness globally about the impacts of Climate Change and other environmental issues facing the Arctic Regions.

The just released Arctic Climate Impact Assessment; the Kyoto Protocol; the Arctic Council priorities; the efforts to build 'circumpolar' co-operation amongst northern nations; and the role of the Arctic as cornerstone of our planet’s ecosystem, are all perfect fits with the environmental leadership and conservation ethic message of this Students on Ice expedition initiative.

The ship-based journey from Iceland to Greenland to Nunavut, Canada, will involve 80 students, aged 14-19, from around the world, including indigenous students from all of the Arctic Council-Circumpolar countries. The students will travel on this transformative adventure together with a team of 30 world-class scientists, environmentalists and educators, including Justin Trudeau, Dr. Peter Johnson and Sheila Watt-Cloutier.

This carbon-neutral expedition will be a powerful platform to highlight Arctic and Global environmental issues, the youth voice, and so much more. A documentary film, international media, and a “live” expedition website will track the journey and share the experience with thousands around the world. During the expedition, the students will produce an Arctic Youth Statement of Climate Change, which will be tabled by a youth delegation at the CoP 11-Kyoto Protocol meeting in Montreal this December.

Never has there been a more critical need to expose the youth of world to what is happening in the Arctic, the "canary in the coal mine" and cornerstone of our global environment, and to inspire them to be future leaders and stewards for our planet. Inspiring our youth, empowering their voice as a vehicle for change, and helping create a needed paradigm shift in our environmental ethos is just part of what we hope to achieve.

Students on Ice is proud to be partnering with the Arctic Council-Circumpolar countries, and a number of national and international organizations, including the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, the National Inuit Youth Council, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, The Canadian Museum of Nature, The Explorer’s Club, Lonely Planet, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Environment Canada's One Tonne Challenge, Earth Rangers and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

"This not only is great, it is very powerful. Indeed, a bigger meaning to it all resonates much truth for me. I will share the SOI project with kindred spirit, as we must all work hand in hand to educate the world to what it is doing to itself. The Arctic, and what is happening to its land and animals are the early warning system for the world."

- Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference

CANADA WELCOMES NEW ASSESSMENT OF ARCTIC CLIMATE CHANGE