The summer that changed my life!

It was a cold summer afternoon when we reached Pangnirtung, the closest town to Auyuittuq National Park in Arctic Canada. My friend and I were to do an unguided 2 week trip into the remote wilderness of this national park.

We were waiting for the tide to recede in order to enter the park.
We walked through the few streets that existed in this tiny arctic town which had a population of ~1300. Almost the entire population comprised of natives who can trace many generations living in the same town.

What we realized through our discussions with the locals was that there was no other source of food other than hunting and fishing.
The lone KFC (yeah, that's right!) was their only hangout place - that too was extremely expensive. We had absolutely no clue of how these discussions would spring back to our minds in the next two weeks.

Joavie, the outfitter who was to give us the boat ride to the entrance of the park was a very nice guy. His life represented the life of majority of those who lived in this beautiful little remote town - making a living from as many sources as possible.

We were dropped at the park and were tracking to our plan for the first couple of days. However, what we didn't realize was that our plans were going to go haywire soon. We were hit by a storm -this meant that we had to spend 48 hours at the same location. Incidentally, this spot happened to be right in front of Fork Beard Glacier, one of the famous glaciers in the region. We were briefed about this glacier in our ranger briefing - it was all coming back to us. In just 30 years, this glacier had lost one of its legs due to global warming. For me, until this trip, global warming was a topic that would affect future generations. But, in a matter of a few moments, I was able to realize its impact on the communities that depend on hunting for their living. Snow is melting faster. The hunting season is getting shortened every year and so is the ability these communities to make a living in the harsh arctic environment.

The realization that every action of mine was impacting the lives of people living in the remotest corner of the world enlightened me. Now I understand the frustration of these communities – they pay the price for somebody else`s mistake.

This single experience has impacted my life more than any other event in my life – I would always strive to reduce my impact on these communities.