ISU alumna Elizabeth Andre shared personal stories and photos from a dogsled expedition on Canada’s Baffin Island with a full audience Tuesday evening in the Gallery Room of the Memorial Union.

Andre’s lecture, “Running on Ice: Stories from a Warming Arctic,” was very visual, with video footage and photographs from her expedition along with some simple scientific graphics related to Arctic ice melting.

She told her listeners about an incident in which a dogsled fell through the ice on a warm day. Andre said the experience was more “inconvenient” than dangerous – but she mentioned how such experiences can be very dangerous for some.

Another story Andre shared was of an Inuit man named Simon Nattaq, an elder and hunter in Iqaluit, the capital of the Canadian territory Nunavut.

Nattaq, Andre said, was a well-respected hunter in his community whose snowmobile once plunged through melting ice, leaving him soaking wet and without transportation.

Nattaq proceeded to insulate himself in some snow, and, by the time he was found by and able to get help, his legs were in poor enough condition that they had to be amputated, Andre told her audience.

Andre said Nattaq had hoped his story would be told to many in order to “put a human face” on the changes in his region of the world.

Andre spoke about the lessons she had learned from the three Inuit hunters and community leaders that helped guide the expedition – lessons in resourcefulness and wisdom concerning the natural world.

Her trip, she said, made her think about human motivation – alluding to motivation to act against climate change.

“It is difficult to work toward something out of a motivation of fear, but wouldn’t it be more pleasant to work toward a vision that is very beautiful?” Andre said against a backdrop of photos of Inuit clothing and tools made of natural materials such as seal fur.

While it may not work to aim for a society that creates all clothing and items by hand from natural materials, it is possible to create community efforts to help improve the environment, she said.

Andre suggested to her audience that they think more locally in different areas of life, such as growing crops, getting together to raise money for a solar roof on campus or using a wind turbine as an energy source for a local business like a coffee shop.

Josh McGinnis, senior in biology, said he found Andre’s lecture very interesting, especially considering how she included the Inuit perspective.

“[The Inuit people] are actually in the environment, seeing the changes,” McGinnis said.

Andre’s Arctic expedition included well-known explorer Will Steger, and her presentation is part of an initiative called Global Warming 101. Andre is currently a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota studying curriculum and instruction and environmental education.