Diamond-Mining in Canada: Climate Change Hits A New Boomtown

Great story and conversation from Steve Inskeep of NPR, who recounts going to Yellowknife, Canada, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, which has become a boomtown thanks to diamond-mining..a boomtown now threatened by climate change. (National Public Radio helpfully provides a transcript and a slide-show.) But one of the charms of NPR is their calm, reassuring tones; the story is about changes at the Arctic circle, but it opens gently, almost lovingly, with words from a long-time local about wildlife.

Gordon Van Tieghem is the mayor of Yellowknife in northern Canada near the Arctic Circle.                        

He's also a hunter. And as the weather grows warmer, he's noticing more animals drifting up from the south.                        

"In our area, we've seen cougars, we have crows. It's just in the last 10 years that crows (appeared) — the last 15 years that we've had magpie, white-tailed deer. It's all indicative that something's changing," Van Tieghem says.