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May/June 2004 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Cougar attack In-depth: Cougars in Canada The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Explorer Reverberations À la carte Mosaic

All-Canadian atlas on the way
In honour of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s 75th-anniversary celebrations this year, Canadian Geographic is charting new territory by publishing its first Canadian atlas, in partnership with Reader’s Digest Canada.

The Canadian Atlas: Our Nation, Environment and People will be released this July. The 192-page, large-format book will be available in both English and French editions. The first comprehensive all-Canadian atlas to be issued since the mid-1990s, it depicts every corner of Canada, with 41 detailed maps (British Columbia shown above), and lists upward of 32,000 place names in its gazetteer.

But it is more than a mere compilation of maps. The atlas is built around an "Earth-first ethos," says John Thomson, publisher of Canadian Geographic. "It is driven by the assumption that planetary health is of overarching value."

The atlas includes a 38-page thematic section on the Canadian environment and the ways in which people inhabit the nation. The country’s six major ecozones are illustrated with maps, photographs, satellite images, text, charts and tables.

"The atlas gives a contemporary sense of the environment and of the whole concept of sustainability," says Eric Harris, Canadian Geographic’s managing editor.

Vignettes on each thematic spread highlight current issues as well as relevant success stories, such as how the Fundy Model Forest in southern New Brunswick has achieved a balance between economic activities, such as logging, and preservation of the forest ecosystem. Other pages focus on the hydrological cycle and Canada’s rich water resources — in its glaciers, lakes and rivers (above).

Acknowledging that 80 percent of Canadians live in cities, the atlas underlines subjects that are critical to urbanites and includes street maps of the largest metropolitan areas and all provincial and territorial capitals.

It also outlines the demographic makeup of our population and casts a forward glance at what the future may hold for the country in 2050.

The Canadian Atlas will sell for $69.95 at bookstores across the country. Customized corporate editions will also be available.

Monique Roy-Sole

One of the last great explorers

Courtesy of Diana Rowley

His archaeological work on the Inuit and Dorset people allowed him to explore Foxe Basin and Baffin Island. As a result, Rowley (left, on an Arctic expedition around 1937), who died in December 2003, had a large island and a river in the Arctic named after him.

"He was the last in a line of European explorers of Canada that began with Jacques Cartier," says friend Ted Johnson, vice-president of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS). "He was energetic, thoughtful and deeply caring about the people of the North."

An RCGS Fellow, Rowley was awarded the Massey Medal in 1963 for his geographical work. As a scientist with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the early 1970s, he created a training program for Northern scientists and developed ground and air support services for scientific groups working in the Arctic.

His book, Cold Comfort: My Love Affair with the Arctic, published in 1996, remains a testament to his lifelong passion for Canada’s North.

Jessa Sinclair

Northern youth, global change
May Chazan, a master’s student at Carleton University in Ottawa, is embarking on a study to assess how global environmental, social and economic influences could be affecting the health of people in the North, particularly youths, such as those in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Chazan has been awarded the Society’s $5,000 Maxwell Studentship in Human Geography.

Pending receipt of research permits, Chazan aims to conduct her fieldwork in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and Inuvik, N.W.T., later this summer. Both communities, she says, have seen considerable population growth over the past five years and, as a result, significant social change: Iqaluit because of its role as Nunavut’s capital and Inuvik because of recent oil and gas development.

"Scientific models are predicting that climate change is going to hit hardest in the North," says Chazan. Such confounding factors could shift lifestyles and diets and "might contribute to health threats down the road."

Chazan’s background bodes well for such an interdisciplinary approach. She has a degree in health sciences, has worked with street youth and has taught high school environmental science.

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