WHEN ALEXANDRE LANGLOIS

comes off the frozen terrain along the Northwest Passage, on his snowmobile, late in the afternoon of May 12, 2017, his face is a wind-savaged mask, and his eyes look as if they’ve been scoured in vinegar. He has been out with his students, taking snow readings since seven in the morning, is exhausted to the core, but is nonetheless elated to have had another torturous day on the frigid terrain he loves. It has been a good week for the man whose nickname at university was Snowpit. A couple of days earlier he received notice that Polar Knowledge Canada would fund another two years of his research into satellite assessments of snow. However, what really seems to be juicing him as he sits down to talk a couple of hours later is that during the early afternoon, he and his proteges had come across a gaggle of high school students, with their teacher, way out on the tundra, gathering ice for the local elders. The kids were curious about what the researchers were doing. “We took time to talk to them,” Langlois says. “We gave them some instruments, and they worked with us for an hour.” Among the things he says during the next half hour is that his experience with the teenagers was one of the most rewarding he has had since his arrival in the Arctic a week earlier. He says it gives him hope. “As CHARS scientists,” he says, “we have to behave in such a way that the town, and ultimately the world, will respect us.” Says the most important achievement between people or groups in the Far North is mutual respect — and that it must be earned. Says Polar Knowledge Canada and those who work at CHARS are going to have to earn it, too, and it won’t be easy. He says he tells his students that when they come to the Far North they shouldn’t disappear into their CHARS work but should go into town, go into the school, talk to the people. He says, “Sometimes people want an interaction.” Says he tells his students to allow interactions to happen. He says he hopes CHARS and its scientists will always extend themselves to young people. Says, “Let’s teach the eight-and nine-year-olds what they can do in their everyday lives that will help make the planet a better place.” He says CHARS can be a leader. Says if this thing is done right, he believes there is a sliver of hope.