The Canadian Arctic is home to only one per cent of the country's population. But it has grabbed the news headlines as a harbinger of the harmful effects of global warming as evidence mounts that the polar ice cap is melting more rapidly than ever before. While this urgent message is turning the world's attention to this vast region, U of T researchers have been studying the diverse and distinctive Canadian Arctic for decades. In this issue of Edge, we look at the work of geologist Marianne Douglas, who sifts through lake sediment to trace environmental change over thousands of years, zoologist Rudy Boonstra, who studies how nature is stressing the snowshoe hare, archaeologist Max Friesen, who is working with Inuit elders to uncover thousands of years of Arctic settlement, and linguist Alana Johns, who helps to protect an important component of Inuit culture - the ancient language Inuktitut.