In Canada’s North, ice roads are lifelines for isolated communities. Outside of the winter road season, they are only accessible by airplane – no paved or gravel roads go in or out. Built up each year once temperatures dip low enough for long enough, the waters running through rivers, streams and muskeg are transformed into static roadway that remain for as long as temperatures allow.

Ice roads are critical transportation and supply routes for the communities they connect. But climate change is shrinking their season.

I travelled to a specific stretch of winter road in Ontario nestled near James Bay to see how the ice road season is being impacted by climate change. Increased temperatures – caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels – are prompting the season to come later and end earlier.

The trip resulted in a three-part series called Vanishing Lifelines, which I produced for the publication I work for –  Canada’s National Observer – along with photographer Jesse Winter.

In 2023, I was very honoured to participate in the Metcalf Institute’s Annual Science Immersion Fellowship for Journalists. The fellowship has influenced my career since, and provided me with context that bolstered my reporting for this series. That is especially true for the third portion, which is about the climate science behind the shrinking ice road season. One of the most valuable workshops I participated in focused on decoding academic research. It included talking directly to researchers, figuring out what questions to ask, and learning how to identify where the most important nuggets of information are in a paper. That helped me gain a deeper understanding of statistics and language often present in climate research, but also made me think differently about the data I seek out for my stories.

At first, I thought the best way to illustrate the shrinking ice road season through data would be with open and close dates, but getting a long enough period for enough places proved difficult. Instead, I found that even more revealing is when roads are open to full loads. Since ice roads are built to connect communities and make goods cheaper, roads not freezing thick enough for big transport trucks is a more relevant frame of reference than general open and close dates. This year, on February 21 (the thick of the season), just seven out of 33 stretches of roads in Ontario were open to full loads. Also important is the number of very cold days the North has already lost, and what scientists are predicting about future winters. I think the fellowship did a really good job at acknowledging the complexity of climate science, while providing inspiration for how to make it accessible to readers.

The two other parts of the series show the tangible impact of the shrinking ice road season for communities on the ground, and highlight a potential solution (along with the difficulties) many communities are considering: all-season roads. Thanks for reading!