In warmer world, Inuit buy air conditioners

[scandium]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060807/...JlYmhvBHNlYwM-

OSLO (Reuters) - With signs that the world is warming, even Inuit peoples of the far north are ordering air conditioning.

Better known for building igloos during hunts on the polar ice, Inuit in the village of Kuujjuaq in Quebec, Canada, are installing 10 air conditioners for about 25 office workers.

"These are the times when the far north has to have air conditioners now to function," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a leading campaigner for the rights of 155,000 Inuit in Canada, Alaska, Russia and Greenland.

"Our Arctic homes are made to be airtight for the cold and do not 'breathe' well in the heat with this warming trend," she said. Temperatures in Kuujjuaq, home to 2,000 people, hit 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) in late July.

88 F is probably a nice cool day to you Southern folk, but having lived in the north (ie: the true north, where nothing grows but moss) that is insane heat - I can remember, as a kid in those climates, wearing gloves and a sweater in June & July (which was the entire summer where I was).