Editor's note: We forwarded a reader's question along to Larry and Alain, and they were kind enough to fire up the laptop and respond.  

Question:

Lisa Speer wrote on April 29, 2009, 09:51AM :

Larry and Alain,

An amazing trip, beautifully described. Your photos and descriptions bring
home the fragility of the ice landscape, and the vast changes underway up
there. Alain's surprise at the extent of the melt is another example of the
fact that our models and expectations, no matter how pessimistic, are not
keeping pace with the rate of Arctic change.

I am testifying next week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on
the Arctic -- any message you'd like me to convey to the Senators?

Sending dreams of chocolate and nuts, and breakfast on the patio. Be safe.

Response:

This is Alain speaking: I have been in the high arctic each year for the
last 10 years, the changes are quicker than any mathematical models used for
the last report of the IPCC in 2007 (UN). It is vital and urgent that the
arctic nations sit around a table quickly. The US (Clinton) [Ed. note: Hillary Clinton] has announced that they will ratify the law of the Sea which will have a major effect; I
believe that it is through that angle that the Arctic will have to be
managed.  Good luck, it is a long road but well worth it and mandatory.

Now, some facts and figures sent along by Larry:

1. There are 56,000 people living in greenland, the same number as in my home town of Greenwich, Connecticut.   But none of them here work on Wall Street or for a hedge fund.
2. I have pulled my sled for about 65,000 steps or strides/day, totaling around 1 million steps for the whole trip. Alain has longer strides and therefore only totalled about 850,000 steps.  (See the kind of stupid things we think about when we have too much time to think!)
3. There are 40 words in the Inuit language for snow (thanks Luc!). I guess we compensate by having more names for flowers.
4. Greenland is twice the size of France and must import all of its cheese and wine.
5. It was originally named "Greenland" by a viking, Erik the Red, to entice potential settlers form Iceland to move here.
6. With 5 dogs at home, I thought i had a lot.  But the average family in Qaanaaq has 18 dogs. (Population 600; 2,500 dogs.)
7. Last weekend, the temperature difference between my home in Connecticutt and here was more than 100 degrees F.
8. In the Inuit language, the word for 'year' is the same as the one for 'winter.' (Thanks again, Luc!)