De la postmodernité : Pierre Perrault et la culture innue

Le présent mémoire définira ce qu’on entend par modernité et postmodernité, tout en juxtaposant ces concepts philosophiques au cinéma pratiqué par le documentariste Pierre Perrault. Les modernistes influencés par les Lumières ont toujours considéré les progrès scientifiques comme des avancées nécessaires à l’atteinte d’une béatitude universelle. Pour eux, le salut des sociétés nécessite un passage du côté de la science, du rationalisme. Le problème avec une telle démarche est que tout discours qui se dissocie de la rationalité est immédiatement annihilé au profit d’une (sur)dominance du progrès. Il ne s’agit pas de dire que la modernité est à proscrire – loin de là! –, mais il serait temps d’envisager une remise en question de certaines de ses caractéristiques. La postmodernité, réflexion critique popularisée par Jean-François Lyotard, s’évertue à trouver des pistes de solution pour pallier à cette problématique. Elle est une critique de la domination exagérée des sciences dans la compréhension de notre monde. Il existe pourtant d’autres façons de l’appréhender, tels les mythes et les croyances. Ces récits irrationnels cachent souvent en eux des valeurs importantes (qu’elles soient d’ordre moral, écologique ou spirituel). Or, l’œuvre de Perrault regorge de ces petites histoires communautaires. Les deux films choisis pour notre travail – Le goût de la farine (1977) et Le pays de la terre sans arbre ou le Mouchouânipi (1980) – en sont l’exemple prégnant. Chacun d’eux présente des traditions autochtones (celles des Innus) opposées à la dictature du progrès. Et cette même opposition permet au réalisateur de forger un discours critique sur une modernité prête à tout pour effacer les coutumes uniques. Le cinéaste agit ainsi en postmoderniste, offrant une réflexion salutaire sur les pires excès véhiculés par les tenants du progrès.This dissertation, juxtaposing modernity and postmodernity to Pierre Perrault’s documentary movies, will define what we understand from those philosophic concepts. Influenced with Les Lumières, modernists have always considered necessary to put forward scientific technology progress to reach universal beatitude. For them, science is the key to society’s salute and rationalism. The problem with this process is that all thinking dissociating from rationality brings its immediate annihilation by progress and “over-progress” domination. Far from us to say that modernity needs to be forbidden but maybe it would be time to call into question some of these concepts. Popularized by Jean-François Lyotard, postmodernity criticizes the exaggerated science domination into trying to understand our world and wants to find solutions to counter the problem. Yet, there are other ways to apprehend this world of ours, like myths and believes. These irrational stories often reveal important moral, ecologic or spiritual values. The works of Perrault abound with community stories to refer to and we have chosen two pictures that are obvious examples. Le goût de la farine (1977) and Le pays de la terre sans arbre ou le Mouchouânipi (1980) present Innus’ traditions opposed to progress dictatorship. This same opposition allows the movie director to create a critical thinking about this modernity (in brief, a postmodernist thinking)

Variations of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water from direct observations

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Climate 27 (2014): 2842–2860, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00227.1.Mooring measurements from the Kuroshio Extension System Study (June 2004–June 2006) and from the ongoing Kuroshio Extension Observatory (June 2004–present) are combined with float measurements of the Argo network to study the variability of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) across the entire gyre, on time scales from days, to seasons, to a decade. The top of the STMW follows a seasonal cycle, although observations reveal that it primarily varies in discrete steps associated with episodic wind events. The variations of the STMW bottom depth are tightly related to the sea surface height (SSH), reflecting mesoscale eddies and large-scale variations of the Kuroshio Extension and recirculation gyre systems. Using the observed relationship between SSH and STMW, gridded SSH products and in situ estimates from floats are used to construct weekly maps of STMW thickness, providing nonbiased estimates of STMW total volume, annual formation and erosion volumes, and seasonal and interannual variability for the past decade. Year-to-year variations are detected, particularly a significant decrease of STMW volume in 2007–10 primarily attributable to a smaller volume formed. Variability of the heat content in the mode water region is dominated by the seasonal cycle and mesoscale eddies; there is only a weak link to STMW on interannual time scales, and no long-term trends in heat content and STMW thickness between 2002 and 2011 are detected. Weak lagged correlations among air–sea fluxes, oceanic heat content, and STMW thickness are found when averaged over the northwestern Pacific recirculation gyre region.This work was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (Grants OCE-0220161, OCE-0825152, and OCE-0827125).2014-10-1

Near-inertial internal wave field in the Canada Basin from ice-tethered profilers

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 44 (2014): 413–426, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-13-0117.1.Salinity and temperature profiles from drifting ice-tethered profilers in the Beaufort gyre region of the Canada Basin are used to characterize and quantify the regional near-inertial internal wave field over one year. Vertical displacements of potential density surfaces from the surface to 750-m depth are tracked from fall 2006 to fall 2007. Because of the time resolution and irregular sampling of the ice-tethered profilers, near-inertial frequency signals are marginally resolved. Complex demodulation is used to determine variations with a time scale of several days in the amplitude and phase of waves at a specified near-inertial frequency. Characteristics and variability of the wave field over the course of the year are investigated quantitatively and related to changes in surface wind forcing and sea ice cover.The ITP program and J. Toole’s contributions were supported by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Arctic Observing Network. We acknowledge the support of the Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-11-1-0454) for this study. Support for H. Dosser was also provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.2014-08-0

Moored observations of bottom-intensified motions in the deep Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 68 (2010): 625-641, doi:10.1357/002224010794657137.In the deep Canada Basin, below the sill depth (about 2400 m) of the Alpha-Mendeleyev Ridge, potential temperature and salinity first increase with depth, then remain uniform from about 2600 m to the bottom (approximately 3500 m). Year-long moored measurements of temperature, salinity and pressure in these deep and homogeneous bottom waters reveal significant vertical excursions with periods of about 50 days. The observed isopycnal displacements have amplitudes up to 100 m at the top boundary of the bottom layer; moored profiler measurements in the intermediate water column indicate that the amplitudes of these vertical displacements decay toward the surface over a scale of about 1000 m. The subinertial excursions are consistent with a bottom-trapped topographic Rossby wave. Given the magnitude of the bottom slope in the vicinity of the mooring, the observed vertical velocities correspond to only weak (about 1 cm s−1) cross-slope horizontal velocities. The generation mechanism for the waves remains an open question.Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Arctic Sciences Section under awards ARC-0632201 and ARC-0806306

Internal waves in the Arctic : influence of ice concentration, ice roughness, and surface layer stratification

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123 (2018): 5571-5586, doi:10.1029/2018JC014096.The Arctic ice cover influences the generation, propagation, and dissipation of internal waves, which in turn may affect vertical mixing in the ocean interior. The Arctic internal wavefield and its relationship to the ice cover is investigated using observations from Ice‐Tethered Profilers with Velocity and Seaglider sampling during the 2014 Marginal Ice Zone experiment in the Canada Basin. Ice roughness, ice concentration, and wind forcing all influenced the daily to seasonal changes in the internal wavefield. Three different ice concentration thresholds appeared to determine the evolution of internal wave spectral energy levels: (1) the initial decrease from 100% ice concentration after which dissipation during the surface reflection was inferred to increase, (2) the transition to 70–80% ice concentration when the local generation of internal waves increased, and (3) the transition to open water that was associated with larger‐amplitude internal waves. Ice roughness influenced internal wave properties for ice concentrations greater than approximately 70–80%: smoother ice was associated with reduced local internal wave generation. Richardson numbers were rarely supercritical, consistent with weak vertical mixing under all ice concentrations. On decadal timescales, smoother ice may counteract the effects of lower ice concentration on the internal wavefield complicating future predictions of internal wave activity and vertical mixing.Seagliders Grant Number: N00014‐12‐10180; Deployment and subsequent analysis efforts of the ITP‐Vs Grant Numbers: N00014‐12‐10799, N00014‐12‐10140; Joint Ocean Ice Studies cruise; Beaufort Gyre Observing System2019-02-1

Public health and degrowth working synergistically: what leverage for public health?

The climate crisis represents the biggest public health threat of our time. It interacts with the rising inequalities, chronic diseases and mental illness widely associated with our dominant economic system. Though degrowth and public health approaches differ, both share common values. The former proposes a new paradigm intended to halt the destruction of life-supporting systems by infinite economic growth, while improving social justice and cohesion. The latter aims to maximize health and well-being while reducing health inequities, using strategies ranging from health protection to health promotion.   In various jurisdictions, public health is legally mandated to act when population health is threatened. Some have also adopted a “Health in all Policies” approach. Though public health has leadership for climate change and health adaptation planning, decisions and efforts on mitigation strategies are often left to other sectors; several tools such as health impact assessments, healthy public policy development, socio-economic and ecological determinants of health frameworks, and theories of behavior and social change, are often ignored.   Using theoretical analysis and practical examples from Canada, including Indigenous jurisdictions, we discuss barriers and facilitators to achieving synergy between public health and degrowth goals. We argue that public health has an ethical and legal duty to lead debates around sustainable living, and to unequivocally use its leverage to support the degrowth movement. However, as long as public health networks are embedded in governmental bodies, it may be difficult to fully support transition towards degrowth to the extent required by the biggest challenge of our time

On the benefit of current and future ALPS data for improving Arctic coupled ocean-sea ice state estimation

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 30, no. 2 (2017): 69–73, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2017.223.Autonomous and Lagrangian platforms and sensors (ALPS) have revolutionized the way the subsurface ocean is observed. The synergy between ALPS-based observations and coupled ocean-sea ice state and parameter estimation as practiced in the Arctic Subpolar gyre sTate Estimate (ASTE) project is illustrated through several examples. In the western Arctic, Ice-Tethered Profilers have been providing important hydrographic constraints of the water column down to 800 m depth since 2004. ASTE takes advantage of these detailed constraints to infer vertical profiles of diapycnal mixing rates in the central Canada Basin. The state estimation framework is also used to explore the potential utility of Argo-type floats in regions with sparse data coverage, such as the eastern Arctic and the seasonal ice zones. Finally, the framework is applied to identify potential deployment sites that optimize the impact of float measurements on bulk oceanographic quantities of interest.This research was supported by NSF Grants PLR-1643339, PLR-1603903, and PLR- 1603660

Formation and erosion of the seasonal thermocline in the Kuroshio Extension Recirculation Gyre

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 85 (2013): 62-74, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2012.07.018.Data from the Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO) surface mooring are used to analyze the balance of processes affecting the upper ocean heat content and surface mixed layer temperature variations in the Recirculation Gyre (RG) south of the Kuroshio Extension (KE). Cold and dry air blowing across the KE and its warm RG during winter cause very large heat fluxes out of the ocean that result in the erosion of the seasonal thermocline in the RG. Some of this heat is replenished through horizontal heat advection, which may enable the seasonal thermocline to begin restratifying while the net surface heat flux is still acting to cool the upper ocean. Once the surface heat flux begins warming the ocean, restratification occurs rapidly due to the low thermal inertia of the shallow mixed layer depth. Enhanced diffusive mixing below the mixed layer tends to transfer some of the mixed layer heat downward, eroding and potentially modifying sequestered subtropical mode water and even the deeper waters of the main thermocline during winter. Diffusivity at the base of the mixed layer, estimated from the residual of the mixed layer temperature balance, is roughly 3×10−4 m2/s during the summer and up to two orders of magnitude larger during winter. The enhanced diffusivities appear to be due to large inertial shear generated by wind events associated with winter storms and summer tropical cyclones. The diffusivity's seasonality is likely due to seasonal variations in stratification just below the mixed layer depth, which is large during the summer when the seasonal thermocline is fully developed and low during the winter when the mixed layer extends to the top of the thermocline.N. Bond and L. Rainville were supported by NSF Grant OCE-0827125. T. Farrar and S. Jayne were supported by NSF Grant OCE-0825152. B. Qiu was supported by NSF Grant OCN-0220680

Corrigendum to “Formation and erosion of the seasonal thermocline in the Kuroshio Extension Recirculation gyre” [Deep-Sea Res. II 85 (2013) 62–74]

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 132 (2016): 263–264, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2016.08.001