What a decade it's been. In honour of 10 years that changed the North, we look back on what we think were the 10 biggest stories to come out of the place between 2000 and 2010. By the Up Here editors

1) The meltdown

Since 2000, no Arctic story has so dominated the world news as polar warming. In 2007, the Arctic Ocean’s pack-ice diminished to its lowest level in history. In 2005, Ellesmere Island’s Ayles Ice Shelf snapped off and drifted out to sea. Greenland’s glaciers have experienced unprecedented retreat; Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, is being eroded by the roiling Arctic Ocean; the NWT’s ice road to the diamond mines melted very early in 2007. The prospect of an ice-free Arctic has, in turn, spurred research and debate. The third International Polar Year, started in 2007 and continuing today, has been dedicated to researching climate change. And debate about Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage and the Arctic Ocean seabed has hotted up. The current government has reacted with promises of new ice-class patrol ships, a polar military training centre in Resolute, and a new port in Nanisivik. So far, none of these pledges has come to pass.   

2) Big projects, bigger rhetoric

Northern development projects, talked about for decades, were talked about some more over the past decade. But as surely someone's said before, change finally appears around the corner. The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, estimated to be worth some $16.2-billion, now looks like it might exist by 2020, and so too does the Alaska Highway Pipeline, estimated at $32-billion. Still, less sexy projects remain far off: A highway up the Mackenzie River, talked of since the 1960s, is still a big maybe. So what of the newest big ideas -- of Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie's dream of a rail link for Alaska with the continental US that runs through the Yukon, or his strange remark once about a tunnel underneath the Bering Strait linking Alaska with Siberia? Well, good luck.

3) Northern representation hits its stride

After centuries of neglect, Canada further recognized the right of Northern peoples to govern themselves over the past 10 years. Well, sort of. By the close of the decade, 11 Yukon First Nations had settled land claims and self-government agreements, making the territory the most diverse aboriginal-governance model in Canada. The decade also saw Nunavut try on its self-governance shoes for size, with sometimes brilliant, sometimes heartbreaking results. And in 2003, what many call the most comprehensive, powerful self-government agreement ever in Canada was signed by the T'licho in the NWT. But, though it's been talked about for the past decade, devolution of province-like powers to the NWT remains a distant dream, as does the government revenues its diamond mines would provide its residents.

4) Inuit take the world

The Inuit have always been well known around the world, even if through false stereotypes and romanticism. But between 2000 and 2010, they took the global stage. Jordin Tootoo, from Rankin Inlet, now plays hockey in the NHL; Inuit singer Tanya Tagak toured with Bjork; Igloolik filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk brought oral stories to Hollywood with The Fast Runner, Iqaluit's Sheila Watt-Cloutier was nominated for a Nobel Prize, and Gjoa Haven's Leona Aglukkaq became the first aboriginal in Canadian history to be named to federal cabinet.

5) Parks aplenty

The North has lots of wilderness, and thanks to conservation efforts over the past decade, it appears it’ll stay that way. In 2009, our flagship national park, Nahanni, grew sixfold in size, and now covers an area larger than Vancouver Island. Meanwhile, in 2003 in the Wager Bay region of Nunavut, Ukkusiksalik National Park was created, becoming the sixth largest park in Canada. Other park plans made big advances, including those for protecting the East Arm of Great Slave Lake and the Canol Trail corridor of the NWT’s Mackenzie Mountains.

6) The hunt down

It seems whatever Northerners trained their gunsights on over the past decade, they managed to bag controversy. In the Barrenlands of the NWT and Nunavut, crashing caribou numbers led to a monumental debate about the causes of the decline and whether hunting bans – covering aboriginals, whites and for-profit outfitters – were the proper response. Meanwhile, to the east, Inuit polar-bear hunting became the target of global warming activists, seal-hunting became a casualty of the European sealskin ban, and narwhal culling was widely condemned as inhumane. 

7) Bang! An information revolution

From isolated and off-the-grid to integrated and part of the information highway -- all in less time than Google has been around -- Canada's North has become more intensely wired to the global communications cloud than many southern areas. The changes are writ large: Prices have tumbled thanks to online shopping; Inuit kids now wear clothing like their favourite hip-hop stars; First Nations children now cradle cell phones whether in Whitehorse, Deline or Aklavik. Traditional culture is coming under threat as a result. But so, too, is Northern culture finding a global audience, and the region's people are becoming less prone to being forgotten.

8) Women emerge from the shadow of men

If you've visited the North you've experienced female power. Far more women are in high-level jobs and government or leadership positions than other parts of Canada. Thank a small population base, but also a trend that picked up steam over the past decade: Northern women -- especially aboriginals -- emerging from the shadow of men. Somehow, they've better navigated cultural shifts and modern realities. Nunavut's Leona Aglukkaq put the North on the Canadian political map when she became the Minister of Health. And now, each of the territories has elected a female premier (Pat Duncan in the Yukon, Nellie Cornoyea in the NWT and now, Eva Ariak in Nunavut). And all this despite the fact that, in the North, women remain the predominant recipient of family violence -- from men.

9) New wealth, but same old model

During the fur trade and the gold rushes, things from the North went elsewhere -- including wealth. Over the past decade, diamonds have sparked a boom in the NWT, while increasing federal transfer payments to the Yukon and Nunavut have created a booming civil service. What's remained the same is the model: Wealth flows out, rather than staying put. The NWT still doesn't collect resource royalties on diamonds, and many of the mine workers fly in from elsewhere, losing the NWT income tax revenue. Meanwhile, bureaucrats across the North often come in from the south, serve short terms at grossly inflated pay, then leave. This continues to stunt homegrown private enterprise, which can't compete with several layers of cushy government employee incentives or create a culture geared towards work rather than entitlement.

10) Lack of change on education

Education is the future, right? Well, for the past decade, it has seemingly been staying put, with steps forward and backward. The bar continues to rise, yet compared with every other circumpolar nation -- Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the US -- Canada is the last without a bricks-and-mortar university North of 60. Result? As a region, the North's rates for high-school completion, literacy and university attainment are the lowest in the Western hemisphere (though high-school completion is on the rise in Nunavut, from once horrifyingly low levels). Yes, the University of the Arctic was founded in 2001, but do you know anyone going to it? Neither do we. There are some bright accomplishments, though: Nunavut's nursing program and its Akitsiraq Law School, which graduated 11 students in 2005, nine of which are now practicing lawyers.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.