| Climate Change The impacts of change Evidence of climate change is being seen right now in indigenous communities in the Arctic. Some people outside of the Arctic assume that climate change would be a good thing for Arctic peoples, if it means that the weather will get warmer. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case. Arctic peoples are well adapted to their environment, and to using the plants and animals that are adapted to the cold northern weather. As the weather gets warmer, people, plants and animals are becoming stressed. Saami are seeing their reindeer grazing pastures change, Inuit are watching polar bears waste away because of a lack of sea ice, and peoples across the Arctic are reporting new species, particularly insects. Some communities are having to sand-bag their shorelines to try to slow down an increase in coastal erosion, while in others, buildings, pipes, and roads are slumping because the permafrost is thawing. Vital travel routes linking communities to each other and to harvesting sites are becoming dangerously unpredictable. Routes across the ice become dangerous when the ice thins, or thaws at times different from the past, and water routes can also become dangerous as water flows change. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment An attempt is currently being made to gather all of the information on climate change in the Arctic, and to predict future changes. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), a project of the Arctic Council and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) started in 2000 and is to be completed by the fall of 2004. It has 17 chapters, which describe the effects of climate change and increased radiation from the sun. Each chapter is being written by one or more “lead authors” and a variety of “contributing authors,” making them a collection of the opinions and expertise of many different people from around the Arctic, including indigenous peoples. The different chapters look at the likely changes from many perspectives. For instance, there is a chapter on the effects of the changes on forestry and agriculture. There is also a chapter on indigenous knowledge of and experience with climate change. The ACIA is expected to not just describe changes, but also to recommend to governments and northern peoples steps that could be taken to reduce the amount of change, and the negative impacts of change. For more information on the ACIA, click here The Pace of Change The climate is expected to change at least partly as a result of the gases that activities by people are putting into the air. Carbon dioxide, much of which is produced by burning fuel, is one of the most important gases in changing the climate. Much of the change in the Arctic is expected to be felt in warmer temperatures, and changes in the amount of rain and snow that fall in different places. The change is not expected to be the same across all of the Arctic. Warming trends seem to be strongest in central Russia, Alaska and western Canada, while some other parts of the Arctic may actually be cooling. Weather systems are complicated. When one part of the Arctic gets warmer, it can change the strength and direction of wind and water currents, and make other parts of the Arctic get colder. There are also some natural changes in the climate that occur over the course of several years. When you put these natural changes together with the changes expected to be caused by the extra gases in the air, it makes it even harder to predict what will happen. The expected changes in the strength of some ocean current leads some people to believe that Northwestern Europe, which is home to the Saami, will become cooler. Warmer ocean currents flow past the coastline at present making the area much warmer than other parts of the Arctic that are that far north. Scientists predict that the Arctic could warm by as much as three degrees in the next 80 years. That may not sound like much, but it is enough to cause enormous changes. The potential loss of sea ice is particularly worrisome to coastal peoples, as this would change the environment completely. For instance, many species of seal (a staple food of some Arctic peoples) would probably die out without ice, as it provides a place to give birth and to rest. The Arctic is expected to feel the effects of climate change more than other regions of the earth. There are several reasons for this, including a thinner Arctic atmosphere, and an increase in the heat that the land and sea can absorb when they are not covered by snow and ice for so long. The warming of the Arctic may speed up warming across the world, because some gases that contribute to warming are currently frozen in the Arctic. If the Arctic warms up, these gases will be freed. A change in the arctic climate will also affect the climate in the rest of the world, because a lot of the world’s climate processes (wind and water currents) are driven by the difference in temperature between the Arctic and hotter parts of the world. If there is less difference between those temperatures, the winds and waters may change direction, or slow down. What Arctic Indigenous Peoples are doing About Climate Change The indigenous peoples represented at the Arctic Council are taking an active part in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. They are also taking steps to make sure that people outside of the Arctic know about the serious impacts of climate change. The indigenous peoples are also urging governments to take the steps necessary to attempt to slow the pace of climate change. |
| Links: AMAP homepage |