For the Inuit people of the polar north, life has never
been easy. For thousands of years, the Inuit have adapted to, and thrived
in, a climate so harsh most of us would not survive more than a few
days. But global warming is changing the landscape on which the 45,000
Inuit depend for their survival. The loss of stable, year-round sea
ice is disrupting traditional seal-hunting and fishing practices on
which Inuit livelihoods depend. In the Arctic, by far the fastest-warming
place on Earth, rising air temperatures have already brought increasing
fog, snow and spring rain to the people who live around Greenland’s
habitable fringe. This in turn causes more melting of the ice cap,
which sends more freshwater into the ocean, disrupting currents and
bringing warm water to the bays. Consequentially more sea ice breaks
apart and seals and polar bears disappear.
In the Greenland village of Ilulissat, locals can’t use their sled
dogs to travel to other villages or to hunt the whales and seals
that used to get trapped in frozen bays.The worst fact about global
warming for the Inuit is that the weather has become too unpredictable.
Traditional hunting has become more difficult due to melting sea-ice
and changes in animal migration patterns. The snow no longer makes
strong igloos and hunters fall through ice in places where it has
always been safe to walk or use the dog-sled. Buildings and roads
crumble as permafrost melts beneath them and villages are losing
contact with one another because the ice that once served as roads
has turned to thick mud.
In Arctic Alert Greenland we hope to examine how the current conditions
are for the Inuit in Uummaannaq at 70 degrees north in the settlement
of Ikerask and in Illulissat. Even though 2008 was a good snow year,
the sea ice was only 40 cm thick compared to 1 meter 20 years ago.
Spring arrived in March instead of June making the sea ice too thin
to hunt.
Most Inuit men resort to fishing but halibut is now overfished.
The north of Greenland has become more windy and wild spells of temperature
swings. Through contacts with Inuit we plan to map these changes
and discuss the concerns and exchange this information on this website
and arcticalert.com and
arcticalert.nl |
