While scientists and policymakers engage in seemingly endless debate over the complex effects of climate change, Native elders in the Arctic say they know all too well that such change is real. Weather in their regions is increasingly unpredictable, with more severe storms, Inuit elders said at a recent meeting on global warming in Kangiqsujuaq, Canada. Ice is thinning, making hunting more dangerous, and warmer temperatures have shifted animal migration patterns. The vast quantities of ice clogging the fabled Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific are melting at a high rate, making it possible that the Passage will be ice-free by 2050. These many changes in their environment are making traditional Inuit knowledge less reliable, elders say, and endangering traditional lifestyles and the ecosystem that has supported Arctic peoples for millennia.
Laval University of Canada and Environment Canada have conducted meetings with native leaders and research as part of the Northern Ecosystem Initiative. The substance of the discussions at Kangiqusujuaq is hardly a new development: Arctic residents have been warning of such changes for years.
Of great significance for traditional subsistence is the thinning of the ice. Diminishing icepack means shorter hunting seasons for seals and other marine mammals, and has significant effects on animal populations. Polar bears are particularly affected by thinning ice, since they too rely on extensive summer sea ice in order to hunt ringed seals. With less time to hunt, polar bears may return to land for the winter without enough fat reserves to survive. A recent WWF report pegged climate change as the gravest danger facing these
