{"id":1409,"date":"2007-05-24T14:21:23","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T18:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=1409"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:56:20","slug":"climate-change-an-inuit-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/climate-change-an-inuit-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change: An Inuit Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<strong>UN Chronicle\r\n24\/05\/2007\r\nDuane Smith<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe United Nations Environment Programme characterizes the circumpolar Arctic as the\r\nworlds climate change barometer. The 160,000 Inuit who live in northern Canada,\r\nGreenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in Russia have for almost 20 years witnessed the\r\nnatural environment changing as a result of global warming. I want to tell you what we\r\nsee and what climate change means to us. It is important that you know, for what we see\r\nnow will happen to you, further South, in a few short years.\r\n\r\nI live in Inuvik, well above the Arctic Circle, on the Mackenzie river delta in Canadas\r\nNorthwest Territories. Like many Inuit, I seasonally hunt, fish and trap, but also work in\r\nan office. About 4,000 people live in Inuvikthe northern headquarters of oil and gas\r\ndevelopment in the Beaufort Sea region.\r\n\r\nThe circumpolar Arctic is not isolated any more. Globalization has reached the Arctic.\r\nThe South is hungry for our oil, gas and minerals. The US Geological Survey believes 25\r\npercent of the worlds remaining oil and gas is located up here. Exploration for oil and\r\ngas is proceeding quickly in many parts of the Arctic. Northern Canada is now the\r\nworlds third largest producer of gem diamonds. Great reserves of base and precious\r\nmetals and coal have been found in the North. In the last 40 or 50 years Inuit have\r\nadjusted to wholesale social, economic, and cultural change. But even as we adapt to\r\nglobalization, we are coming to realize that climate moderatation is likely to be the key\r\ndriver of socioeconomic and cultural change in years ahead.\r\n\r\nIn 1999 the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development and the\r\ncommunity of Sachs Harbour (about 125 people) on Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea\r\nregion made a video documenting local and regional environmental changes. Shown with\r\nconsiderable effect at the 2000 conference of parties to the climate change convention in\r\nThe Hague, hunters and elders spoke with quiet authority to a global audience. They\r\nspoke of commonplace and cumulative changes; melting permafrost resulting in beach\r\nslumping and lake erosions; increased snowfalls; longer sea-ice free seasons; emerging or\r\ninvasive new species of birds, fish and insects (barn owls, mallard and pin-tailed ducks\r\nand salmon) near the community; a decline in the lemming populationa basic food for\r\nArctic fox, a staple speciesand generally, a warming trend. That kerosene and fuel oil\r\nno longer resemble milk and jelly in mid-winter was the compelling indicator of climate\r\nchange offered by long-time resident Andy Carpenter. Not to mention the freezing rains\r\nwhich impacted the herbivores ability to forage throughout the winters.\r\n\r\nThese changes are not unique to my region. Similar changes are reported by Inuit in\r\nGreenland and Alaska, Saami in northern Norway, Aleut in the Aleutian Islands,\r\nAthabaskans and Gwichin in North America, and Nenets, Chukchi and many other\r\nIndigenous peoples in northern Russia. Our world is increasingly changing day-by-day\r\nand year-by-year. The traditional knowledge of how the world works, passed down from\r\ngeneration to generation, is less accurate than it was. As one elder from Alaska noted:\r\n\r\nthe earth is faster now. Climate change is not, to us, a theoretical, far-away problem for\r\nfuture generations to solve. In the Arctic, climate change is happening now and we are\r\nstruggling to adjust and adapt to its impacts.\r\n\r\nIn fact many communities are presently dealing with the dire need to relocate due to\r\nrising tides and surging storms that erode away our very history and shorelines.\r\nCommunities throughout my arctic are contending with vanishing historical sites, family\r\ngravesite erosions, community disruption and relocation. We Inuit, are as adaptable as\r\nothers, to some degree.\r\n\r\nOur observations helped to persuade the eight Arctic states to launch an Arctic Climate\r\nImpact Assessment in 2000. Involving more than 300 scientists from 15 countries aided\r\nby Arctic Indigenous peoples, the assessment was accepted by ministers in 2004,\r\npublished in 2005, and was the centrepiece of the 2005 conference of parties to the\r\nclimate change convention in Montreal. The ACIA significantly influenced the three\r\nSummaries for Policymakers issued in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate\r\nChange. The summaries on physical science, and impacts, effects and vulnerabilities\r\nsingled out the Arctic. 10 years ago hardly anyone talked about climate change in my part\r\nof the world. Now, climate change stories worldwide feature polar bears, seals and Inuit.\r\nScientists and politicians are beginning to read the Arctic barometers messagestormy\r\nweather ahead.\r\n\r\nThe ACIA is almost 1,000 pages long and makes sober reading. A key conclusion in the\r\nACIA is the projected thawing and disappearance by the mid to end of the century of\r\nmulti-year sea ice in summer. The Arctic Ocean will then be like North Americas Great\r\nLakesfreezing in winter (to some degree), thawing in summer. Since the ACIA was\r\ncompleted, science suggests that this may be the situation by 2040 or even earlier.\r\n\r\nLet me focus on two of the many implications suggested by the ACIA of a summer sea\r\nice-free Arctic. First, marine mammals including polar bears, walrus, and species of seals\r\nincluding species of marine birds that rely upon sea ice as habitat, face potential\r\nextinction. The Inuit culture and relationship is uniquely related to the arctic\r\necosystem, and what happens to the species directly affects our fortitude. Article two of\r\nthe1992 climate change convention aims to prevent dangerous climate change in order\r\nto ensure that food production is not threatened. Well, it already is, here in the Arctic.\r\n\r\nThe Arctic Council is presently working on 2020 and 2050 ice conditions scenarios.\r\nSecond, far easier access, particularly by sea, will be available to the Arctics minerals\r\nand hydrocarbons, many of which are located offshore. A significant increase in general\r\ncargo transits through the Northwest or Northeast passages or even the Arctic Ocean is\r\nalso projected. In short, climate change will promote and accelerate industrial\r\ndevelopment in a unique, fragile and vulnerable region of the globe. It is not far-fetched\r\nto foresee shipping in the Arctic linking Europe, Asia and the western and eastern\r\nseaboards of North America, cutting thousands of kilometres off global sea routes, which\r\nfurther impact on our sensitive region.\r\n\r\nThe circumpolar Arctic may well become a region of considerable geopolitical and\r\nstrategic importance. Some authors have predicted mass population movements as a\r\nresult of climate change. This may be plausible in tropical and temperate regions, but it\r\nremains highly unlikely in the Arctic. Nevertheless how will the regions Indigenous\r\npeoplespermanent inhabitants of the Arcticfare in a future moulded by global\r\nclimate change? Firm answers are not possible to this difficult and complicated question,\r\nbut adaptation on a huge scale will be needed, yet this also brings risks. The culture of\r\nInuit and other Arctic Indigenous peoples is based on a relationship with the land,\r\nenvironment and animals.\r\n\r\nWholesale adaptation to an industrial future may be tantamount to assimilation\r\nsomething that Indigenous peoples worldwide seek to avoid, which only cumulates the\r\nissue.\r\n\r\nHow and how well adaptation is carried out will likely reflect the relationship between\r\nArctic Indigenous peoples and the national governments of the states in which they\r\nreside. But whatever the future holds, Inuit and all Arctic Indigenous peoples will press\r\nthe global community to reduce emission of greenhouse gases that are the root cause of\r\nthe impacts we are experiencing throughout the circumpolar arctic and the foreseen areas.\r\n\r\nA resident of Inuvik in Canadas Northwest Territories, Duane Smith is a former Co-\r\nChair of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Arctic Specialist group Sustainable Use\r\nInitiative and is the current President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-38","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515288,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions\/987515288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}