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Impact of Environmental Change on Livelihood in Greenland

  • Dogsledding over sea ice is becoming more complicated
  • Icesheet melt in Greenland
  • This mode of transport is being replaced by snowmobiles.
  • Sea ice conditions are becoming more unstable.
  • Communications projects are documenting annual changes
  • UNEP Year Book 2013 - Arctic
  • Photographing in Greenland

Skills

  • Data collection
  • interviews
  • filming
  • photography
  • dogsledding
  • climate change

Fieldwork in west Greenland for various Arctic communications projects. Partner with Uummannaq Polar Institute and University of the Arctic.

The Arctic has been warming at least twice as fast as the global average (ACIA 2005). One reason is that more heat is brought into the Arctic through the atmosphere and with ocean currents. Several local factors are also increasing warming by changing the region’s energy balance.

The loss of ice in Greenland and the shrinking of glaciers in other parts of the Arctic currently contribute up to 40 per cent of the average 3 mm of global sea level rise per year (AMAP 2011a).

The warming environment also presents challenges to local communities such as the Inuit. Dogsledding, hunting and fishing are important means of survival for some small communities, will be changed with increasing temperatures. The reduction of sea ice will cause certain species populations to decline or even become extinct.

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