Climate Change in the Arctic - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 302

ganisations brought their own environmental observations related to change into the ACIA
assessment. Thisnotonlyincreased thegeographic scopeofindigenousobservations ofen-
vironmental change reported through Krupnik and Jolly but also added new Arctic ecosys-
tems (such as the lands of the Sami). It is remarkable how much convergence there is in the
observations of indigenous peoples separated by thousands of kilometres and occupying
very different habitats. Third, you will quickly notice that indigenous observations of Arc-
tic change and those of the formal scientific studies rather resemble two people taking two
different roads but who nevertheless arrive at the same place, particularly with respect to
the observation of ecosystem change. Finally, you will find yourself developing a sense of
pathos that is gripping and depressing. As the title from Krupnik and Jolly implies, modern
indigenous people find themselves living in a physical and biological environment that dif-
fers from that described by the cumulative knowledge passed on by their ancestors. Their
world has changed so much in their lifetime that they have, for example, even lost confid-
ence in their ability to predict the weather. This is a fundamental failing for someone many
kilometres from home in the Arctic.
What it really means is that the basic parameters that define what is understood as the
Arctic ecosystem are becoming invalid for a region that is warming at twice the rate of the
global average. As we look to the North, are we watching the initial stages of the collapse
of the Arctic ecosystem that has existed for the past several thousand years - something
that a climate scientist would call a regime change? We will return to this question later.
The following section is a summary of some observations drawn from indigenous
knowledge and formal science on how the Arctic ecosystem is reacting to Arctic warming.
Before going further in this chapter, please take a good look at Figure 10.11 , provided by
Dáithí Stone. Any ecosystem is defined by the connections between its various compon-
ents.Ecosystems thathavedeveloped underphysical conditions thatarechallenging tobio-
logical processes (such as the Arctic) tend to be simple and much less resilient to changes
in any of their components than ecosystems that enjoy more friendly conditions (such as
temperate woodland). The figure provides a simplified view of the cascade of changes that
are being observed today in the Arctic ecosystem and that are attributed to climate change.