The Arctic Messenger - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 11

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2 The Arctic Messenger
More dangerous is my whisper than the roar of a hundred men …
Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, “Harsh Words Spoken” from Footsteps From Another World
The phrase “Arctic Messenger” is taken from a conference held in Copenhagen in May
2011 and organised by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the
UniversityofCopenhagenandAarhusUniversity.In this topic,IimaginetheArcticMessen-
ger as a living entity - a harbinger that possesses omnipotent consciousness. It is of enorm-
ous age and experience, akin to the Sumerian Utnapishtim or the biblical Methuselah. Our
messenger is able to tell us about its (the Arctic's) well-being and to warn us that in the past,
the global ecosystem has always been astonishingly sensitive to geophysical changes in the
Arctic.
This chapter takes a quick look at the breadth of environmental issues that are eroding
the Arctic that was and the Arctic that is now. It is therefore an introduction to the Arctic
Messenger and a rough summary of what is to come in later pages. I hope it will tempt you
to read on.
About 10-13 million people live in the entire Arctic region. Between 1.5 million (Arc-
tic Council Indigenous Peoples Secretariat) and 0.4 million (United Nations Permanent For-
um on Indigenous Issues) are indigenous. 1 The Arctic environment is their home, their
source of food and the foundation of their culture and spirituality. It is part of an extended
soul that binds atavistically through their ancestors into the deep past and outwards into the
living world. It is a psyche that outsiders can admire and respect but never acquire. Arctic