The end has arrived...

So it is time for my blog to come to an end. Through researching for and writing my blog I feel I have gained a great deal of knowledge about the impacts facing communities in Northern Canada. I feel that I had a rather naïve view of the impacts that climate change was going to have on the communities when I began out with the blog. I hadn’t appreciated how the effects of climate changes are already affecting them now.

It’s difficult not to feel sorry for the communities, as they have contributed very little, if at all, to global carbon emissions, and yet it is they who have to deal with the first effects. It is extremely important that they get support from the Canadian Government and the rest of the global community. Whilst they have had to deal with changes before, nothing has been as dramatic as this. Not only that but all aspects of their life are likely to be affected, from resource harvesting to health issues to their homes and villages sinking into the ground. It must be difficult for them to voice their opinions and gain attention which is why I think initiatives such as Arctic Net will play a vital role in helping to overcome the challenges.

I hope that through my blog the challenges that the Canadian Northern Communities face has been highlighted. It mustn’t be forgotten that there are many other groups of communities throughout the world that will face equally harsh threats to their livelihood from climate change.

The most important thing that I have learnt is that change is happening and the sooner we can prepare for it, the better. 

Arctic Net

Whilst researching for my blog posts, I stumbled upon this interesting collaboration of scientists, Northern Canadian communities and government agencies who are all working together to develop and disseminate knowledge with regards to adaption strategies to deal with the impacts of climate change in the Arctic.

By the looks of it this partnership could have wide reaching effects for the Northern Canadian communities. I think that more of these partnerships will be necessary across the world to try and prepare communities for the effects that climate may bring.

Check out Arctic Net!

How money will be spent

Follow the link to see the Canadian governments own webpage detailing how they plan to spend $85.9 million over 4 years to help Canadian's increase their capacity for adaptation due to climate change.

Government Webpage

Government Policy

Canadian government policy will prove key to the people of Northern Canada. Whilst the majority of governments are focusing on reducing their greenhouse gases, for the Canadian government something else needs to be done as just reducing emissions ‘is misplaced for northern Canadian residents’ (Newton et al, 2005).

Budreau and McBean (2006) argue strongly for the government to adopt a proactive approach as opposed to a reactive one. They liken climate change in Northern Canada to the collapse of cod fisheries in Atlantic Canada and say that many lessons can be learnt from this disaster. They say that the collapse of the cod fisheries did not come as a surprise and the government knew that fish stocks were on the decline. They argue that if the government had taken a proactive approach then they could have initiated schemes to relieve the effects of the collapse decades before it had occurred.

As well as this, McMahon (1996) suggests that the large amounts of spending after the collapse of the cod fishery hindered the economic growth which followed because it prevented innovation. This leads to the thought that maybe the government shouldn’t just throw money at the problem and could first of all see how adaptive the communities of the North could be.

The government need to plan in order to form policys which will build adaptive capacity in the North. Budreau and McBean (2006) again argue that the government need to start this as soon as possible, as cultural change is slow. They therefore suggest that a multi-faceted approach needs to be taken in order to build the adaptive capacity for impacts due to climate change. 

References (not online)

McMahon (1996) Looking the gift horse in the mouth: The impact of federal transfers on Atlantic

Canada, Bounty Press: Halifax

An Inuit using GPS to find his way: climate change adaptation?

Film : Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change

A very interesting documentary made by Zacharias Kunuk and Dr. Ian Mauro. Although the documentary is long, it is definitely worth a watch. It is made up of interviews with elders and hunters of Inuit communities and their  knowledge and experiences of climate change. It is an extremely insightful documentary which has been filmed in the Inuit language Inuktitut and subtitled in English.

Adaptations - Start now

Canada’s Northern communities are particularly susceptible to climate change because of their high dependence on the environment. Many communities have begun making adaptations to their lifestyle and will need to continue doing this in the future. The adaptations that they have or will have to make are far reaching and are likely to impact many parts of their lives.

However, it isn’t just up to the communities to make the adaptations; it is also the obligation of their government and the rest of the international community to help those who are feeling the first effects of climate change.

Some of the changes that will need to be made are summarised in the paper by Ford et al.(2010). They are wide ranging and I have detailed them in the table below.

Factor	Adaptations
Land Skills	Preservation and enhancement of skills through education programmes. Changing the current attitudes of younger generations towards harvesting.
Wildlife Resources	Governments and Northern Communities to co’-manage the wildlife in order to reduce current and predicted conflict between communities and with the government.
Search and Rescue	Give support and technology to the communities so that they can enhance their search and rescue operations.
Infrastructure	Invest in engineering structures to protect existing infrastructure. Identify sites at particular risk and plan to avoid future development near at risk areas.
Harvesting	Develop support mechanisms and provide economic support to give the ability to purchase extra equipment.

I believe that it is very important to let the communities ‘help themselves’. By this I mean that whilst funds and technology should be available to them, nothing should be forced upon the communities.

It is important to remember that many of the Northern communities only recently went through huge social changes. In the twentieth century they have seen the imposition of the western government, the introduction of the waged economy, legal system, hunting regulations and compulsory schooling (Ford, 2009). All of these factors have led to ‘chronic problems’ (Ford, 2009) within many communities including a high suicide rate and substance abuse.

It is with these current problems that the communities have to make further changes and adaptations to their livelihoods. It is important to start now in order to mitigate as many effects of climate change as possible and because social and cultural change within these communities is likely to take some time.