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. 

Past Adaptations

I was hoping that in this blog post I could discuss at length the adaptations that had been made by Northern Communities in the past, particularly during the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. However, there seems to be very limited literature discussing the adaptations that the population must have made.

The Medieval Warm Period is generally agreed to have occurred between 1000-1300 A.D. During this period in history, when the temperature was up to 2C above average, it is said that wine-making grapes were grown in England and the Scandinavian tree line was up to 100-200m higher than today (Crowley and Lowry, 2000). This was closely followed by the Little Ice Age from 16^th – mid 19^th Century, with a drop of temperature by 0.6C (Mann, 2002) .

Both of these time periods are of specific interest to me, in order to understand the adaptations that must have taken place in the communities of Northern Canada.

The Dorset Culture lived in the Canadian Arctic until 1500 A.D. when they essentially became extinct. It is said that they had trouble adapting to the temperature of the Medieval Warm Period and that they were driven out by the Thule.

The warming period reduced the annual extent of sea ice across central and eastern parts of the Canadian Arctic (Wenzel, 2009). This created a larger space of open water which then allowed for the arrival of bowhead and presumably other whales (Wenzel, 2009). The Thule culture, who originated from Alaska then followed their main food resource across into Canada. The Thule culture quickly displaced the Dorset Culture. The reasons for the demise of the Dorset Culture is unclear, however it is thought that they were unable to adapt to changes in wildlife and climate (Rigby). The Dorset culture are still the subject of popular folklore tales told by Inuit today (Rigby).

However, it is interesting to look at the adaptations of the Thule culture. They arrived in the ‘warm period’ and as the climate transitioned into the Little Ice Age, the Thule culture had to adapt their whole way of life. I’ve summarized the changes that occurred and the adaptations that they had to make.

During Medieval Warm Period	During Little Ice Age
Whalebone and boulder dwellings	Igloos
Large Thule villages	Smaller, extended family encampments of 20 or so people
Winter food security – harvesting 20 – 30 tonne whales	Hunting of smaller, prey species e.g. caribou, seals and Arctic char
Whale blubber for fuel and bone for hunting	Some whale blubber but from smaller whales
Fairly sedentary lifestyle	Less sedentary lifestyle – the resources they relied upon were smaller, highly mobile and seasonally restricted

(Wenzel, 2009)

The climate transition that the Thule culture went through demonstrated their ability to adapt. The modern day Inuit people descend directly from the Thule and they have already begun to demonstrate their adaptive capacity. The Dorset culture were unable to adapt to changes and this saw the eventual extinction of their population.

Nice little quiz about permafrost!

Follow this link!

An interesting diagram to explain permafrost melting

Taken from NSF

Melting Permafrost

Permafrost is ground which is frozen and remains below 0C for two years or more. It can be classified into three groups:

-          Continuous permafrost: underlying 90-100% of the landscape

-          Discontinuous permafrost: 50-90%

-          Sporadic permafrost: 0-50%

It underlies up to 25% of the Northern Hemisphere and the map below (taken from International Permafrost Association) shows where it can be found.

Recent changes in temperature due to global warming have meant that melting of permafrost has begun. In the Northern communities this has had a great impact, particularly on transport and infrastructure.

When permafrost begins to melt it does so from the top- down. The active layer (the layer which isn’t frozen at the top) becomes larger. This thickening of the active layer causes previously frozen plant material to decompose and release CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. Secondly, the ice in the upper part of the permafrost becomes water leading to the ground surface subsiding (US Arctic Research, 2003). When this happens in or next to a human settlement, structural integrity of buildings, roads and pipelines are threatened.

This is the problem currently being faced by many communities in the North of Canada. The Arctic town of Salluit is considering relocating to escape the melting permafrost. Their newly built fire-station has sunk into the ground only a year after its completion. The roads and foundations of buildings have begun crumbling (The Canadian Press, 2010) 

“Sara Brown, director of community operational support with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, says the costs to upgrade and fix buildings in Canada's North could range from $250 million to $420 million.” (CBC News, 2011) 

In an attempt to combat the problem The Canadian Standards Association has published guidelines for infrastructure design in permafrost regions. 

Direct and Indirect Health Impacts

Whilst research conducted on the health impacts of climate change in Northern Canadian communities is very limited and often still in the early stages, the research that has been done suggests wide and varying negative impacts.

Much of the research that has been undertaken has been done by talking to the communities and they have highlighted a range of health issues that they believe have been caused or worsened by climate change.

In the table below I have listed some of the most significant impacts:

Climate Change	Health Impact
Reduction in ozone layer	Increased UV exposure leading to higher risk of cancers and burns
Changes in ice	More accidents whilst hunting
Increasing incidences of storms and extreme weather events	More accidents
Increased air pollution	More respiratory illnesses especially in older people
Melting of permafrost	Higher risks of accident from collapsing buildings
Increased temperature extremes	More deaths because of extreme temperatures

Again, the capacity for the communities to cope and adapt to the changes is extremely important. However, when it comes to health effects, the communities are less likely to be able to adapt without help and advice from outside their communities.

References:
Furgal and Seguin (2006)

Ebi and McGregor (2008)

Taken from Cartoon Movement

Renewable Resource Harvesting

With climate change comes many threats to the Northern Communities of Canada. A significant threat is to the harvesting of renewable resources. Country food is locally derived plants, animals and fish which have been harvested from the land (Donaldson et al. 2010). It is suggested that as well as its nutrition benefits, the harvesting and consumption of country food is linked to a more active lifestyle and participation in cultural activities (Receveur and Kunhlein 2000). Much of a community identity and tradition comes from the hunting, collection and sharing of food.

Ford et al. (2008) look at some of the effects of climate change which I will summarise here. Climate change has caused changes to the weather and its predictability. Hunting can be very dangerous and needs to be done under the correct weather conditions. The elders of the communities are finding it ever more difficult to predict the weather conditions and their predictions are becoming increasingly wrong. This means that hunters often have to spend more nights in the wilderness waiting for the correct conditions before they can continue their hunting. Alongside this, the increases in weather extremes are meaning that hunters are often unprepared for weather events.

Whilst the change in predictability is often delaying hunting, some weather changes are preventing hunting all together at certain times of the year. Changes in strength, frequency and direction of winds mean that some summer hunting grounds which are reached by boat can’t be accessed as frequently as before. Sea ice isn’t being formed until later in the year which is preventing access to some hunting grounds until the sea ice has formed. Changes in the snow fall, with more snow falling on ice, makes it more dangerous for hunters as thin ice is more difficult to spot when covered in snow meaning that there are increasing incidences of hunters falling through the ice.

Alongside the climate change impacts, there has been a decline in traditional hunting skills. This is due in part to compulsory schooling and sedentarisation which mean that the young in the community are unable to learn the skills they need to be hunters. This lack of knowledge means that hunting has become more dangerous, and this coupled with the climate change means that it is likely to get even more dangerous in the future.

It is therefore likely, that if there is a decline in the collection, hunting and consumption of country food that there will be a decline in health and community participation. It may be possible that the impacts to renewable resource harvesting may be alleviated through the use of technology such as weather forecasting and GPS and this will be discussed in a later blog. 

Melting Ice...

(this photo was taken from this blog Foreign Policy Blogs)

Melting Homes?

Over 40% of Canada’s landmass is in the Arctic and is home to more than 100,000 Canadians. The Northern region of Canada is made up of three territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavat. The map below shows the populations of these areas.

(Taken from UNEP )

Through my blog I hope to highlight some of the issues of climate change that are affecting the Northern regions of Canada. I aim to discuss the effects on renewable resource harvesting, health impacts of climate change and the effects of permafrost melting. I will also look at evidence for historical populations and how they may have adapted in the past,  in particular during the Medieval Warm Period. I will then discuss the potential for adaptation within the Canadian Arctic populations and how the use of technology may be key. Finally, I will take a look at the Government Policy and the steps that they are taking to help these populations.

In order to begin my blog, I have posted a short video which briefly outlines some of the problems affecting the Northern Communities of Canada. 

VIDEO: Eyewitness to Change