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.