Inuit in Labrador are Fighting Climate Change on Thinning Ice

Inuit in Labrador are Fighting Climate Change on Thinning Ice

Ron Webb measures the thickness of a crucial ice highway in Nunatsiavut, northeastern Newfoundland and Labrador sprawling, self-governing Inuit region, on a 17-below morning in late March.

Sea ice stretches across this remote part of the Atlantic Ocean, blanketed with snow and dotted with dark islands and coastlines in this remote region.

A hole is drilled, ice is measured with a yardstick, and Mr. Webb logs his findings in a notebook. The exercise is repeated weekly from winter freeze-up to spring thaw.

The 67-year-old has kept ice logbooks for decades, recording a decline in sea ice. Then Mr. Webb says, with a heavy voice, “Every measurement reminds us what we’re losing.”

Canada’s far north sea ice is weakening alarmingly due to climate change, as illustrated in today’s log.

Environmental changes define Labrador Inuit seasons. In mid-November, ukiak marks Fall, and upinngak marks Spring. Currently, it spans only two months.

Weaker sea ice limits access to essential goods and services to fly-in communities, and limits traditions such as hunting and fishing on the ice and travelling off-grid.

In addition to social and cultural effects, less time on the ice equals less knowledge of local language.

A Labrador Inuit community with a population of 1,200, Nain, has more than 40 Inuttitut terms associated with sea ice.

In contrast to traditional Inuit practices, in which bearers used harpoons to gauge sea ice for safety, they are now using measuring sticks, sensors, satellite imagery, and weather stations.

Blending traditional knowledge and contemporary approaches is vital for adjusting to a world in flux.

Since their nomadic lifestyles began five millennia ago, and resettlement by government, churches, and trade interests in the last century, we have adapted.

The Labrador Inuit community is taking action to address unprecedented climate shifts disproportionately affecting its coastlines.

Adaptation is the only option. Mr. Webb says we need to do things differently.

Over the past two decades, Nunatsiavut’s sea ice has consistently weakened. In the Arctic ocean, warmer waters from the Atlantic are speeding up sea ice melt from an influx of warm Atlantic waters called “Atlantification”.

There is a four-fold increase in warming here. Inuk oceanographer Eric Oliver from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut’s southernmost community, explains this is Arctic amplification.

It takes weather radar systems to forecast short-term severe weather like thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, and extreme rain and ice storms over two-thirds of Canada’s landmass.

Almost all remote communities are included. The majority of the fly-in communities are indigenous, says Robert Way, an Inuit and settler environmental change expert at Queen’s University.

Air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and precipitation are available from ground-based weather stations operated by ECCC in some northern communities.

Weather coverage is not available to others. Those communities are served by Mr. Way’s team by installing and maintaining community-led weather stations.Several stations are deployed outside Nunatsiavut, including Postville and Rigolet.

The sea ice that’s strong enough to walk on, known as Sikuliak, remains over a month away, Mr. Webb says in late November from his home in Nain.

This year’s ice supply will be delayed once again, he says, due to “too warm weather.”

It’s Inuit’s seamless integration of their heritage with modern approaches that will endure, says Mr. Webb.

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