How does the IPY research approach climate change as a factor affecting arctic communities?
One must look at climate change as one of several stressors affecting arctic communities. Climate change stresses the natural environment, which in turn stresses human societies, and social situations within those societies. The evidence of climate change is all around. The ice is retreating much faster and is behaving differently from what we originally thought. I would expect the impact of climate change to be greater on some communities as opposed to others, depending on sea and sea ice conditions as well as the marine mammals that are particularly sensitive to climate change. Climate change may also have a direct impact on transportation and infrastructure, as melting permafrost in particular is leading to soil erosion, which in turn damages roads and buildings. It’s the complicated coupling between humans and the environment that we are after in some of these projects. This is not easy to look at. The work that is currently being done looks at a multiple stressor situations for th
