The Circle FACING the FUTURE 4.2019
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MARINE SUBSISTENCE PROTECTED LIVING IN A CHANGING MAGAZINE AREAS LANDSCAPE No. 4 19 22 THE 2019 CIRCLE PUBLISHED BY THE WWF ARCTIC PROGRAMME RESILIENCE IN THE ARCTIC: FACING THE FUTURE RESILIENCE IN THE ARCTIC: The Circle FACING THE FUTURE 4.2019 Contents • EDITORIAL Time to act: Creating the path to a more resilient Arctic 3 • IN BRIEF 4 • MARCUS CARSON How resilient are Arctic communities—and how do we know? 6 • ERANGA GALAPPATHTHI Climate change and community fisheries in the Arctic 8 • INTERVIEW: BENJAMIN VIDMAR Bringing a little “green” to Longyearbyen all year-round 10 • INTERVIEW: JOHN ROFF The case for creating networks of marine protected areas 13 • DAVIN HOLEN A changing way of life: Climate crisis and subsistence economies in Alaska 16 • PHOTO ESSAY: What does resilience mean for a community under constant threat? 18 • GARY KOFINAS In search of climate resilient pathways for the Arctic 26 • THE PICTURE 28 The Circle is published Publisher: Editor-in-chief: COVER: Eben W. Hopson walks quarterly by the WWF WWF Arctic Programme Leanne Clare, [email protected] along a pile of sand bags meant to Arctic Programme. 8th floor, 275 Slater St., Ottawa, stop shoreline erosion in Utqiaġvik, Reproduction and quotation ON, Canada K1P 5H9. Managing editors: Alaska, United States. with appropriate credit are Tel: +1 613-232-8706 Sarah MacFadyen, [email protected] Photo: © Chris Linder/WWF-US encouraged. Articles by Fax: +1 613-232-4181 Patti Ryan, [email protected] non-affiliated sources do not necessarily reflect the Internet: www.panda.org/arctic Design and production: ABOVE: Greenhouse in Longyear- views or policies of WWF. Film & Form/Ketill Berger, [email protected] byen, Svalbard, Norway. ISSN 2073-980X = The Circle Send email address changes Photo: Francisco Mattos and subscription inquiries Printed by Banks Printing Inc. to [email protected]. Date of publication: We reserve the right to edit December 2019. Thank letters for publication, and assume no responsibility for you for your interest unsolicited material. in The Circle. You can find current and past issues of The Circle on our website at arcticwwf.org. To receive an 2 The Circle 4.2019 e-subscription to this magazine, please write to us at [email protected] or subscribe through our website. EDITORIAL Time to act: Creating the path to a more resilient Arctic THIS FALL, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel Aside from this global agreement, there is no single on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Special Report navigator at the helm charting resilient pathways for the on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. Arctic. The report finds that instead, Arctic resilience The IPCC is the most authoritative global organisation can and must be strengthened—urgently—by fortifying for assessing climate change science. Its report paints the many ecosystems and societies (and their interac- an extremely concerning picture of the status and future tions) that make up the living Arctic. As a result, tools of our oceans and cryosphere and of the impacts of the and practices that embrace and act upon such a systems climate crisis for ecosystems and people. Impacts are approach—and that support ecosystems and biodiversity, already evident, and will worsen under all possible emis- sustain ecosystem services, strengthen cooperation and sion scenarios, with some projected to be irreversible on empower participation—are at the heart of resilience the time-scale of centuries in a high-emissions future. strategies. Considering that the ocean and cryosphere (compris- While we are beginning to understand where and how ing ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, freshwater ice, snow and to engage to strengthen resilience, bringing forward such permanently frozen ground) together cover more than 90 an agenda is not a straightforward exer- per cent of the Earth’s surface, this assessment has huge cise. Our institutions are not equipped global significance, and reaches a sobering conclusion: to consider all available knowledge or “All people on Earth depend directly govern in the inte- or indirectly on the ocean and cryo- grated fashion and sphere.” Highlighting to people around Only if we limit the global at the speed needed the world the need for urgency in to respond to rapid, choosing the future we want, the report temperature increase to pervasive change. We concludes: “This assessment reveals 2°C or less will substantial need information about the benefits of ambitious mitigation the status, trends and MARTIN SOMMERKORN and effective adaptation for sustainable portions of the Arctic as futures of physical, is Head of Conserva- development and, conversely, the esca- we know it remain by the ecological and social tion for the WWF Arctic lating costs and risks of delayed action. systems to support Programme. The potential to chart Climate Resilient end of this century. decisions that bal- Development Pathways […] depends on ance short-term risks and long-term transformative change.” resilience—but this information is often not available. But how do we “chart Climate Resilient Development Tools and practices that broaden participation and allow Pathways” for the Arctic? informed decisions are available, but are rarely linked to One thing is clear: Arctic resilience depends heavily on policy processes. Dedicated funding and capacity, includ- urgent and ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emis- ing at the local scale, are needed but lacking. sions. The report makes it crystal clear that only if we As the impacts of climate change mount in the Arctic, limit the global temperature increase to 2°C or less will the urgency to respond and build resilience cannot be substantial portions of the Arctic as we know it remain overstated. Governments must act urgently to prioritise, by the end of this century. (Ice, snow, permafrost and the initiate and fund an agenda focused on strengthening ecosystems and cultures shaped by them may still exist, resilience, and must coordinate and implement or incen- though at much smaller scales.) tivise it across institutions throughout the region. While some Arctic countries are beginning to act on Such a comprehensive, integrated approach would their “common but differentiated responsibilities” under bring about the opportunities linked to Climate Resilient the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Cli- Development Pathways in the Arctic while addressing mate Change, overall, current commitments to the Paris climate change risks. This issue of The Circle presents a Agreement are dangerously insufficient to ensure the collection of views on how to move the agenda forward. survival and resilience of Arctic ecosystems and peoples. The time to act is now. l The Circle 4.2019 3 IN BRIEF The RV Polarstern off the coast of Greenland, August 2016 INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH Icebreaker on year-long Arctic expedition HUNDREDS OF SCIENTISTS tory for the Study of Arctic had settled next to an ice to better understand how from 17 countries will Climate (MOSAiC), the floe on the Siberian side of climate change is affecting spend parts of this winter expedition is the largest the ocean basin. The first the Arctic—and, in turn, aboard a ship stranded in Arctic research project group of scientists will the rest of the planet. Arctic sea ice—all with the ever undertaken, and was continue to drift across For more information goal of getting a close-up a decade in the planning. the pole, working for two about the project and to look at how the climate It kicked off in Septem- months at a time before track the RV Polarstern’s crisis is affecting the Arctic ber when the ship, RV passing the baton on to movement across the environment. Polarstern, left Tromsø, the next group. They hope North Pole or read blog Known as the Multidis- Norway. to collect data about the entries, start at the ciplinary drifting Observa- By late October, the ship water, ice, air and wildlife MOSAiC website. Photo: Nat Wilson, CC, flickr.com GREENLAND Extreme snowfalls caused ecosystem collapse, report finds MANY ARCTIC ECOSYSTEMS summer 2018, even the most ally heavy winter left snow swing between extremes—the are able to bounce back from resilient ecosystems have covering the ground well into summer of 2019 in Zack- substantial annual fluctua- limits. summer. As a result, most enberg was earlier, hotter tions in temperature, snow According to a study plants and animals could not and drier than usual—bad cover and other climate published in October 2019 in reproduce. breeding years could follow variables. But as researchers PLOS Biology, an ecosystem- One bad year does not in succession and push many at the Zackenberg Research wide reproductive collapse necessarily mean the end of Arctic species beyond their Station in northeastern seems to have occurred in the plant and animal life for an limits. Greenland discovered in area in 2018 after an unusu- area. However, if conditions 4 The Circle 4.2019 WHALES Estimating the value of a whale Protecting the Earth The value of the global The whale- fishing industry is estimated watching industry at over US billion. is estimated to be Whales contribute to the food worth more than by protecting whales web chain and increased fish US billion stocks. globally. INTERNATIONAL Monetary zon forests’ worth of trees, Fund (IMF) researchers or about 1.7 trillion. estimate that whales are Researchers arrived at the worth US$2 million each US$2 million figure—which to the planet because of they call conservative—by their tremendous ability to calculating the value of the sequester carbon. carbon sequestered by a Whales enhance phytoplankton productivity. Phytoplankton captures In the December issue great whale over its lifetime billion tons of CO2 per year. of the IMF’s magazine, (based on estimates of the Finance & Development, amount whales contribute to a group of researchers carbon sequestration and the report that whales’ bodies market price of CO2), then can sequester 33 tons of factoring in today’s value CO2 on average over their of whales’ other economic lifetimes—and every time contributions, such as fishery a whale dies and sinks enhancement and ecotour- to the ocean floor, that ism, over their lifetimes.