THE 2019 SPEAKING THE ARCTIC COUNCIL WORDS “CLIMATE CONSERVATION CHANGE”: A SAAMI SCORECARD PERSPECTIVE MAGAINE No. 2 6 9 THE 2019 CIRCLE PUBLISHED BY THE WWF ARCTIC PROGRAMME ✦ Rising sea levels ✦ Industrial development ✦ Plastic pollution ✦ Alternative energy sources ✦ Human/wildlife conflict THE ARCTIC CHECK-UP THE ARCTIC CHECK-UP The Circle 2.2019 Contents • EDITORIAL Working together toward a sustainable Arctic 3 • IN BRIEF 4 • INTERVIEW: ARNE RIEDEL The 2019 Arctic Council Conservation Scorecard 6 • INTERVIEW: ÅSA LARSSON BLIND Why we must speak the words “climate change”: A Saami perspective 9 • NICK GOLLEDGE Fast-forward to the past: What can ice core records of a warmer Earth tell us about the Arctic’s future? 10 • FEMKE HILDERINK and GERT POLET Polar bear in the backyard! 13 • ANDRÉS CÓZAR Migrating plastics: Even the Arctic is not immune 16 • DAVE APLIN The Pebble prospect: the wrong place and the wrong mine 19 • INTERVIEW: MARTHA LENIO Making the move to green energy in Nunavut 22 • The picture 24 The Circle is published Publisher: Editor-in-chief: COVER ILLUSTRATION: quarterly by the WWF Arctic WWF Arctic Programme Leanne Clare, [email protected] Ketill Berger, filmform.no. Programme. Reproduction 8th floor, 275 Slater St., Ottawa, and quotation with appropri- ON, Canada K1P 5H9. Managing editors: ABOVE: Meltwater in southern ate credit are encouraged. Tel: +1 613-232-8706 Sarah MacFadyen, [email protected] Articles by non-affiliated Fax: +1 613-232-4181 Patti Ryan, [email protected] Greenland crevasse. sources do not necessarily Photo: NASA/John Sonntag reflect the views or policies Internet: www.panda.org/arctic Design and production: of WWF. Send change of Film & Form/Ketill Berger, [email protected] address and subscription ISSN 2073-980X = The Circle queries to the address on the Printed by Lowe-Martin right. We reserve the right Date of publication: to edit letters for publication, May 2019. Thank you and assume no responsibility for unsolicited material. for your interest in The Circle. Many of our subscribers have moved to an e-version. To receive an electronic copy in your email instead of a paper 2 The Circle 2.2019 copy, please write to us at [email protected] and help us reduce our costs and footprint. EDITORIAL Working together toward a sustainable Arctic WHAT HAPPENS in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. Indigenous Peoples. Striking the right balance between This fact has become more apparent in recent years environmental protection, economic growth and social as glaciers retreat and sea levels rise all over the world. development is essential. To that end, Iceland will strive At the same time, the Arctic is becoming increasingly to lead continued cooperation on economic development, accessible, a situation that brings both challenges and gender equality, connectivity, green energy solutions and opportunities. International interest in the region is resilience. growing; multilateral, political and academic attention is Healthy oceans are vital to global sustainable develop- increasingly focused on the Arctic; business interest is on ment. Among other goals, Iceland will work toward the rise. strengthening Arctic Council cooperation It is against this backdrop that Iceland is taking over on mitigating plastic pollution in the from Finland as chair of the Arctic Council. The guiding oceans. We have also proposed a project principle of Iceland’s chairmanship will focusing on the Blue be sustainability, with equal focus on Bioeconomy and Arctic each of its three pillars: social, environ- Iceland will strive region. Our hope is that mental and economic. to lead continued by applying innovation Golli. Photo: Icelandic MFA, GUDLAUGUR THÓR Temperatures in the Arctic are now and the sustainable cooperation on economic THÓRDARSON is rising at more than twice the average methodology of the Iceland’s Minister for global rate. Moreover, Arctic warming development, gender Blue Bioeconomy, Foreign Affairs and trends are expected to continue toward we can dramatically incoming chairman of equality, connectivity, the Arctic Council. mid-century, while trends after 2050 green energy solutions increase the use and are likely to depend on the mitigating market value of fish catches while actions we take today. Dealing with and resilience. significantly reducing biowaste from the repercussions of climate change is fish-processing operations. a global challenge, and the only way forward is to limit Working closely with all partners inside and outside greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Ocean acidification the Arctic region is of utmost importance for the area’s and melting sea ice put the entire marine ecosystem at prosperity and security. The conflictive dynamics that risk. Adaptation will be challenging for most communi- may result from opening up the Arctic—such as how ties in the North in the decades to come. to address climate change, how to manage access to The future of the Arctic must include environmental renewable and non-renewable natural resources, and protection as well as economic prosperity and the social how to respond to increased marine traffic—make the well-being of the four million people who live and Arctic Council’s contribution to sustainable development work there. This is especially important to the region’s increasingly relevant. l The Circle 2.2019 3 IN BRIEF CANADA Thawing UNDERWATER NOISE permafrost Calling on Artic causing thousands nations to of landslides turn down the volume in our NEW RESEARCH published in Nature Communications oceans warns that the Arctic is experiencing a substantial ARCTIC WARMING is making increase in the number of the region more accessible landslides. to shipping, oil and gas Photo: Arto Rajanen Focusing on Banks Island, exploration, and military Peter Winsor and Liisa Rohweder of the WWF Arctic a land mass of about 70,000 activities. As these activi- Programme present WWF's underwater noise petition to square kilometres in the ties advance steadily into Kristina Bär from the Arctic Council Secretariat. Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Arctic waters, seals, whales, researchers studied “retro- walruses and other forms of have already signed a peti- 150,000 signatures before gressive thaw slumps,” which marine life are exposed to tion asking Arctic states the end of the summer. are landslides that can take increasing levels of under- to recognise the threat of Please add your voice by place on gradual inclines water noise. underwater noise pollution going to https://arcticwwf. when permafrost thaws. In February 2019, WWF and commit to keeping org/action/noise/. Over These landslides move slowly, asked people around the noise at safe levels for ocean the next two years, we will but are worrisome because world to add their voices wildlife. On May 5, WWF also be advocating for Ice- they tend to grow and stop- to a campaign to put a stop presented the petition to the land—the incoming chair of ping them is very difficult. to these rising noise levels. Arctic Council at its bien- the Arctic Council—to put Based on archive imagery And people listened: more nial Ministerial meeting in ocean pollution, including over a 20-year period, than 81,000 concerned Rovaniemi, Finland. underwater noise, at the top researchers identified a people from 100 countries WWF hopes to collect of its agenda. 60-fold increase in the num- ber of these landslides—from 63 in 1984 to 4,077 in 2015. GREENLAND The Greenland Ice Sheet Particularly alarming is the The four warmest summers is about 1.7 million square possibility that warmer ocean on record were associated The melting kilometres in size, covering waters are shrinking the ice with the highest numbers. about 80 per cent of Green- sheet from underneath at a The implications are sober- ice sheet land’s surface. The study—the faster rate than warmer air ing, since the Banks Island first to measure as far back is melting it from above. Sci- area is likely representative A NEW STUDY published in as 1972—found that the ice entists think bottom-melting of many other parts of the Proceedings of the National sheet has lost 4,976 gigatons glaciers may be predisposed Arctic. Landslides cause sub- Academy of Science has found of water since then. (One giga- to rapid collapse. stantial erosion and changes that the Greenland Ice Sheet ton is about 1 billion metric The Greenland Ice Sheet is in lakes and rivers. Their has lost trillions of tons of ice tons.) About half that loss massive enough to raise sea increasing incidence has the to melting—a transformation has occurred in just the last levels by 7.4 metres world- potential to alter ecosystems that scientists characterise as decade, which indicates that wide if it melted entirely. and landscapes. a profound geological shift. the melting is accelerating. 4 The Circle 2.2019 INSPIRING YOUNG PEOPLE WWF’s Our Planet T WWF, we love to hear that our work is making a difference—and sometimes, it inspires even the Avery young to want to do their part. In April, we heard from an American parent, Tracy McElroy, whose three-year-old son, Mack Petterson, was so moved by an episode of Our Planet that she decided to get in touch to learn more and ask about donating. Our Planet is a Netflix original documentary series and a ground-breaking, four-year collaboration between Netflix, Silverback Films and WWF. Supported by the latest science, it explores the rich natural wonders, iconic species and wildlife spectacles that still remain on Earth, and reveals the key issues that threaten their existence. “Frozen,” the episode that touched young Mack, included a difficult scene where walrus in northern Russia’s Chukchi Climate change is forcing Pacific Sea perish by falling from cliffs. In 2017, walrus in Russia onto land in large more than 100,000 walrus gathered along numbers to rest because there a stretch of coast in the area.