The arctic is the fastest warming place in the world, and Alaska is the fastest warming place in the United States. “Chasing Winter” explores how climate change is transforming the relationship between people, animals and the land in Alaska.
Scientists call Alaska “ground zero†for climate change, and 2014 was the state’s warmest year on record. But climate change in Alaska and the North American Arctic means more then just warmer weather; it means snow that arrives later in the fall, a spring thaw that happens sooner, vanishing sea ice, retreating glaciers, an explosion of wildfires and intense storms, and diminishing natural habitats for hundreds of local species- and for the people whose subsistence depend on them. “Chasing Winter†explores how climate change is not only putting immense pressure on natural habitats and animal species in Alaska and the North American arctic, but challenging communities across the region, transforming the relationship between people, animals and the land.
For Alaska’s indigenous people, especially those living in isolated, rural areas, climate change threatens to bring the end to their way of life. Hunting conditions have become dangerous and unpredictable. Whale, walrus, seal, caribou and salmon are dying off and migrating in new patterns, and the communities who depend on them for nutrition, income, and spiritual practices are being pressured in countless ways. Hunting, fishing and foraging for food, known as “subsistence,†is the anchor of culture and economy for Alaska’s many native groups, some of which are so fragile that only a handful of living elders still speak their native tongues.
For many Inupiat villages nothing is more important than the bowhead whale. The few massive bowheads taken by a traditional hunt each year supply thousands of pounds of meat in a place where prices are inflated and protein is scarce. Yet melting snow and shifting sea ice has made travel and camping increasingly dangerous. Entire hunting seasons have become shorter and sometimes non-existent.
Villages and communities across Alaska and the North American arctic are at the front lines of climate change; and what is happening to them can be seen as early indications for the rest of the world’s future.