Perceived Risks and Responses Related to Permafrost Thaw in three Arctic Focal Areas

• Main Authors: Gartler, Susanna, Doloisio, Natalia, Jungsberg, Leneisja, Larsen, Joan Nymand, Meyer, Alexandra, Povoroznyuk, Olga, Ramage, Justine, Schweitzer, Peter, Vanderlinden, Jean-Paul
• Format: Lecture
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2020
• Subjects: permafrost; climate change; Arctic; socio-cultural impacts; adaptation; Aklavik; Beaufort Sea; Climate change; Greenland; Inuvik; Longyearbyen; Northwest Territories; Svalbard; Tiksi; Tuktoyaktuk; Yakutiya; Yakutsk
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4748643

“Nunataryuk” is a multi-disciplinary research consortium, examining permafrost thaw (PFT) in Arctic coastal areas from multiple perspectives. This paper presents outcomes from fieldwork conducted in Longyearbyen on Svalbard in Norway, Tiksi and Bykovskiy in Yakutiya, Russia, Disco Bay/North West Greenland and the Beaufort Sea Area in the Northwest Territories in Canada. It analyzes the entanglement between social and environmental change and addresses perceptions of the societal impacts of PFT, as well as (policy) responses to these impacts. The paper is based on data from qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey conducted in the three sites. In northern Yakutiya the growing effects of climate change are publicly discussed only in cases of major economic losses; e.g. when extreme weather events or PFT effect the seasonality of supply of necessary products and foods by winter roads. Other seemingly major environmental problems, such as the destruction of a graveyard due to severe coastal erosion, seem to be ignored. While the indigenous and mixed population of the neighboring villages is drawn to Tiksi, the residents of Tiksi move to Yakutsk and to the cities on the “Big Land”, leaving empty houses behind. In the Beaufort Sea area, including communities such as Aklavik, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, Indigenous and other local organizations engage actively in the monitoring of and adaptation to the changes resulting from the effects of climate change and PFT. Employing a holistic understanding of socio-cultural vitality, which depends on an intact environment to provide sustenance for the local populations, concerns include not only physical and environmental effects but also the loss of intangible heritage such as Indigenous languages and cultures. For residents in Disco Bay and North West Greenland there is a concern for airports, roads and houses built on sediments. While most houses are built on bedrock there are in the northern most town many houses that are built on sediment. In this area people often ...