Impact on Indigenous Communities - Lives Changing with the Ice Retreat Early 21st Century

Impact on Indigenous Communities - Lives Changing with the Ice Retreat Early 21st Century

At the beginning of the 21st century, indigenous communities living in the Arctic and tundra regions are at the forefront of climate change. The melting of ice sheets and permafrost has hit their livelihoods and severely disrupted their traditional hunting and fishing cycles. The unstable ice thickness and thawing period have irreversibly altered the mobility and life rhythms of people such as the Inuit and Sami. In addition, subsidence, collapsed houses, and widespread damage to roads and water supplies made it difficult to continue settling the area.

Looking at the historical background of the time, we must not forget that the pressure to develop northern resources was intensifying. While the extraction of oil, natural gas, and mineral resources brought employment and income, it also put further pressure on traditional ways of life, posing a double risk of environmental destruction and cultural loss. International attention was also focused on the concern that the thawing of frozen soil would release unknown pathogens that had been lying dormant in the ice. Indeed, reports of the re-emergence of old anthrax in Siberia were causing concern among indigenous communities.

This background meant not just an environmental change but a shift in the living world for the indigenous peoples. While external northern development would bring new educational opportunities and medical resources, it would also reduce cultural autonomy and jeopardize the sustainability of the community. In other words, tundra melting and ice sheet retreat were documented as crises that shook not only the natural environment but also the social structure and cultural identity itself.