I am from Caribou, Maine. Our high school sports mascot was the Viking: Blond, mustachioed, helmeted. Many of us were of Swedish descent, or had family in Canada or Sweden. Some of my friends went to Alaska to work. Some returned after earning enough money to get started in life. Some stayed.
Once, herds of caribou roamed the fields and woods of northern Maine. Photos show caribou intermingled with sheep on the hillsides. The disappearance of the animals might be attributed to loss of habitat, over-hunting, or some other cause. That cause could have been the slow continuance of global warming, which began with the Industrial Age in the 1700s. New England became the site for mills and mines, shipyards and lumberyards.
The warming of the North accelerates climate deterioration around the world. Ice melts as the Arctic and Antarctic accumulate warmer air masses. The blue water does not reflect the sun's rays back into space. Instead the water becomes warmer, and becomes a kind of heat sink, causing warmer air to circulate from the poles.
The health of Arctic species is affected by warmer air and water. Ice melts and polar bears do not have the secure platforms for hunting and cubbing. Ice forms over reindeer moss before the snow falls. Caribou and reindeer can no longer reach their food source, and they starve. Reindeer herders must truck in hay to get their herds through the winter, but it doesn't supply needed nutrients. The loss of Arctic species indicates the future for all species.
And the permafrost is melting, never to refreeze as long as the Arctic stays at the higher temperatures. Trapped CO2 is released, adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Arctic oil drilling tears up the northern environment, with machines releasing carbon pollution, waterways becoming contaminated with run-off and trash, and habitat being destroyed.
The Arctic isn't a deserted wasteland. People live there. This from the Arctic Centre:
"Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Arctic for thousands of years. The proportion indigenous people is estimated to be about 10 percent of total population living in arctic areas. There are over 40 different ethnic groups living in the Arctic.
Arctic indigenous peoples include for example Saami in circumpolar areas of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Northwest Russia, Nenets, Khanty, Evenk and Chukchi in Russia, Aleut, Yupik and Inuit (Iñupiat) in Alaska, Inuit (Inuvialuit) in Canada and Inuit (Kalaallit) in Greenland."
Many indigenous cultures are threatened. Traditional hunting and fishing have become more difficult. Local tour businesses are affected by warming climate. Shoreline disappears, and communities are forced to relocate. Will people stay where their ancestors lived and worked, or will they be forced south by the disasters of global warming?
