As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words

By Alister Doyle
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-11-2004_pg4_8

WHAT are the words used by indigenous peoples in the Arctic for
“hornet”, “robin”, “elk”, “barn owl” or “salmon”? If you don’t know,
you’re not alone.

Many indigenous languages have no words for legions of new animals,
insects and plants advancing north as global warming thaws the polar
ice and lets forests creep over tundra.

“We can’t even describe what we’re seeing,” said Sheila Watt-Cloutier,
chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference which says it represents
155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.

In the Inuit language Inuktitut, robins are known just as the “bird with
the red breast”, she said. Inuit hunters in north Canada recently saw
some ducks but have not figured out what species they were, in
Inuktitut or any other language.

An eight-nation report this month says the Arctic is warming twice as
fast as the rest of the planet and that the North Pole could be
ice-free in northern hemisphere summer by 2100, threatening indigenous
cultures and perhaps wiping out creatures like polar bears. The report,
by 250 scientists and funded by the United States, Canada, Russia,
Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, puts most of the blame on
a build-up of heat-trapping gases from human use of fossil fuels like
coal and oil.

The thaw may have some positive spin-offs for people, for instance by
making chill Arctic seas more habitable for cod or herring or by
shifting agricultural lands and forestry north. But on land, more and
more species will be cramming into an ever-narrowing strip bounded to
the north by the Arctic Ocean, threatening to destroy fragile Arctic
ecosystems from mosses to Arctic foxes or snowy owls.

Elk shock: In Arctic Europe, birch trees are gaining ground and Saami
reindeer herders are seeing roe deer or even elk, a forest-dwelling
cousin of moose, on former lichen pastures.

“I know about 1,200 words for reindeer- we classify them by age, sex,
colour, antlers,” said Nils Isak Eira, who manages a herd of 2,000
reindeer in north Norway.

“I know just one word for elk - ‘sarvva’,” said 50-year-old Eira. “But
the animals are so unusual that many Saami use the Norwegian word
‘elg’. When I was a child it was like a mythical creature.”

Thrushes have been spotted in Saami areas of the Arctic in winter,
apparently too lazy to bother migrating south. Foreign ministers from
the eight Arctic countries are due to meet in Reykjavik on Nov. 24 but
are sharply divided about what to do. The United States is most opposed
to any drastic new action.

The US is the only country among the eight to reject the 127-nation
Kyoto protocol meant to cap emissions of greenhouse gases. President
George W Bush says the UN pact would cost too much and unfairly
excludes developing states.

In some more southerly areas of the Arctic, like Canada’s Hudson Bay,
receding ice means polar bears are already struggling. The bears’ main
trick is to pounce when seals surface to breathe through holes in the
ice. The Arctic report says polar bears “are unlikely to survive as a
species if there is a complete loss of summer-ice cover”. Restricted to
land, polar bears would have to compete with better-adapted grizzly or
brown bears. “The outlook for polar bears is stark. My grandson will
lose the culture I had as a child,” said Watt-Cloutier, referring to
Inuit hunting cultures based on catching seals, bears or whales.

Salman, owls: Around the Arctic, salmon are swimming into more northerly
waters, hornets are buzzing north and barn owls are flying to regions
where indigenous people have never even seen a barn.

Watt-Cloutier said indigenous peoples lacked well-known words for all of
them.

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report says that the region
is set to warm by 4-7 degrees centigrade (7-13 degrees Fahrenheit) by
2100, twice the rate of the rest of the globe. The Arctic warms fast
partly because dark ground and water, once uncovered, soaks up much
more heat than snow and ice.

“Overall, forests are likely to move north and displace tundra,” said
Terry Callaghan, a professor of Arctic ecology at the University of
Lund, Sweden. “That will bring more species - birds that nest in trees,
beetles that live in bark, fungi”.

The lack of words to describe newcomers does not stop at animals and
plants. “Words like ‘thunderstorm’ don’t exist because they are
phenomena indigenous peoples have never known,” said Robert Corell,
chair of the ACIA study. reuters