The Sea Ice is Our Highway: The Human Dimension of Arctic Change

I will be speaking on the human dimension of changes in the Arctic. The Arctic is not an uninhabited tundra. It is home to Inuit who continue to travel great distances in search of our subsistence. Today's Inuit increasingly use modern means of transportation, but a recent ICC Canada study indicates that Inuit are still out on the ice hunting and fishing, using the sea ice as our highway as we have since time immemorial.

Because the Inuit homeland covers much of the circumpolar Arctic, Inuit are affected by virtually all that goes on in the Arctic, whether it relates to conservation of Arctic wildlife, changes in the climate and environment, shipping, oil and mineral extraction, or political wrangling over which country owns what portion of the territory. All of these things impact upon Inuit and, as the 2009 Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic asserts, Inuit therefore have a responsibility and a right to be meaningfully involved in the decisions that are being made.