The Climate Change Collective is an initiative where the blogging community unites behind a common goal. This month, I have the pleasure of writing the lead post. It’s about the Arctic—a part of the planet most people don’t give much thought to. Read on to learn how climate change in the Arctic affects us all.

How climate change in the Arctic affects us all

The Arctic. For most people, it’s a cold, mystical, faraway place they only see on television or in books. Even here in Canada, where a large portion of our country lies in the Arctic circle, most people don’t give much thought to this remote area of our country.

Sadly, climate change and human activity are changing the northernmost part of our planet, and those changes don’t just threaten the regional wildlife. They impact all of us.

The fundamental problem is that sea ice is shrinking. Sir David Attenborough’s documentary series Our Planet II reports that in the summer months, there is currently 40% less sea ice cover than in 1980. This decline in sea ice causes problems for the climate of the entire planet, local wildlife and northern communities. It could also impact your economic wellbeing.

Impact on the climate of the entire planet

The frozen, white surface that used to exist year-round across much of the Arctic helped to keep the Earth cool by reflecting most of the sun’s energy back into space. As the ice melts, the dark surface absorbs energy and warms the Earth. The loss of ice cover has been a key factor in the Arctic warming four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979. (Source: Nature.com)

In Our Planet II, Sir David Attenborough suggests that by 2040, the Arctic Ocean could be free of ice during the summer months, thus accelerating the warming effect.

Loss of sea ice will lead to more extreme weather events around the world like the heat waves seen across Europe last year, or the polar vortex much of North America experienced in recent months. (Source: World Wildlife Fund)

Impact on wildlife

Less sea ice cover puts stress on wildlife who travel long distances in search of food. Consider the example of the beloved symbol of the Arctic, the polar bear. Swimming uses much more of their energy than walking. Lack of ice leaves them no alternative but to travel by water in search of food. This threatens the survival of young polar bears in two ways. First, scarcity of their food supply means they don’t get the nutrition they need. Plus, young polar bears are slower swimmers making them more vulnerable to predators. 

Similarly, walruses in Northern Russia are now forced to gather in big crowds on small areas of land in their feeding area, putting their lives in danger as many are crushed in the stampede to find food.

Beyond the struggle for food and survival, melting ice threatens Arctic wildlife in ways you might not have considered.

Less sea ice in the Arctic has opened up the region to new shipping channels. The higher noise levels caused by ships in the area have decreased the communication ranges of Arctic marine mammals by half, making it more difficult for them to navigate, hunt and find potential mates. (Source: World Wildlife Fund)

Add to that the risk of oil spills, and it’s clear that increased shipping is not a good thing for wildlife.

Impact on Indigenous communities

Wildlife aren’t the only inhabitants of the Arctic region. The Inuit have called the far north home for thousands of years.  

Reduction in sea ice and shorter winters have severely restricted their ability to travel to hunting grounds and places of cultural importance, thus threatening their traditional ways of life and putting their physical and mental health at risk. (Source: Earth.org)

Impact on your economic wellbeing

Finally, climate change in the Arctic could affect your economic wellbeing. In the very first Climate Change Collective post, I wrote about how climate change impacts your health and your wallet.

Melting Arctic sea ice results in rising sea levels, forcing people living in coastal areas around the world out of their homes and communities, and impacting their ability to earn a living. The United Nations reports displacement due to climate change is already happening, with extreme weather events forcing over 20 million people from their homes and communities every year since 2008.

Even closer to home, extreme weather will make farming more difficult, ultimately increasing the cost of the food you put on your table.

So while the Arctic may well be a cold, mystical, faraway place, we can’t ignore the impact of climate change in the Arctic. At some point, we will all feel its effects.

The time to act is now.   

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About the Climate Change Collective

The Climate Change Collective started after I left a comment on a blog post by Jamie Ad Stories. Jamie and I wanted to find a way to keep the climate change message top of mind for everyone, so I put out a tweet to see what kind of interest there would be in a climate-change-related blogging collaboration. The Climate Change Collective was born!

The members of the collective take turns writing a monthly blog post sharing their unique perspective about climate change. After the post is published, the rest of the group keeps the conversation going by sharing a link to the post on their blogs along with their thoughts and ideas.

If you’re a like-minded blogger and would like to join our collective, please get in touch. More voices joining the conversation means more attention to the problems plaguing our planet!

More Climate Change Collective posts

The Climate Change Collective series has been going strong for over two years. See Two years of the Climate Change Collective series for a recap of the posts we published in the first two years.

Recent posts in the series

• Is Climate Change Overlooked in Schools? – Jamie Ad Stories
• Highlighting Useful Ways to be Sustainable This Winter – Transatlantic Notes

What can we do to address climate change in the Arctic? Drop me a comment below with your thoughts.