Center for International Environmental Law

Arctic and Subarctic Issues

Fo strengthen the global response, CIELs Climate Change Program focuses on impacts to people and ecosystems of the Arctic and subarctic. The program works to protect the Earth's climate system through promotion of human rights, forest conservation, and biodiversity protection. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the destructive effects of climate change will not only affect the environment, but also Arctic peoples. Average annual temperatures in the Arctic have increased by approximately double the increase in global average temperatures.

The direct impacts of global warming include higher temperatures, sea-level rise, the melting of sea ice and glaciers, increased precipitation in some areas, and drought in others. Indirect social, environmental, economic, and health impacts will follow, including increased death and serious illness in poor communities, decreased crop yields, heat stress in livestock and wildlife, and damage to coastal ecosystems, forests, drinking water, fisheries, buildings, and other resources.

During the past several decades, the Arctic has warmed at an alarming rate, and it is projected to continue to warm by as much as 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) by 2100. This warming trend has had a devastating impact on Arctic ecosystems, including sea ice, permafrost, forests, and tundra. Warming has contributed [Page 178]to increases in lake temperatures, permafrost thawing, increased stress on plant and animal populations, and the melting of glaciers and sea ice. Research has revealed decreases in sea ice extent and cover.

In Shishmaref, Alaska, a small Inuit village in the Chukchi Sea, seven houses have had to be relocated, three have fallen into the sea, and engineers predict that the entire village of 600 houses could disappear into the sea within the next few decades. Shishmaref s airport runway has almost been met by rising seawater, and its fuel tank farm, which seven years ago was 300 ft. (92 m.) from the edge of a seaside bluff, is now only 35 ft. (10 m.) from the bluff. The town dump, which has seawater within 8 ft. (2 m.) of it, could pollute the nearby marine environment for years if inundated. Advancing seawater has contaminated Shishmaref s drinking water supply.

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