Here's What People of the Arctic Think About Climate Change

rock hopper here and I'm in the Canadian Arctic in the Northwest Territories and we're going to learn a little bit about a subject that might seem controversial to some of you we're going to hear it from the experts the people who have lived it and learned all about [Music] it this is Dustin whan and he's going to explain to us some things that he's learned all right Dustin tell me a little bit about what's going on up here hi everyone uh I'm I'm Dustin whan I'm a climate scientist I work for the government of Canada and Natural Resources Canada this is my 20th year I'm two decades up in this region and what I've seen uh really is so much change there's no other explanation for this change other than what's happening in the climate and the climate all around us whether that's increased air temperatures it's decreased sea ice lots and lots of erosion and so what what I I guess to sum it up um in just one word what I've seen in 20 years is change and it's changed because of the climate you know 20 years ago when we when we came to look at the climate and look at the landscape we could stand on on a cliff that is now half a kilometer in into the ocean we're seeing areas that are eroding at 50 to 60 m a year these are huge blocks of frozen ground calving off into the ocean this community in tuak it's experiencing more change because of clim than any other Canadian Community what does that look like it looks like Coastal erosion at 1 m 2 m up to 4 m a year you know 1 m 2 M 4 M every single year you know a car length coming off the cliff every year it's more coastal flooding so we're a this is a low-lying town in the community of of tuaku once once or twice or even three times a year the ocean will rise up you know in in a typical storm a storm surge this this isn't hurricane this is just a regular storm that many Coastal communities have around the world you know maybe 1 meter 1 and A2 meter surge most of the town uh is impacted and there's lots of roads flooded and they're seeing that more and more and more why are we seeing this here when you think of climate change in the world global climate change what does it mean if if you don't already think of temperature you should start now because climate change is ultimately driven by air temperature that the Earth is getting warmer the Earth is it may not be as noticeable uh in the southern Parts along the Equator or um you know above and below the equator but here in the north those extreme temperatures are actually four times more uh impact impactful here so let's say temperature Global me air temperature has increased by 1 degree you know it's probably closer to two but let's just say for arguments it's 1° well in the Arctic that 1° is now 4° increasing because of its position on the globe what do you think when when you think of the Arctic you think of ice right ice everywhere Ice and Snow White it's totally white what is white white the white image is a is a perfect reflector of the sun of the sun's energy right your parents tell you to wear white in the sun um if you wear black it's too hot the sun's energy comes down it it's easily reflected off the sea ice well what happens when there's no sea ice and now there's open ocean now the sun's energy is instantly absorbed into the ocean and it and that energy of of the of the sunlight and the heat increase the air temperature in in the Arctic by a factor of three or four times greater than what we see on the Equator so that is decreasing the amount of sea ice and it's leading to thaw of the per Frost so the ground that we're on right now is totally frozen if we were to drill down uh not even 2 ft we'd hit frozen solid material so imagine the sun's energy when it when it continues to penetrate through through the soil it's it's thawing out so flat roads become depressed but now we have a cliff what happens to the cliff when the cliff is fully exposed to this warm energy coming in um it it also starts to melt melt or thaw and it erods back and back and back and back from that um absolutely there's lots of wave action that's a major cause of erosion but it's also very much related to air temperature as well how do you think that the changing climate will affect the people who live in these regions how I think changing climate impacts people I think are many many many ways in this region we are we are in a h a very strong strong tide Inuit region of Canada in fact most of the the northern Canada is a very innuit region they rely on the landscape yeah we're in a town here but this town is just a place to live the town's folk who live here 90 90% of the people who live here are Inuit and they rely on the land for hunting um for for peace for so you know for for cultural and spiritual regions so if the landscape is constantly changing that impacts the livelihood of of the people who who live around here but there's a saying that a lot of the Inu would say we will adapt we will continue to adapt the problem is though that that saying is is true it it absolutely is true but here we are in in now in a in a very Inuit dominated Community with infrastructure with buildings that that you see behind me and these buildings now are absolutely impacted by climate change so Foundation is no longer flat right people I I talked about how the ground is melting well imagine your your your building sitting on that well it's now it can tilt Megan here is going to tell us a little something about what this map means so tuck has been battling climate change over the last quite a few years here and uh we have some maps laid out for uh Community planning and you can see here on this map where all the red areas are those we found would be the places that would be most affected by um raising water levels uh due to climate change as you can see there are quite a few areas marked on this map there are tons of areas that um include like homes in the waterfront on the sides here all of which the community is now trying to remediate so in your estimation climate change is a real thing and it's really happening into to real people absolutely we figure that if nothing is done that we may be underwater within the next 50 years imagine a road in a in in these these storms that happen that roads roads will be washed away and this isn't a freak storm this isn't a a flood that everyone talks about once a century this is every summer so you know living with climate change and living with climate driven forces like Wind and Rain uh and now Pera frosta is something people are are doing here more and more it's still really hard and I think it it does impact their way of life and and their livelihood and and if you talk to the youth up here there's a little bit of um anx iety you know it's funny because you know a lot of a lot of our globe that they don't see climate change right in their own backyard I'm just going to talk about what how I went to a classroom once and the youth were so engaged because it's just right behind them right where if we if we talk to a child from D South they're like climate change climate change is that when it doesn't snow as much in the winter when you talk to youth here in this community of tuak Tuck they know exactly what climate change is because even in their short lifetime they have seen the climate change they have seen massive impacts of flooding and erosion longer ice free Seasons or or thinner ice in the winter that's more dangerous for travel that they have seen this in their lifetime and so when you go to go to a youth in a classroom and you say tell me about climate change the picture they they draw are the picture of erosion the picture of you know a house tilting off the bank or you know a car underwater let's say you go to a a someone DS out and you say draw me a picture of climate change it's you know someone with an umbrella maybe or you know it's there's no snow at Christmas or something if they're from Canada the perception I think is is very is very much in tuned in the Arctic for what climate change is and you know uh in the news now forest fires unprecedented forest fires in this in this territory in the Arctic in the in Northern Canada I mean almost above the above the tree line almost above the tree line we have fires right tund of fires and you wouldn't even think like I'm it's cold here today but there's lots and lots of fires because the air temperature at periods of time is warm enough to ignite the you know the dry Tundra and it just continues to burn and burn and burn so the impacts of climate change I think um are felt across the world and I think we can we can see them um but here they're right in your face the best way to to see climate change for in in front of your own eyes is to come to the Canadian Arctic and and see it like I said before it's erosion happening every single day right you can you can literally go to the cliff you can see erosion you can hear the dripping hear the melting of the Perma Frost and then you can obviously see it as well well let me ask you this yeah speaking of people farther south what do you say to the people in say a place like the United States where they might say oh you know climate change isn't really happening or the science is faulty or the entire climate change conversation is nothing more than a hoax what do you tell these people first and foremost I believe that we all have a right to to believe certain things in uh the way we we believe them I'm not here to judge anybody but what I can tell you is please do your homework do your research you know don't just say climate change is not real because you read it in one magazine if you ever have a conversation with somebody and you want to tell them a fact that that you truly believe is is real do some research travel travel to the to to Northern Canada my message to you because I have been doing research for 20 years and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt climate change is real and I'm fully confident of that and I'm I am I am absolutely ready ready to argue that so anyone that is denying climate change because they they've heard it on you know in a magazine or Fox News please you know tune in to another Channel tune in to this channel to this YouTube channel and other YouTube channels get more facts do your homework come to the Arctic and see it for yourself and the same is true uh from my understanding is you can go to the southern regions as well the far south um southern Chile New Zealand any of those you know any of those regions and because it's much more pronounced at the closer you get to the poles is that true it sure it sure is so climate change is much more pronounced way closer you get to the poles because this is where the ground is frozen so remember at the beginning I said air temperature is one of the key components the key drivers of change and the thing is air temperature is increasing across the globe it is increasing in all over America right the global mean air temperature in America Canada Europe has gone up you know your summers are hotter whether you notice or not right and maybe you don't because your ground's not frozen because your your Harbors aren't full of ice for 9 months as closer to the pole you get you have more and more and more ice and more and more regions that depend on being cold well what happens when that cold goes away in the summer um and that cold goes away at such an an increased unprecedented way that uh we can see we we we can see climate change so for instance some people in the states might say well we had a very very snowy winter and it was very cold so how could that be climate change and global warming absolutely what do you say to that yeah so climate variability is very much being a part of climate of on planet Earth I live on the coast too you know we can see rain one day sun the next meteorology of the coast is very much driven by what happens in the ocean what we look at as as climate change scientists is the trend over time climate change right change is time when you have a have an instant moment of snow when when there should be sun and climate is not changing well let's take a look at what the last 10 years look look like in on that day we really feel that effective climate change on account of the weather our our summer being one month longer or fall being one month longer than you used to be T lines erosion very bad we can't go where we used to go on account of the erosion you know the land change yeah make it very different or sometimes our chanels get plugged up from the ocean and you you can't go up Upstream like you used to you locked out the fishing spot or where we used to fish or where we used to Camp all eroded away very different and then the color of the water that's changed it's about 1 month early we get clear water we usually the water get it's so low in the main McKenzie river that our water get clear we used to get muddy from the river coming out but they say that water get so low in the river now that we start having Clear Water they're actually getting water from us instead of coming down now big change for us the freeze up used to be when mid-september yeah and the freeze up happens around October now mid October or late even late first week of October we used to go voting even in the middle of October PODS of young ice floating around but we still go voting like how late we get to go boating we used to finish boating on uh middle of September now 3 weeks later than that you know changed very drastically and I'm pretty sure that you the trend will be that there it's it's warming up so it's very hard to take a cover of the book climate change book and judge open it up read what happened in in that site in that location through the decades and I guarantee you you'll see changes okay so let's say m climate change is real it's a real thing what percentage would you say is just a naturally occurring change of the earth's climate versus how much percentage wise would be man-made causes that's a great question and the question is is is man causing climate change is you know FAL fuels emissions in the atmosphere creating greenhouse gases that uh ultimately warm warm the temperature of of the earth Studies have shown and many many many Studies have shown that yes it is and in fact you can't say that Studies have shown that it isn't right the the study the the research and the science are driven towards the pollutants from man from industry from cars going into the atmosphere creating like a an atmosphere that is that is able to heat Global Climate following up effect of that in the North or in the in the far south when the ground is frozen there's there's decayed material there's plant material you see you can see it all well all that's under the ground and all that's frozen so if you were to to thaw that then all of a sudden we have a gas release of methane coming into the atmosphere this re release of methane or or carbon into the atmosphere is also one of the main contributors to to uh greenhous gas and greenhous effect so it's like a double-edged sword man has created a situation where the Earth is getting getting warmer but that warmer that that warm temperature has also thawed The Frozen Ground enough that now naturally methane and and uh uh CO2 is being released into the atmosphere enhancing this this global warming as well so would you say it's maybe 50/50 I don't know the exact numbers on you know what's an enic which is man and what's natural what we can see from the modeling all of the major teams that are working on this is that climate is air temperature is increasing very steady in the last 20 years the curve just rocketed up why did that curve rocket up the increase in global population has increased the amount of uh Greenhouse pollutants and at the same time exacerbated or enhanced the natural effect so I don't actually know if it's if it's 50/50 um but I do know that by reducing and I and I do shouldn't say I know I believe that by reducing the man-made emissions this will have a a very big impact in this already almost vertical curve that we're expecting to see in the next 80 years of global climate change so you know maybe the Curve will level off and if this was a natural phenomenon that you know people say well the the earth goes in Cycles the Earth does go in Cycles not Cycles in 20 years the earth Cycles in millions of years right we as humans will not see a cycle like this as the Earth Cycles up and down cold and warm and cold and warm and different region shifting it's not within the a human's lifetime in my own lifetime I can see these changes I can see an an increase in in in temperature you know I'm not looking at data from 100 years ago I'm looking at data from 10 years ago and and this is why I truly believe that this is not a natural phenomenon it's a man-made phenomenon climate change and I also believe that man can if they we we work hard enough can fix this problem before it's too late not fix it level it off before it's too l so from what you're telling me it sounds like the human impact has been the Catalyst that has caused essentially climate change is that fair to say that's absolutely fair to say human impact has been the Catalyst that has caused uh climate change in our world today absolutely right I believe this and you mentioned people of the north and their traditional ways of living uh a lot of people here are subsistence fishermen and hunters and such how do you think that's going to change their ability to survive up here yeah and that's a very good and and sensitive question when you're dealing with um people who rely on the land right and most of the world uh or the world in America and Southern Canada you know we we rely on grocery stores and other people to to collect and gather our food for us but here a lot of the food is gathered by the people um out on the land and how does climate change impact their way of life well absolutely the the migratory patterns of geese of birds and and other birds are are impacted by climate change where where the bird's nest uh may change Caribou muscs these these huge animals on on the land that can feed f a family for a month they're their patterns are are changing because they they're they're following food sources in different ways they're adapting as as a species but they're not adapting in the in maybe a way that is conducive to to the people that that live around them maybe finding a caribou today is harder than it used to be 20 years ago maybe they're sparse maybe they're not calving as much or just maybe they're moving away they're moving to another spot beluga whale I I'm I spend a lot of time on the ocean I spend a lot of time on the coast studying the impacts of the ocean to the coastline we can see the beluga whale the the migratory pattern of of the beluga whale has shifted a lot fish that the Beluga are following um are are also moving and adapting their habitats are are being affected there's a great example salmon did you know that salmon the Glorious fish salmon is an evasive species here in the Arctic it has come up from Alaska and it's not wanted a fisherman would grab it and you'd throw it away and kill it instantly because it's the salmon that is coming and killing all of the other fish habitat for the the Char and the the white fish and the eoni uh and so but why would the salon be here because it's warmer that now the salmon has has is able to survive in these conditions in the ocean also beavers beavers are a nightmare up here it reminds me of uh early Canada where settlers would come and they they'd have a real hard time with beavers messing up their water supplies or changing habitats fish habitats in certain ways and now just in the last decade the Arctic is now warm enough in the summer for beavers to live and survive and they've migrated North and they're changing everything like they're they're a real evasive species when it comes to streams and blocking and things like that so again there's a call on beavers here in the north because they're changing the habitat so much I said that the inua people will adapt and figure out a way as the species do but it's it is getting harder and harder and harder for sure so basically I climate change is affecting really everything on this planet animals humans the oceans the air temperature pretty much the soil everything there is yeah I think that's a great Point climate change is affecting everything on this planet yeah from I mean the humans uh we are the ones who feel the most uh offended by climate change obviously we're um we talk about it and we in our livelihood our our roads our infrastructure right we're we're the most affected mind you we are one of the major causes as well the wildlife they're not telling us they're affected but they're they're adapting right they they appear to be adapting in in some ways we can see the change it's affecting everything in your estimation do you think that climate change denier stay in that place of denial because to acknowledge that climate change is real means that people actually have to change their habits and their ways I like this question I think it's it's very important I think there's there's two there's two Avenues of thought if you're a climate change dener I I say to you do more research and you'll you'll very you'll very soon see in front of your own eyes that the world climate is changing but if you're a climate change denier because you know you don't want to believe this is something that is you know that will have to change your way of life you know whether it's the vehicle you choose or the recycling that you do or the way you live your life I think that yeah I think there's probably a real fear in people um to change I mean change is something that absolutely everyone fears but imagine this community of a thousand people that are looking to have to relocate their whole Community because of climate change imagine the change and the fear that that that that in itself so you know down south we're afraid we're afraid to go or maybe can't afford the electric car right we we can't afford to adapt to climate change down south but in the north they can't afford not to now I've heard from talking to people in this area that what is sounds like what is definitely going to happen because of climate change is the sea is going to inundate much of this town and that means kind of like what you're saying people are going to have to either leave or they're going to have to move their houses or or something and that's not just a local problem I mean this is the islands in the Pacific low-lying Islands or some people fear that the State of Florida being all low elevation is going to have some problems um what what do you think is this is this just going to affect the entire world with potential flooding and ination of land just like we talk about global air temperature Global sea level rise I mean obviously 70% of our Earth is water uh and this is impacted by many things but we we St we take a step back and we look at uh ice it comes back to Melting ice again melting glaciers more input of water in into the oceans and so if you have a bathtub and you add water to it for melting ice the water level is going to increase this is what happens and I actually truly believe that if we don't stop the the melting of glaciers the thawing of Pera Frost into the ocean creating more more water into this bathtub you know it's a big bathtub then Global sea level will continue to increase you can actually see this here in the Arctic because this is where sea level is actually increasing faster at almost uh a meter a century a meter a century Global sea level rise has been increasing or projected to continue to increase so if tuu is you know a meter and a half above sea level but sea level instead of here is now here what happens when you have a 1 meter storm most of the town is underwater it's the same same thing goes for the South Pacific Islands for instance where maybe Global sea level in that region is only going to be a half a meter in a century and but they're a half they're a meter and a half above the ocean um so again in storms in in hurricanes in that region uh you're going to see an increase in water level and you're going to see more flooding as the global mean sea level creeps creeps creeps up very very slowly from the falling of glaciers and it's and it's going very slowly right it's hard to see with her own eyes except during storms because during storms you know you can even 20 years ago um parts of Tuck would never flood in in um in storms now those areas always flood we need to be aware we need to be having lots of thoughts towards um sea level rise I think it's a very important um driver of change and impact of uh climate change as well and you mentioned permafrost melting yeah now is it true that the polar ice of the north Antarctica and greeland are also melting quickly absolutely that is absolutely true so I I'll speak specifically about the polar ice of the north cuz this is where we are 9 months of the year the ice comes right into onto the shore right it's it's totally Frozen 2 m thick and then it thaws in the it it melts in the summer and then we have open water but that that area of open water has been increasing every single summer so the we have the North Pole and the ice that surrounds the North Pole ice that surround rounds the North Pole is Getting Thinner and thinner and thinner hence the Open Water between this ice in the summer and all the land around it in the Arctic Ocean Russia Finland Greenland Canada America and Alaska it's getting larger and larger and larger so the the polar ice caps are melting at such a rate that you can easily see on a on a satellite image um how the area is decreasing year after year after year comes back to the point is well last year it was it had more ice than the year before you're absolutely right but the trend go back to the 20e trend the trend is there is a lot less ice there today than there was 20 years ago well that's great thank you for sharing that information Dustin I really appreciate that and uh yeah if anybody wants to really learn the the truth about climate change I guess uh you invite them to come to the north absolutely yeah absolutely please come come come in August come in September um you know what come in June when you can see in on June 1st uh you'll see ice right against the Shore by June 10th that ice is totally gone as far as the eye can see in just those 10 hot days it'll melt out kilometers and kilometers of ice in June is where takak has 24 hours of sunlight and it I mean temperatures can get up to 30° in June so imagine an area where ice is 2 m thick in May by the end of June a month later there's no ice as far as the eye can see because and when we say 30° we're talking Celsius which is about 84 Fahrenheit okay absolutely all right just wanted to clarify for our American viewers for sure for sure yeah 84 fahit and and that's pretty warm by yeah certainly by the standards up here oh so warm what's today in Fahrenheit I don't know but cold 10° Celsius in June so we're in August today but in June I mean it's that monthlong period of 24 hours of sunlight it just it's incredible to think that that much change can happen in 5 to 6 weeks because it's so extreme and so intense more intense than they're ever that they're used yeah and it sounds like climate change is intense there it is so there you go all right well thanks again so what are your thoughts on climate change let me know in the comments I hope you enjoyed this video don't forget to give me a like on it share and subscribe until next time this is Rockhopper I'll see you