Extreme weather conditions characterize the Arctic region. The difference between summer and winter is huge. During summertime, the sun never goes down, and in wintertime, the sun never comes up, so the area remains in darkness. The terrain varies highly from tall mountains to flat, vast, plain tundra, and snow and ice cover great expanses of the sea.IV These harsh climatic conditions make it very difficult for people to inhabit this area. Still, some indigenous people1 already live in the Arctic for millennia, they are called the Inuit’s and live in scattered communities of different sizes. Their lives intertwine closely with the local resources, and their access to food depends on wildlife harvesting.V
1 See chapter communities in ‘the bank of evidence’ to find out how these communities manage to live in the harsh climatic conditions of the Arctic environment. 2 “Arctic Amplification” is a phenomenon that causes higher temperatures near the poles compared to the planetary average because of a combination of feedback processes. For example, when sea ice melts in the summer, it opens up dark areas of water that absorb more heat from the sun, which in turn melts more ice. This “feedback loop” also includes the effects of melting snow and thawing permafrost. Arctic Amplification is most pronounced in winter and strongest in areas with large losses of sea ice during the summer.XCII 3 See chapter melting ice in ‘the bank of evidence’ for more information
Today the Arctic is warming twice as fast compared to other areas on our planet because of the phenomenon of Arctic Amplification2.VI Currently, temperatures climbed four degrees Celsius all year round. All climatologists estimate that by the year 2100, the Arctic sea ice will melt3 every summer. The geographical (melting ice, scientific evidence of resources in the seafloor) and political (Russians planting a flag on the seabed) developments in the period between 2007 and 2008, transformed the geography, biodiversity, and governmental units of this desolate region.VII
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