New | A letter to Santa in these troubled times

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Santa Claus, pictured riding in his sleigh pulled by a reindeer in northern Finland. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:00am, 24 Dec 2014Updated: 10:44am, 24 Dec 2014

You probably remember the excitement of writing a letter to Santa, specifying your wish list for Christmas presents. Nowadays he is just one click away on the Internet. I would have loved to ask him about life in the Arctic in times of climate change. Santa's website features a LiveCam in northern Finland, which reassured me that he is living happily in his cold and snowy place.

But lately the Arctic region is less snowy and less cold than it used to be. Surely not all inhabitants in the cold North will be so untouched as Santa by the drastic new conditions.

The IPCC this year has warned of food insecurity and a lack of reliable and safe drinking water in the Arctic region, as a result of the changing physical environment. Climate change will not only impact the economy of standards of living in the region, it also threatens to damage the cultures of the people who live in the Arctic, just as the response of these people to climate change is also mediated by culture. Professor Neil Adger of the University of Exeter and others have written on the importance of acknowledging cultural factors in adaptation and mitigation responses. Efforts to address climate change won't be effective if they do not reflect what matters to individuals and communities.

Santa has reasons to be worried about his Arctic home. Last week, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration presented the annual Arctic Report which confirmed that rising air and sea temperatures continue to trigger changes in the Arctic. The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of anywhere else on Earth. One of the effects of this rapid warming is the diminishing ice cover. As the sea ice melts, less sunlight will be reflected and the dark seawater will absorb more solar energy, which in turn will help to further increase the melting of the sea ice. This opens up the Northern Sea Route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean via northern Canada. Presents ordered by Santa in Shanghai can now reach Finland in the summer months across the Arctic, which is about 40 per cent shorter than the traditional route via the Suez Canal. But the increase in shipping in this vulnerable environment may lead to additional local environmental and climate change impacts.

If Santa returns from his shopping spree in China, he will witness along the northern shores of the American continent many examples of the potential impacts of climate change. He might experience more rain than usual, especially in the winter months, and he may notice the decline in the areas covered by snow. In many places, he will be able to see the signs of coastal erosion caused by the rise in sea level, and by the increasingly damaging storms with stronger waves that develop in the absence of sea ice. In several native villages along Alaska’s northwestern coast, houses have collapsed into the sea and people had to relocate inland.

The thawing permafrost adds to the problems. Inhabitants increasingly face the effects of climate change on infrastructure, water pipelines and coastal protection. Highways in the Arctic are often built on permafrost and these can only be used when the ground is completely frozen. In Alaska, the warming climate has shortened the period when these roads can be used from 200 days to only a 100 days per year in the past 30 years. The cost of building infrastructure on melting permafrost can increase by 10 percent or more.