Modernizing Inuit society ‘painful process’: scientist

Scientists from all over the world met for the Polar Year Conference at the Palais des Congrès to discuss the emerging environmental, cultural and commercial stresses that are transforming the people and ecosystems of the Arctic.

While the accelerating ravages of climate change remained the dominant theme, equally important were questions of what the future holds for the Inuit people who, for centuries, have survived in what is one of Earth’s most dangerous climates.

Professor Louis Fortier is head of Arcticnet, which is a $67-million federal project to help modernize Inuit society.

“It’s a very painful process,” he said in an interview.

“Sixty years ago, these people were living in a superb, neolithic culture, with no metal, no writing and they were surviving in an extreme environment and now they are fully exposed to modernity through communications like the Internet and television and everything.”

He said they have neither the tradition nor the education to meet the demands of governance for the region.

“At the same time, their environment is changing very quickly, their traditional way of life, access to traditional food, which gave them traditional health, this is all being transformed,” he said. There are 39,000 Inuit spread across a polar region almost as big as Europe. He said they want to be involved in all aspects of the transformation, but they lack human resources.

“The Inuit leaders think that there are three solutions to this painful transition to modernity because they want to become modern. It’s education, education and education. We are working on how to change their system of education from kindergarten to university.” Arctic oil and gas exploitation is increasing in Russia, Norway and Alaska, but the pack ice that continues to pile up around the Canadian archipelago has delayed Canadian exploitation. Oil spills could be disastrous for the Arctic, where oil biodegrades extremely slowly because of the cold. Lloyd’s of London, the world’s largest insurance market, recently published a report claiming that, over the next 10 years, about $100 billion will be invested in resource development in the Arctic. Most of this will go to oil and gas. Lloyd’s claims, however, that the risk of an oil spill in the Arctic could be too high to insure. BP’S Macondo blowout last year in the Gulf of Mexico will cost that company about $40 billion. An oil spill in the Arctic would be even costlier since the sea ice would hinder access to the spill site. But as yet there are no special global regulations for drilling in the Arctic. The danger is that drilling will be done by small, so-called “cowboy” oil companies who will be under-insured. One scientist pointed out that a “cowboy” company is now drilling off western Greenland in Davis Strait. Some speakers suggested the billions of dollars invested in Arctic oil would be better spent developing alternative energy technology.

Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, said: “We would have to live in a world where sanity prevails. The world is not like that. The human race will cling to the easiest forms of energy for as long as we can.” It is estimated that the Arctic oil reserves are about 90 billion barrels, enough to keep the world’s engines turning for three years. Science continues to lag behind commercial interests. Fisheries companies are beginning to push north into the Arctic Ocean looking for new species. Trevor Taylor of the Oceans North Canada said that there is almost no knowledge of fish populations in the Arctic Ocean.