The Arctic Council's 2004 report predicts radical changes in the presence and routes of the fish and game, on which Arctic societies have based their economy and culture.We are talking about processes that, on a large scale, will threaten the traditional use of nature, and the financial conditions of the fishermen and hunters. The landscape that the Arctic peoples are familiar with and dependent on, will no longer be predictable. They will become strangers in their own country. It will affect the lifeblood of Arctic culture and society.
This means that fishermen and hunters can no longer use their traditional knowledge of weather conditions and the species' ranges and availability, nor can they apply their traditional routines when catching. The entire base on which their hunting culture and lifestyle is built, is crumbling. When Inuit people were subjected to such changes in olden days, they just moved somewhere else. Greenland of today, however, is based on a welfare system, where people live in modern homes and are not able to move from one day to another like in the past.
==Frank is an associate professor at the Department of Eskimology and Arctic Studies at the University of Copenhagen