Arctic Climate Perspectives

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program and WGBH

This video, along with a background essay, focuses on impacts of climate change on the lives of Native Alaskans around Barrow, Alaska. Specific changes include the timing of the changes in the formation and breakout of sea ice and the impacts on subsistence living.

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Notes from our reviewers

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The video can be embedded in a variety of curriculum units.
This includes an interesting synthesis of scientific and native understanding of the changes in the Arctic. The timing of the changes mentioned in the video is stated as of 2007. The timing of the seasonal patterns, such as the seasonal melting and refreezing of sea ice in the Arctic, continue to change in the Arctic. See updated sea ice data and information here: [http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/] Comments from expert scientist: This is a very short video clip about the effects of Arctic Climate Change as observed by the Iñupiaq people living in Barrow, Alaska. It is a good introduction into the topic of how climate change may and already does affect humans. The resource would benefit from quantitative data of sea temperatures or sea-ice changes.