How the Arctic’s poor health affects everyday life
SAN FRANCISCO — Polar bears have long been the poster children for the woes of Arctic warming. But climate change isn’t just a danger to wildlife. It threatens the safety and livelihoods of people across the Arctic. To put a human face to this problem, an annual report by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving voice for the first time to people in the Bering Sea region of Alaska who deal with the impacts of rapid climate change in their daily lives. Indigenous people in this area face shrinking access to fish stocks, shorelines eroding from under buildings and traditional travel routes along ice disappearing. “We have seen change coming. Now, we know it is here,” 10 elders from indigenous communities around the Bering Sea write in NOAA’s 2019 Arctic Report Card. “The Bering Sea is undergoing changes that have never been observed in our lifetimes.” This annual report documents air temperature, sea ice extent, snow cover and other environmental vital...