NORTHERN ISSUES, SCIENCE GAPS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This is Part Two of a two-part  Coastal and Offshore Permafrost Rapid Response Assessment . Read  Part One . Also see the  executive summary .

Indigenous people have lived and thrived for millennia along the Arctic coast. They are presently experiencing the dramatic effects of climate change in real-time and are voicing alarm. They are conveying their concerns through numerous agencies including the Arctic Council, national and sub-national governments, local community councils and Indigenous governments and agencies.

The Rapid Response Assessment (RRA) examines urgent research needs that have been identified by Arctic peoples and those most affected by changes occurring along Arctic coastlines. Within the context of a warming Arctic, it also considers permafrost processes that may have feedbacks at a global scale. The goal is to establish guidance on research needs and to provide a vision of a path forward to address these needs.

This video, produced in 2000, documents the impacts of climate change from an Inuvialuit perspective. On Banks Island in Canada's High Arctic, the residents of Sachs Harbour have witnessed dramatic changes to their landscape and their way of life. Although created 20 years ago, the issues discussed remain pertinent and are even more pressing today.

Indigenous youth expressed their concerns about changes they are observing in the Arctic coastal zone. This trailer of the soon-to-be released movie "Happening to Us" was made by the Inuivaluit community of Tuktoyaktuk, Canada ( Tuk TV ) as part of a community-based  research project . It was featured at the COP25 UN climate summit in Madrid, Spain and the UN Youth Climate Report to reach policy-makers.

This video presents a short summary of geologic and permafrost processes discussed in Part 1: Coastal and Offshore Permafrost RRA.

You can share your own observations and perspectives about coastal permafrost in a  crowdsource StoryMap .

International programs

 Arctic Council 

 IPCC- Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate 

 AMAP- Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic 

 International Permafrost Association 

 The Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost 

 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Arctic Report Collection 

 Smoke on Water - Countering global threats from peatland loss & degradation. A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment 

 Global Linkages – A graphic look at the changing Arctic 

Principles for conducting Arctic Research

 ARCUS Guidance 

 Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge 

 National Inuit Strategy on Research 

 First Nations Ethics Guide on Research and Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge 

Examples of collaborations to study coastal permafrost

 ARCUS- The International Permafrost Coastal Systems Network 

 Permafrost Coastal Systems Network 

 Nunataryuk 

 ISSAAFFIK- Transdisciplinary