FROSTLINES

In the Arctic, “cold is freedom.” What will happen when it warms?

National Geographic writer Shea has traveled throughout the far north and illuminates it with an emphasis on climate change. He concentrates on lands from northern Canada to Norway, which are warming three or four times more rapidly than temperate regions. The heat is destroying the Arctic cryosphere—sea ice, snow, permafrost, weather patterns, and ocean currents that bind this world together. Like the U.S., Canada has more or less gotten its act together and no longer treats its Indigenous people as less than human, but this doesn’t include protecting them from modern life. Today, hardly any Inuit keeps a dog team or travels by dogsled. Largely self-governing, they live in houses, hunt with rifles, and prefer snowmobiles. Hunting and fishing remain a preoccupation, a beloved tradition but also essential for food. Traveling far south to obtain medical and dental care is a hardship, and a major irritation remains the lack of cell phone reception. Already inhabited by Inuit cultures, Greenland was settled by Vikings during the 10th century; by the 15th century, the Vikings had vanished, perhaps the result of a cooling climate. The author explores the reasons for their disappearance, an ongoing national archeological obsession, before returning his focus to climate change. Greenland, 80% of which is covered with ice, is the only nation with no temperate zone and no worries about overheating. Melting ice will free large areas for farming and mining, and many Greenlanders are looking forward to it. Moving on to northern Norway at the Russian border, Shea recounts vast changes in the two nations’ relations since World War II, an entertaining conclusion despite the absence of information on climate change.

A fascinating, if grim, portrait of a region that’s getting less cold.