Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change: Livie Kullualik

Livie Kullualik from Pangnirtung shares his environmental observations.

Here it used to start melting, in seems, in two layers. Now that doesn't happen anymore. The melting is not happening the way it used to. This is the greatest impact according to my knowledge.

It's not quite the same. I've noticed it. Since I've been observing the environment, it's quite different. It has changed dramatically. You start to notice these changes. Ever since I've seen it, you can tell that it has changed. And ice, every year, the ice would form. Not very often was it open. Right now, it never freezes where there used to be ice.

It's still thick, but not like it used to be, as it melts much faster. According to my knowledge, it melts faster because it is softer.

What I think, is that what has melted, like glaciers, kept everything cold. They used to have snow, when we remembered them, even in summer. Today, the glaciers are all gone. They used to be there all summer, even till the fall. The warming, in summer, it's melting the glaciers every year. Maybe without them this is the cause of the warming.

It's not quite the same. In a very short time, the day returns, it wasn't like that before. In a matter of days, the sun is higher, I've noticed that too. It's suspicious. It's high and that's abnormal. Maybe that's the cause of the loss of the ice; it's warmer.

To me, it's not dramatically changing, but slowly it's noticeable. The ice is changing the most. The ice never used to be like this. In the spring time, in May, the ice would still be there, but that never happens anymore. The ice is getting softer and it's getting bad. We used to go to the floe edge, way down by an island out there, and all this area would have been covered in ice. This area - where the floe edge is now - never freezes up anymore. We used to go way down there to the floe edge. It's not like that anymore.

The currents, they seem to be the same, but they tend to erode the ice faster. Like I said, it's not as cold as it used to be, and the ice is softer. Back then, the snow would stay longer, and it was colder. Now the land really melts. Glaciers have melted and maybe that's the cause of the ice not getting as hard as it used to be.

When there is less wind, the snow is soft. When we have lots of wind, the snow becomes hard. Back then we used to have deep snow. Now, that never happens, the snow doesn't get thick anymore.

Before we had weather reports, clouds were the only way we could tell the weather. You could tell how the weather will be. You really notice it. Now a days, we go by weather reports. You can still know the weather by practicing the old ways. Now, if you get a bad weather report, you don't go hunting. That's now a days, but I'm not like that. When I think it's not going to be bad, I just go. Even in bad weather, we travel.