Ice now forms up much later in the year, and when it does form, it is thinner and subject to freeze-thaw cycles, said Cyrus Harris. “We depend on that thick, what we use to call ‘polar’ ice, which we don’t have anymore,” he said. (via AlaskaBeacon)
Vera Metcalf stands on Wednesday by a chunk of sea ice transported from Utqiagvik and displayed at the Arctic Encounter Symposium. The melting ice, which started at 310 pounds, symbolizes the rapid climate change that is weaking the Arctic ice pack, with profound implications for ecosystems, communties and cultures.
Known broadly to Indigenous people as “siku,” it is so important that there are numerous names for the widely varying sea-ice conditions, said Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf, executive director of the Alaska Eskimo Walrus Commission and a veteran of other Arctic organizations. There is “miluta,” or new fall ice, a word that doubles up to describe throwing; and “saqralqaq,” meaning ice that is solid enough for walking but soft enough that walkers leave footprints that fill with water, she said.
Cyrus Harris, a natural resource advocate for the Kotzebue-based nonprofit Maniilaq Association, described the practical impacts of ice loss. “For me, sea ice melt is a hazardous thing for travel,” he said in Wednesday’s session. “All that sea ice was natural, free infrastructure from nature to protect our shorelines, protect our infrastructure that was built, protect our communities. And that is gone,” Schaeffer said, citing repeated floods and erosion problems. “Economically, every community along our coast is threatened by fall storms because we no longer have that free infrastructure.”
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