https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/12/greenland-residents-traumatised-by-climate-emergency
[links in online article]
'Ecological grief': Greenland residents traumatised by climate emergency
Islanders are struggling to reconcile impact of global heating with
traditional way of life, survey finds
Life on thin ice: mental health at the heart of the climate crisis
Dan McDougall in Ilulissat and Tasiilaq, Greenland
Mon 12 Aug 2019
The climate crisis is causing unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety
to people in Greenland who are struggling to reconcile the traumatic
impact of global heating with their traditional way of life.
The first ever national survey examining the human impact of the climate
emergency, revealed in the Guardian on Monday, shows that more than 90%
of islanders interviewed fully accept that the climate crisis is
happening, with a further 76% claiming to have personally experienced
global heating in their daily lives, from coping with dangerous sea ice
journeys to having sled dogs euthanised for economic reasons tied to
shorter winters.
The Greenlandic Perspectives Survey was carried out by the University of
Copenhagen’s Center for Social Data Science, the Kraks Fond Institute
for Urban Economic Research and the University of Greenland. The study
samples almost 2% of the population, spanning an area almost three times
the size of France. An equivalent study in the UK would involve a sample
of almost 1 million citizens.
Scattered across 17 small towns and approximately 60 villages, all
situated on a narrow coastal strip, Greenland’s residents have often
been overlooked by data science. The island faces some of the most acute
social issues in the world with high levels of alcoholism and
historically disproportionate rates of suicide.
According to its lead author, Kelton Minor, the survey finally gives
Greenland’s most remote and inaccessible communities a voice on the
climate crisis.
He said: “The Arctic is a bellwether for the unequal impact of global
warming on social and economic systems. As countries struggle to limit
future risks and overall warming to 1.5C [an increase of 2.7F], many
Arctic and Greenlandic residents are already living in regional climates
that have changed by more than this, in less than a lifetime.
“Therein lies the paradox: while satellites and sensors monitor the
surface of Greenland’s ice sheet, chase icebergs and scan sea ice daily,
relatively little is known about what the residents of Greenland think
about their changing surroundings.”
According to the data, detailed in a Guardian investigation carried out
across Greenland in the last month, the majority of local residents
interviewed believe that the climate emergency will harm its people,
sled dogs, plants and animals. The revelation contradicts arguments that
local people believe climate breakdown will benefit the Arctic and
raises concern over a growing mental health crisis around climate in the
polar region.
Minor said: “We find that a large majority of the Greenlandic population
thinks that local sea ice has become more dangerous to travel on in
recent years, suggesting that perceptions of growing risk are widespread
for this important social, ecological and economic platform used by
residents from all regions. Importantly, we find that residents are more
likely to feel negative rather than positive sentiment when thinking
about climate change, recent changes in sea ice, as well as glacial
changes.”
The survey is revealed as the Arctic faces potentially record warming
levels. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado,
US, Greenland has already lost more than 250bn tonnes from a combination
of melt runoff and low total snowfall in July.
For mental health professionals who specialise in the polar region, the
latest survey findings from Greenland will present another red flag for
the Arctic’s vulnerable Inuit communities. According to Courtney Howard,
the board president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the
Environment, who lives and works in the Arctic, the intersection between
the climate emergency and mental and physical health will become one of
the world’s major issues.
Howard said: “Temperature change is magnified in circumpolar regions.
There is no question Arctic people are now showing symptoms of anxiety,
‘ecological grief’ and even post-traumatic stress related to the effects
of climate change.
“We are challenging the medical profession to acknowledge the world we
are inheriting. Schools and universities aren’t considering how climate
change will affect people, from a medical or a psychological
perspective, so we are not training a new generation of medical
professionals to help people in a fast-changing planet and this is
intolerable. We are moving too slowly on this.”
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