ABSTRACT
Indigenous populations of the Arctic face multiple challenges in the twenty-first century, including climate change, environmental contamination of traditional foods, and political threats to hunting and subsistence practices. Focused on long-term impacts of global warming on northern ecosystems, scientists are attempting to inform Canadian Inuit and First Nations groups about the facts and probable risks of climate change (Barber et al. 2008; Mathias et al. 2008). However, the uncertainty of predictions, balanced against more immediate concerns of food security and harvesting rights, contributes to some skepticism among indigenous peoples about the information they receive. Over the past twenty years, interviews by the author with Inuit elders of Baffin Island indicate that they consider climate change to be only one of many cumulative stressors and challenges.
