ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on long-term and recurring research in hunting and fishing communities in the Upernavik region of northwest Greenland, an area in which author has worked since the late 1980s. It argues for understanding the consequences of climate change in a broader context – rapid social, economic, and demographic change, wildlife management, oil exploration, quota systems for marine mammals and fish, environmentalist campaigns, and trade barriers have significant implications for everyday life in the Arctic. And in many cases, what climate change does is magnify existing societal, political, economic, legal, institutional, and other challenges that affect northern peoples. While the effects of climate change are stark in the Arctic, people are navigating northern waters that are not just being transformed by shifting sea ice or warmer currents, but are being threatened by oil exploration and by neoliberal views of northern ocean environments and how the animals and fish in them should be managed, caught, and marketed.
