ABSTRACT
The Arctic is ground zero for the effects of climate change. We all have a relationship with the northern regions through their central role in controlling vital parts of weather systems and the cooling of the Earth. It has an important history as a frozen part of our world and with its unique ecosystem it is home to 4 million people and to ancient Indigenous cultures. All the Arctic is now changing, and so are its destinations for the exclusive but popular Arctic tourism. Visual technologies have a long tradition of supporting Western cultures’ understanding and representations of the North. This chapter is a reflection on that tradition and its possible development. It expands Western scientific knowledge and our ways of telling stories with traditional ecological knowledge from the story-based Indigenous cultures, to find new models for understanding the precarious situation facing the northern regions. The tourist experience in the Arctic offers a unique learning opportunity where the impact of the effects of climate change is explicitly evident; through direct interaction with the northern environment, visitors are given an on-site explanation and understanding of the process of an environment in transition.
