Aqqualuk Lynge
Inuit, Greenland
Aqqualuk Lynge is a leader of Greenland’s Inuit people. The Inuit – and other Arctic indigenous groups – have campaigned internationally to draw attention to the dramatic impact of global warming on their natural environment.
In my lifetime, we have seen a big difference in floes of ice and animal migration, and we have seen the weather change. My community is lucky it is not in Alaska, where a village is crumbling into the sea because of rising sea levels. The Alaskan state is supporting them to relocate.
The Greenland ice cap is melting very fast and this will affect the rest of the world – that’s why the Arctic is a barometer. We have known about it for a long time – before other famous people started talking about it.
We need to study much more the effects of this on Inuits. We have existed for thousands of years and our culture and lifestyle have changed for lots of reasons, but because of climate change it will be over in two generations. We are asking scientists worldwide to study what will happen to human beings if the ice caps disappear.
'We know what the effect will be on polar bears, on whales and on fish stocks. But the heating of the sea is far worse than we thought'
We know what the effect will be on polar bears, on whales and on fish stocks. But the heating of the sea is far worse than we thought. We have tried to adapt to new circumstances but any small change in sea temperature can change many things and now it is too high.
Each community in the Arctic is isolated – connected only by sea, no roads, no air. My mission is to say that local matters are global as well. People know that what happens here today will have an effect tomorrow. The permafrost is also disappearing: the environmental things that make the rest of the world stable are now unstable in the Arctic.
We are very nervous and sometimes we are angry that the decision-makers are not taking the right decisions. We have to wake up the governments to the reality of what is happening.
We have a legal petition under way in the US at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, to look into the issues we are facing. The case is not to get compensation; we need support for decision-makers to understand that we are paying a great price for what others are doing to the environment. I hope the government realizes this and adapts for the future. We are small nations and we cannot afford to shut up.