Climate change is affecting the whole planet, but the dramatic effects in the Arctic are deeper than anywhere else. As ice melts, new sea routes open for navigation, while fishing stocks change both in quantity and quality. Huge and rich underground resources come within reach, attracting the interest not only by the Arctic States, but also by countries and private companies far removed from the region, striving to obtain exploitation licences. Therefore, unprecedented perspectives of economic development for the region are coming into view.
However, exploitation of new resources will have an enormous impact both on the environment and on the life of the traditional communities that have been living in the Arctic region since centuries. On the one hand, the challenge lies in the “paradoxical spiral” – Lorenzoni, p. 62 – that Arctic gas and oil resources could ease the increasing problems of energy supply, but their extraction and exploitation would just aggravate the global warming, that the same fossil fuels have been causing since the last century.
On the other hand, the negative impact would be experienced, first of all, by the Arctic population still consisting mostly of indigenous Inuit peoples, living in the different States that presently incorporate and rule Inuit’s ancestral land. The way in which indigenous Arctic peoples’ rights are recognized may be quite different from State to State, but a common feature is of high concern: traditional lifestyle and culture are endangered by the on-going new economic activities. This means that the same survival of the indigenous communities as such is put at risk.