XPost: soc.culture.can, soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.canadian   
   From: abc@123.cl   
      
   Global warming a growing threat to Arctic reindeer   
      
      
   November 15, 2009   
      
      
   A reindeer herd walks on the beach in Jarfjord, Norway on November 11.   
   On Norway's border with Russia, the consequences of climate change are   
   affecting the reindeer population as rising temperatures hit food   
   stocks and industry growth eats into vital grazing land.   
      
   A reindeer herd walks on the beach in Jarfjord, Norway on November 11.   
   On Norway's border with Russia, the consequences of climate change are   
   affecting the reindeer population as rising temperatures hit food   
   stocks and industry growth eats into vital grazing land.   
   Photograph by: Thomas Nilsen, AFP   
      
   JARFJORD, Norway – On Norway's border with Russia, the consequences of   
   climate change are affecting the reindeer population as rising   
   temperatures hit food stocks and industry growth eats into vital   
   grazing land.   
      
   "Over the past three years, I've had to give some hay to my 800   
   reindeer during the coldest months. It's more expensive and it gives me   
   more work," said Jan Egil Trasti, a reindeer herder from the native   
   Sami people.   
      
   The reason: the lichen his animals graze on has become tougher to find   
   as winter temperatures rise. The snow thaws, and along with rain, then   
   freezes anew -- covering the ground in layers impervious to all but the   
   most tenacious reindeer.   
      
   Grazing land is also disappearing under the weight of industry as   
   buildings, pipelines, roads and other infrastructure increasingly dot   
   old pastures.   
      
   Trasti's nomadic ancestors have raised these beasts for hundreds of   
   years. His grandfather worked the Russian tundra before moving to the   
   Norwegian coast.   
      
   "I have it in my blood. I hope one of my sons will take over," the   
   herder said. He has, though, a hint of doubt in his eyes, his meagre   
   earnings well below the average Norwegian salary.   
      
   Only a minority of Sami -- some 3,000 -- make their living raising and   
   herding in Norway, home to around 240,000 reindeer.   
      
   In this month of November, just weeks ahead of a key UN climate summit   
   in Denmark, snow has not yet blanketed the flora in the Far North.   
      
   Indeed temperatures in this region near the Barents Sea are   
   unseasonably mild, above zero degrees Celsius.   
      
   In the past, when the snows have come, they have generally fallen on   
   dry ground, whereas now they fall on lichen engorged with water.   
      
   Trasti is no scientist, and environmental experts hesitate to link   
   specific weather events to long-term climate change, but trends over   
   the last several decades have clearly shown the Arctic hit hard by   
   global warming.   
      
   In September, a study in the journal Science reported dramatic effects   
   on animals in the Arctic due to a one-degree Celsius warming over the   
   past 150 years.   
      
   The Arctic tends to warm three times faster than elsewhere in the   
   Northern Hemisphere because of a phenomenon called Arctic amplification   
   -- a separate study in the same journal noted that summer temperatures   
   were some 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than they should have been by the   
   year 2000.   
      
   Jonathan Colman, specialist in "reindeer ecology" at the University of   
   Oslo, explained that sometimes "there's wet ice in the lichen."   
      
   "It gets into their stomachs and they can't digest the food."   
      
   To avoid losing precious livestock, the Sami are forced to move   
   reindeer to drier ground, meaning it is more important than ever to   
   respect the tradition of driving herds across the entire north of the   
   nation.   
      
   An animal can sell for 240 euros (359 dollars), and its meat for around   
   seven euros a kilogramme (10.46 dollars per 2.2 pounds).   
      
   Trasti can make extra money selling the hides or antlers to tourists,   
   and also gets compensation if his animals are killed by predators.   
      
   Norwegian Sami follow the herd with vehicles, but their cousins in   
   Russia still accompany the animals with sleds, camping as they go.   
      
   But the drive, and the ability to follow the reindeer, has been   
   increasingly hampered by industrialisation.   
      
   An iron ore mine which was closed down 15 years ago has re-opened   
   nearby, while elsewhere liquid gas terminals, wind farms and roads are   
   dotted across, or separate, traditional pastures.   
      
   The International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry has expressed regret   
   that "the herders have only a marginal influence on the development of   
   their own traditional lands."   
      
   That's despite a law that "Norway was built on the territory of two   
   people, the Sami and the Norwegians," said Christina Henriksen, a Sami   
   who coordinates an aid programme for native peoples in the Arctic   
   region.   
      
   "For me, being a Sami means herding reindeer," said Trasti, who does   
   not speak his native language.   
      
   "My parents weren't allowed to speak Sami at school in the 60's," he   
   said, and out of guilt, they "didn't teach us the language."   
      
   For the moment though, reindeer numbers are holding up under the strain   
   of global warming, but that's a fact Colman puts down to their very   
   resilience.   
      
   "If reindeer weren't as adaptable, there wouldn't be any left," he   
   said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)