Earth Day in the Arctic, where climate change is up close and personal

[LuckyTheDog]

LAPLAND, Finland -- For dogsled guide Marco Echola, the massive disruptions wrought by global climate change are not an abstract concept. One night last month on a trek across the Arctic Circle, as the Aurora Borealis lit the frigid landscape of snow-covered lakes and forests, several of his huskies got loose. They were able to slip out of their collars because their fur had started to thin, which typically does not happen until much later in the year. “It’s too early for shedding,” Echola said.

The canine escapade is one of many strange anomalies in the new Arctic Circle, where evidence of climate change goes beyond such obvious events as melting glaciers, stranded polar bears and rain in February. As the world celebrates Earth Day, the top of the world offers a unique window on the sometimes unforeseen consequences of global warming, in which familiar meteorological patterns no longer apply.


In the Arctic, which due to its sensitivity to temperature is on the front lines of climate change, the result is an unfamiliar cycle of thawing and freezing that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, and which is affecting life in large and small ways.

This winter, residents up here found themselves wondering if there would be enough snow -- a question more often reserved for ski resorts far to the south. People here feel the effects of climate change far more intimately than those whose exposure is limited to scientific studies or who might glimpse the Arctic's miles-long ice fractures during an intercontinental flight.

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/earth-day-arctic-climate-change/