4th Arctic Spirit Conference opens in Rovaniemi
Climate change menaces Arctic nature, culture
Published : 13 Nov 2019, 00:47
Updated : 13 Nov 2019, 09:47
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Krista Mikkonen on Tuesday said Arctic nature as well as the indigenous people and their cultures are gradually getting more and more vulnerable to the negative consequences of climate change.
Speaking at the 4th Arctic Spirit Conference hosted by Rovaniemi, she, however, expressed satisfaction at the interest of the young generation to the climate issue as they will represent the future.
“The climate crisis is also a sustainability crisis as it has major economic, environmental and social consequences,” said the minister on the opening day of the two-day conference.
The conference was inaugurated by Rovaniemi City Mayor Esko Lotvonen at the Korundi House of Culture with hundreds of people from home and abroad taking part.
In his inaugural speech, the Rovaniemi mayor highlighted the main themes of the conference, which are the need for collaboration between decision-makers and the importance of looking further into the future when it comes to climate change.
“In Arctic we have need for cooperation between different levels. International and national level makes overall guidelines and laws. But, in practice, what happens in the Arctic is the dependence of decisions on the local level in municipalities and cities,” noted Lotvonen.
The group of young people from Rovaniemi took the floor next to share their ideas on how to prevent the crisis that is climate change. The following solutions were brought to the table: popularisation of wood constructions, use of solar panels, implementation of healthier food lunches made with local ingredients, and, finally, utilisation of bottle recycling deposit all over Europe. The kids pointed out that adults should spare no expense on this matter: “Money shouldn’t affect us wanting to save our only home.”
The event continued with a panel discussion about the perspective of Arctic youth on climate change.
Maria Ojala, an associate professor at Örebro University in Sweden, shared the findings of empirical studies on the impact of climate change on the psychological health of young people.
It turned out that in many cases this problem causes severe stress, anxiety and fear among the younger generation. These feelings make school children like the Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg take action and be more vocal.
“Their voices are important because it is their future that is at stake,” believes Ojala. The professor concluded that the way to deal with negative emotions is to be collectively engaged in tackling the problem of climate change.
Anna-Katri Kulmala, a member of the Arctic Youth Network (AYN), told the audience that after years of leading a consumerist lifestyle and using unsustainable means to travel, she was left with a feeling of emptiness and conflict in her head. This led to a decision to make a “U-turn” and give something back. In the spring of 2019, Kulmala joined a cultural exchange programme and visited Alaska, where she came to know about environmental issues and indigenous cultures in Alaska and in the Arctic. She also co-founded a start-up with a mission of replacing plastic with biomaterials.
Anni-Sofia Niittyvuopio, a member of Suoma Sámi Nuorat, Sámi youth organisation in Finland, also shared her concerns about the role of Sámi youth in the fight against climate degradation.
She said more and more Sámi people experience ethnostress, the fear for the life of their unborn children. Niittyvuopio said it is joyful for her to see the indigenous youth rising to share ideas about saving the Arctic region, by rightfully noting: “We have knowledge of our land.”
Chloe Dragon Smith, a land relationships consultant from Yellowknife, Canada, shared that from her perspective, climate change is not a fight but a problem of connection with each other and with the land.
Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi, the president of the Social Democratic Youth of Finland and a member of Rovaniemi City Council, noted the importance of the role that media is playing when it comes to environmental issues like climate change. Society is very much affected by the messages coming through media channels on environmental problems. He noted that in its turn the awareness of the citizens is able to affect politicians. Näkkäläjärvi pointed out, “Media has a big role in what kind of discussion it’s creating in Finnish or in global debate.”
Speaking at the conference, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Environment of Finland Hannele Pokka said the ministers from the capitals should travel to the periphery to dive more deeply into the northern issues:
“Perhaps something will be in their mind when they go back to their capitals and have their important meetings.” She also noted that “the Barents cooperation has been overshadowed by Arctic cooperation in the public eye,” adding that many achievements of the Barents cooperation are not reflected in the media.
Gunn-Britt Retter, the head of the Arctic and Environment Unit, presented her perspective on how the indigenous people’s opinions should be taken into account in the decision-making processes concerning climate change.
Retter said, “As decision-makers, our concerns never seem to be important enough. We are losing hunting and gathering grounds not due to climate change alone but due to encroachments causing land fragmentation. And on top of this comes rapid environmental and climate changes.” Retter also emphasised that if decision-makers won’t take into consideration the knowledge of indigenous people, it will mean that they will be rewriting the history of Arctic homelands.
The Arctic Yearbook 2019 edited by Professor Lassi Heininen was also launched on the occasion.
The event will continue on Wednesday in Arktikum, a museum and science centre.