Human ecology and climate change

The Far North, a land of extreme weather and intense beauty, is the only region of North America whose ecosystems have remained reasonably intact. Humans are newcomers there and nature predominates. As is widely known, recent changes in the Earth's atmosphere have the potential to create rapid climatic shifts in our lifetime and well into the future.

These changes, a product of southern industrial society, will have the greatest impact on ecosystems at northern latitudes, which until now have remained largely undisturbed. In this fragile balance, as terrestrial and aquatic habitats change, animal and human populations will be irrevocably altered.

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The first of its kind, this book explores how global change might affect the ecosystems and cultures of the Far North during the next century. It brings together biologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and resource managers to contribute their diverse knowledge and insight in a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to this important topic. The book takes an objective look into the future and offers suggestions for further research.

It is meant to be a positive step toward sound future managerial policy in this region. Some of the areas covered include demography and socioeconomics, wildlife biology, ethnography and archeology, global warming, meteorology and climatic modeling, environmental values, and resource use and management.

As is true everywhere, human populations in the Far North are undergoing profound change, and the challenges faced are spiritual as well as social and behavioral. A careful look at this region's human ecology, the study of humanity in relation to environment and other living things, is more critical now than ever before.

To anyone who cares about the future and what is happening to the land in which we live, the ideas presented here are exciting as well as sobering, and will stimulate further interest and concern for the northern third of our planet.