Ragnar Axelsson
LAST DAYS OF THE ARCTIC
Text by Mark Nuttall
The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on earth. This rapid climate change is having a devastating effect on the region’s ecology and, consequently, on the society of the Inuit people who depend on the arctic ice, waters, and lands for their livelihood and culture. The Inuit are amongst the world’s first people to have to deal with the severe environmental changes that are foreseen to happen this century. For many living in more southerly latitudes, reports of melting ice and thawing permafrost in the north are often so distant fromthe experience of living in temperate regions, that it is hard to imagine how such events affect people's everyday lives. The Inuit, on the other hand, have a story to tell that may soon be the fate of all mankind. The Inuit are the human face of climate change.
Photographer Ragnar Axelsson, RAX, has been recording the changing face of life in the Arctic for some 30 years. His stunning photographs from Canada, Alaska and Greenland bear witness to a culture, wildlife and natural environment that will almost certainly soon change beyond recognition.
Mark Nuttall holds the Henry Marshall Tory Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada. He has written extensively on the Arctic. His work in the Arctic, North Atlantic and western and northern Canada is mainly concerned with environmental change, climate change impacts on indigenous peoples and their livelihoods and the human dimensions of global environmental and sustainability issues. He has lived and worked extensively in Greenland, Alaska, Canada, Scotland and Finland.
The premiere of the documentary LAST DAYS OF THE ARCTIC, a Nordic-Canadian production, will coincide with the publication of the book.
Specifications
310×290 mm
288 pages
196 black-and-white and colour photographs
September 2010 (Icelandic)