As temperatures rise and sea-ice melts, lifestyles are changing as fast as the climate in Greenland.
By Adrienne MurrayIcebergs bigger than city blocks loom through the mist as Kaleeraq Mathaeussen reels in halibut from the frigid waters one by one.More than 250km inside the Arctic Circle, the coastal town of Ilulissat in western Greenland is also a busy port.
"Today it is unpredictable and too dangerous to go fishing with my sled dogs," he explains. He stopped sledding two years ago and now he only fishes by boat.Communities in northern Greenland have lived in one of the world's toughest environments for centuries. Kaleeraq still owns more than 30. Before he used his dogs for tourism, but now only keeps them for his teenage son. "I still miss that way of life, but it just has to be like this for now," he says.
When she was growing up sled dogs were always around, she says. "I'm not happy to see [the dogs] disappearing from our culture."Diseases and snowmobiles are partly responsible. Also climate change has had an impact. "The season is getting shorter and shorter. We can feel that," says Flemming."All of this ice is missing now," Flemming says as he points to a map of the Sermeq Kujalleg or Jakobshavn glacier.
"When I was a kid, the weather was more predictable. Nowadays… we never know how the winter is going to be," he says. Further north, near Thule, retreating sea ice is impacting local hunters, he tells the BBC. "They are used to going on some very long hunting tours. They can't do it anymore. So they have to change their way of living."In some ways Arctic life has become easier. Milder winters have brought new opportunities and Ilulissat is booming.
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