Here are some of the stories from around the Arctic that we've been following this week:
For northern villages, suicide is a complex problem
Earlier this month, the problem of suicide in northern towns grabbed international headlines as the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario declared a state of emergency after a string of suicide attempts. Canada's House of Commons held an emergency session in the immediate aftermath, and a cabinet minister announced this week that Canada's federal government is close to adopting a comprehensive suicide crisis plan for indigenous communities.
But as a long-form report from NPR details, suicide is an especially complex and persistent problem in northern communities. It describes how suicide epidemics have affected Greenland as a generation moved from villages to larger towns and exchanged a subsistence economy for a modern one -- and tells of Greenlanders who are fighting back, despite the unusually difficult obstacles. (Here are some suicide warning signs to watch for; help is available through the Alaska Careline at 1-877-266-HELP.)
Further reading:
- Scientists from India are using that nation's first Arctic observatory to look for links between conditions in the Arctic Ocean and the Indian monsoon.
- While Alaska Natives living in Arctic regions have transitioned from nomadic tradition to life in villages, their cultures have retained a strong link to the landscape, a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher tells KUAC.
- Scientists have known that undersea methane vents in other parts of the world host unusual ecosystems. Now, in Norway's Barents Sea, they've found such communities in the Arctic Ocean.
- Quebec is considering a registry for long guns. Inuit communities in that province's far north want to be exempted.
- Could a warming Arctic trigger tsunamis from underwater landslides?