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A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 11 december 2019
In Sweden’s Arctic, ice atop snow leaves reindeer starving

By DAVID KEYTON broaden understanding
Associated Press about changing weather
KIRUNA, Sweden (AP) — patterns.
Thick reindeer fur boots and As part of this rare collabo-
a fur hat covering most of ration between Sami and
his face shielded Niila Inga science, weather stations
from freezing winds as he deep in the forests of the
raced his snowmobile up Laevas community are
to a mountain top over- recording air and ground
looking his reindeer in the temperature, rainfall, wind
Swedish arctic. speed and snowfall den-
His community herds about sity. Sami ancestral knowl-
8,000 reindeer year-round, edge of the land and the
moving them between tra- climate complements
ditional grazing grounds analysis of data gathered,
in the high mountains bor- offering a more detailed
dering Norway in the sum- understanding of weather
mer and the forests farther events.
east in the winter, just as his “With this data we can
forebears in the Sami indig- connect my traditional
enous community have for knowledge and I see what
generations. the effects of it are,” says
But Inga is troubled: His Inga who has been work-
reindeer are hungry, and ing on the project since
he can do little about it. 2013 and has co-authored
Climate change is altering In this Saturday, Nov. 30. 2019 photo, reindeer in a corral at Lappeasuando near Kiruna await to published scientific papers
be released onto the winter pastures.
weather patterns here and Associated Press with Ninis Rosqvist, a profes-
affecting the herd’s food sor of Natural Geography
supply. at Stockholm University.
“If we don’t find better ar- east as planned, while Snowfall is common in these a community living in the Rosqvist directs a field sta-
eas for them where they the rest retreated to the areas, but as temperatures mountains surrounding Jok- tion operating since the
can graze and find food, mountains where preda- increase, occasional rain- kmokk, an important Sami 1940s in the Swedish alpine
then the reindeers will tors abound, and the risk of fall occurs — and ‘rain-on- town just north of the Arctic region measuring glaciers
starve to death,” he said. avalanches is great. snow’ events are having Circle. “Here you can’t find and changes in snow and
Already pressured by the Elder Sami herders recall devastating effects. The food, but maybe you can ice. But through the col-
mining and forestry indus- that they once had bad food is still there, but the find food there, but there laboration with Inga, she
try, and other develop- winters every decade or reindeer can’t reach it. The they want to clear-cut the realized that less “exciting”
ment that encroach on so, but Inga said that “ex- animals grow weaker and forest and that’s the prob- areas in the forests may
grazing land, Sami herding treme and strange weath- females sometimes abort lem.” The 24-year-old is be most crucial to under-
communities fear climate er are getting more and their calves while the sur- the president of the Swed- standing the impacts of
change could mean the more normal, it happens vivors struggle to make it ish Sami Youth organization changing climate.
end of their traditional life- several times a year.” through the winter. and, together with eight “As a scientist I can mea-
style. The arctic is warming twice “We have winter here for other families elsewhere in sure that something is hap-
Slipping his hand from a as fast as the rest of the eight months a year and the world, they launched pening, but I don’t know
massive reindeer skin mit- globe. Measurements by when it starts in October a legal action in 2018 to the impact of it on, in this
ten, Inga illustrated the the Swedish Meteorologi- with bad grazing condi- force the European Union case, the whole ecosys-
problem, plunging his hand cal and Hydrological Insti- tions it won’t get any bet- to set more ambitious tar- tem. And that’s why you
into the crusted snow and tute show the country has ter,” Inga said. gets for reducing green- need their knowledge,”
pulling out a hard piece of warmed 1.64 degrees Cel- That is devastating to Sami house gas emissions. Ear- she said.
ice close to the soil. sius (2.95-degree Fahren- herders, a once-nomadic lier this year, the European Rosqvist hopes this re-
Unusually early snowfall in heit) compared with pre- people scattered across General Court rejected search can help Sami
autumn was followed by industrial times. In Sweden’s a region that spans the far their case on procedural communities argue their
rain that froze, trapping alpine region, this increase north of Sweden, Norway, grounds, but the plaintiffs case with decision-makers
food under a thick layer is even greater, with aver- Finland and the northwest- have appealed. “We’ve legislating land use rights.
of ice. Unable to eat, the age winter temperatures ern corner of Russia. Until said we don’t want mon- Back in the forest, Inga is
hungry animals have scat- between 1991 and 2017 the 1960s, this indigenous ey because we can’t buy releasing onto the winter
tered from their traditional up more than 3 degrees minority were discouraged better weather with mon- pastures a group of rein-
migration routes in search Celsius (5.4-degree Fahr- from reindeer herding and ey,” Vannar said. “We’ve deer that had been sepa-
of new grazing grounds. enheit) compared with the their language and culture said we need that the EU rated from the herd when
Half the herd carried on 1961-1990 average. were suppressed. Today, of take action and they need the animals scattered ear-
the 70,000 Sami, only about to do it now.” lier in autumn.
10% herd reindeer, mak- The EU’s new executive Several other herders have
ing a limited income from Commission is expected spent more than a week
meat, hides and antlers to present a ‘European high in the mountains
crafted into knife handles. Green Deal’ on Wednes- searching for the other half
“Everyone wants to take day, to coincide with a of the herd and trying to
the reindeers’ area where U.N. climate conference in bring the animals down, to
they find food. But with cli- Madrid. no avail.
mate change, we need Herders have also started “As long as they are forced
more flexibility to move working with Stockholm to stay there, they’ll get
around,” said Sanna Van- University, hoping to ad- into worse and worse con-
nar, a young herder from vance research that will dition,” he warned.q