Freed by warming, waters once locked beneath ice are gnawing at coastal settlements around the Arctic Circle.
In Bykovsky, a village of 457 residents at the tip of a fin-shaped peninsula on Russia's northeast coast, the shoreline is collapsing, creeping closer and closer to houses and tanks of heating oil，at a rate of 15 to 18 feet, or 5 to 6 meters, a year. Eventually, homes will be lost as more ice melts each summer, and maybe all of Bykovsky, too.
“It is practically all ice — permafrost — and it is thawing.” The 4 million Russian people who live north of the Arctic Circle are feeling the effects of warming in many ways. A changing climate presents new opportunities, but it also threatens their environment, the stability of their homes, and，for those whose traditions rely on the ice-bound wilderness, the preservation of their culture.
A push to develop the North, quickened by the melting of the Arctic seas, carries its own rewards and dangers for people in the region. Discovery of vast petroleum fields in the Barents and Kara Seas has raised fears of catastrophic accidents as ships loaded with oil or liquefied gas churn through the fisheries off Scandinavia, headed for the eager markets of Europe and North America. Land that was untouched could be tainted by air and water pollution as generators, smokestacks and large vehicles sprout to support the growing energy industry.
Coastal erosion is a problem in Alaska as well, forcing the United States to prepare to relocate several Inuit coastal villages at a projected cost of US $ 100 million or more for each one.
Across the Arctic, indigenous tribes with cultural traditions shaped by centuries of living in extremes of cold and ice are noticing changes in weather and wildlife. They are trying to adapt, but it can be confounding.
In Finnmark, the northernmost province of Norway, the Arctic landscape unfolds in late winter as an endless snowy plateau, silent but for the cries of the reindeer and the occasional whine of a snowmobile herding them.
A changing Arctic is felt there, too, though in another way. “The reindeer are becoming unhappy,” said Issat Eira, a 31-year-old reindeer herder.
Few countries rival Norway when it comes to protecting the environment and preserving indigenous customs. The state has lavished its oil wealth on the region, and as a result Sami culture has enjoyed something of a renaissance.
And yet no amount of government support can convince Eira that his livelihood, intractably entwined with the reindeer, is not about to change. Like a Texas cattleman he keeps the size of his herd secret. But he said warmer temperatures in fall and spring are melting the top layers of snow， which then refreeze as ice, making it harder for his reindeer to dig through to the lichen they eat.
“The people who are making the decisions, they are living in the south and they are living in towns,” said Eira, sitting beside a birch fire inside his lavvu, a home made of reindeer hides. “They don’t mark the change of weather. It is only people who live in nature and get resources from nature who mark it. “
大气变暖，使得原本封锁在冰层下的水破冰侵蚀北极圈周边沿岸的居所。
位于俄国北海岸一个鱼鳍形半岛顶端的 Bykovsky村居住着457位村民，其海岸线已经坍塌，正以平均每年15至18英尺或是5至6米的速度靠向村里的房屋、燃油罐。最终，房屋会随着每年夏季更多冰层的融化而消尽，或许消失的是整个 Bykovsky村。
“事实上，这个满是冰的永冻之境正在融化。”多年来，俄罗斯北部近北极圈有400万居民正经受着大气变暖带来的影响。气候变化呈现了新的契机，同时也威胁他们的环境，威胁安居的稳健，并且影响着他们赖冰原应运而生的风俗习统和当地文化的传承。
北部沿岸发展的推动加速了北冰洋的溶化，为当地同时带来利好和危险。Barents海和Kara海域大型油田的发现开采提升了对灾难性事故的担忧，当运船靠岸时所载石油或是液体燃气将有可能混入污染斯堪维亚半岛上的渔业，这些再被鱼供往欧洲和北美热销市场。前往支持能源产业发展的大型车辆，排烟、以及发电造成水和空气的污染从而腐蚀了那些不曾被踏足的净土。
海岸的腐蚀同样困扰了阿拉斯加州，迫使美利坚合众国为重新迁置部分因纽特人而建造村落耗资，该计划将为其支付每处1亿美元或是更多。
在北极，数个世纪以来生活在极寒冰川中形成了风俗文化的本土部落留心着气候和生物的改变，他们尝试去适应，却也惶恐。
马兰芬克，它是挪威最靠北的省份。北极风景展现在熟冬如同一座永存的雪峰，他寂无声息若不是有那驯鹿的鸣蹄，那雪橇上放牧人不经意的叹息。
一系列北极的变化在那样同样被感知，通过另一种方式。31岁的放牧人艾拉告诉说：“驯鹿们渐渐变得不快乐。"
涉及环境保护和当地土著风俗文化的传承保护很少有国家比得上挪威，国家耗费了大量的石油创收用在被保护地域才使得萨米文化最终得以受益复兴。
然而纵使再多的政府支持来确保艾拉的生计，困扰却固守着驯鹿，并无好转。和德克萨斯州的牧民一样他坚持守着驯鹿数量的秘密。他却说，春秋季变暖的气温融化了地表的雪，转冷时又结成冰，使得他的驯鹿们难以挖出地上的青苔觅食。
"做决策的住在南方的城镇里" ,艾拉说着“他们不觉气候的变化，只有生活在大自然中获取自然资源的人们可以感知到。"他坐在燃着树枝的炉火边，一间以鹿皮搭造的屋子里。
2018/2/24 10:30 万达
