By Ragnar Axelsson
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 for their livelihood and culture. The Inuit people are the first national group on Earth to face head on the profound environmental changes foreseen in this century and to pay a price for them. News of melting ice in the northern periphery often seems so distant that it is difficult to foresee that these changes will make an impact on human society. However, the Inuit have a story to tell – a story that could quickly become 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 and Greenland bear witness to a culture, wildlife and natural environment that will 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 and lived in Greenland, Alaska and Nunavut.
315 x 290 mm
272 pages
34 colour photographs
126 black-and-white photographs
October 2010