A部分

Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud, following early thaws. There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips and refreezes, of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts, and sea ice breaking up earlier than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract idea to most of us, but in the Arctic it is already having dramatic effects – if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer. The knock-on effects are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies, increased precipitation and higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what’s going on because they consider the Arctic the ‘canary in the mine’ for global warming – a warning of what’s in store for the rest of the world.

    北极地区报告了一系列异常事件。因为早期融化，因纽特家庭乘雪地摩托车去准备夏季狩猎营地时发现自己被一片泥浆海隔离在家中无法返回。有报道称，随着雪的滴落和重新冰冻，雪屋失去了其绝缘特性，永久冻土融化导致湖泊流入海洋，以及海冰比往常更早地破裂，将海豹带到了猎人无法触及的地方。气候变化对大多数人来说可能仍是一个相当抽象的概念，但在北极，它已经产生了戏剧性的影响——如果夏季冰层继续以目前的速度消失，北冰洋可能很快在夏季几乎完全无冰。这将引起更多的变暖、多云天气、降水增加和海平面升高等连锁效应。科学家们越来越渴望了解正在发生的事情，因为他们认为北极是全球变暖的“矿井里的金丝雀”，是对世界其他地区即将发生的警示。

B部分

For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what’s happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country’s newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.

对因纽特人来说，问题是紧迫的。他们在地球上最恶劣的环境中保持着脆弱的平衡。无论气候变化的原因是什么，它都直接威胁到了他们的生活方式。没有人比当地人更了解北极，这就是为什么他们不满足于袖手旁观，让外部专家告诉他们发生了什么的原因。在加拿大，因纽特人正在争取保护他们在该国最新领土努纳武特赢得的自治权，他们相信在这个不断变化的环境中生存下去的最大希望在于将他们祖传的知识与现代科学的最佳结合。这本身就是一个挑战。

C部分

The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.

加拿大北极地区是一个广阔的无树冰雪覆盖的极地沙漠，一年中大部分时间都被雪覆盖。进入这片地区，你就可以对居住在这里的人所面临的困难有所了解。农业是不可能的，大自然提供的东西很少。人类在北极地区定居的历史仅有4500年，他们通过捕猎海洋哺乳动物和鱼类来生存。环境对他们的考验极大：有时殖民者取得成功，有时他们失败并消失。但大约在一千年前，出现了一个独特适应北极环境的群体。这些图勒人从阿拉斯加迁移到这里，带来了皮划艇、雪橇、狗、陶器和铁制工具。他们是今天因纽特人的祖先。

D部分

Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometers of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It’s currently home to 2,500 people, all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the territory’s 28 isolated communities, but they still rely heavily on nature to provide food and clothing.

Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer. It would cost a family around f7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat. Economic opportunities are scarce, and for many people state benefits are their only income.

对于这些图勒人后代来说，生活依然艰难。努纳武特是一个占地190万平方公里的岩石和冰雪之地，以及北极附近的几个岛屿。目前有2500人居住在那里，除少数人外都是土著因纽特人。在过去的40年里，他们中的大多数已经放弃了游牧的生活方式，定居在该地区的28个孤立社区中，但他们仍然严重依赖大自然提供食物和衣物。

当地商店可以提供的商品必须通过世界上成本最高昂的航空网络之一运往努纳武特，或者在几个无冰的夏季周数内由供应船运输。如果用进口肉替代他们通过狩猎获得的肉食，一个家庭每年需要花费约7000加元。经济机会很少，对许多人来说，国家福利是他们唯一的收入来源。

E部分

While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there has certainly been an impact on people’s health. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are beginning to appear in a people for whom these have never before been problems. There has been a crisis of identity as the traditional skills of hunting, trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear. In Nunavut’s ‘igloo and email’ society, where adults who were born in igloos have children who may never have been out on the land, there’s a high incidence of depression.

尽管因气候变化狩猎和捕猎被限制而因纽特人可能不会真正挨饿，但对人们的健康确实产生了影响。肥胖、心脏病和糖尿病开始在一个从未出现过这些问题的民族中出现。随着狩猎、捕猎和制皮等传统技能的消失，身份认同感危机也产生了。在努纳武特的“雪房和电子邮件”社会中，那些在雪房中出生的成年人都有可能再也没有到过大自然，因此抑郁症的发病率很高。

F部分

With so much at stake, the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of climate change in the Arctic. Having survived there for centuries, they believe their wealth of traditional knowledge is vital to the task. And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom, increasingly referred to as ‘Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit’, or IQ. ‘In the early days, scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don’t know very much so we won’t ask them,’ says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. ‘But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.’ In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get permission to do research that they consult the communities, who are helping to set the research agenda to reflect their most important concerns. They can turn down applications from scientists they believe will work against their interests, or research projects that will impinge too much on their daily lives and traditional activities.

考虑到如此重要的问题，因纽特人决心在揭示北极气候变化的谜团中发挥关键作用。他们在那里生存了数个世纪，他们相信他们丰富的传统知识对于这项任务至关重要。西方科学家开始利用这种智慧，越来越多地被称为“Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit”或IQ。“在早期，科学家们在来这里研究任何事物时都忽视我们。他们认为这些人并不了解很多，所以我们不会询问他们，”因纽特领导人和政治家约翰·阿马戈利克说道。“但在近年来，IQ变得更加可信、更有重量。”事实上，对于希望获得研究许可的任何人来说，现在都必须咨询社区，他们正在帮助制定研究议程以反映他们最重要的关切。他们可以拒绝那些他们认为会损害他们利益的科学家的申请，或者会过多干涉他们的日常生活和传统活动的研究项目。

G部分

Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic doesn’t go back far enough. Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. IQ could help to bridge the gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we’re seeing is natural capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.