Almost four million people live in the Arctic today. Many distinct indigenous groups are found only in the Arctic, where they continue traditional activities and adapt to the modern world at the same time. Indigenous people currently make up roughly 10% of the total arctic population. People have occupied parts of the Arctic since at least the peak of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago.
Indigenous knowledge and observations provide an important source of information about climate change. This knowledge, consistent with complementary information from scientific research, indicates that substantial changes have already occurred.
For Inuit, warming is likely to disrupt or even destroy their hunting and food-sharing culture as reduced sea ice causes the animals on which they depend to decline, become less accessible, and possible become extinct.
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