"Social change, ecology and climate in 20th century Greenland." Lawrence C. Hamilton, Per Lyster and Oddmund Otterstad, 2000.
Climatic Change 47(1/2):193-211.
ABSTRACT
Two great transitions, from seal hunting to cod fishing, then from cod fishing to shrimp, affected population centers of southwest Greenland during the 20th century. These economic transitions reflected large-scale shifts in the underlying marine ecosystems, driven by interactions between climate and human resource use. The combination of climatic variation and fishing pressure, for example, proved fatal to west Greenland's cod fishery. We examine the history of these transitions, using data down to the level of individual municipalities. At this level, the uneven social consequences of environmental change show clearly: some places gained, while others lost. Developments in 20th-century Greenland resemble patterns of human-environment interactions in the medieval Norse settlements, suggesting some general propositions relevant to the human dimensions of climatic change.
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Greenland's 18 municipalities (circle areas proportional to 1995 population). Data source: Statistics Greenland.
Figure 2: Mean August/September sea surface temperatures (top) and mean annual air temperatures (bottom) near Nuuk/Godthåb, 1880-1992. Graph shows monthly or annual values (bars), long-term means (horizontal lines), and lowess smoothed curves with approximately decadal bandwidths. Data sources: COADS, NHCDC.
Figure 3: Rise and fall of cod fishing off west Greenland, 1920-1998. Data sources: Horsted (1994); Statistics Greenland.
Figure 4: Mean sea surface temperature, cod biomass, and cod catch off west Greenland, 1982-91. The vertical scales for each series are different: sea surface temperatures 1-2.6 degrees C; cod biomass index 5.2-639 thousand tons; cod catches 6.6-108.8 thousand tons. Data sources: COADS, Rätz 1992, Horsted 1994.
Figure 5: West Greenland's cod and shellfish catch, 1950-1998. Data sources: NAFO, Statistics Greenland.
Figure 6: Codfish landings (thousands of metric tons) of thirteen west Greenland municipalities, 1988-98. Data source: Statistics Greenland.
Figure 7: Shrimp landings (thousands of metric tons) of thirteen west Greenland municipalities, 1988-98. Data source: Statistics Greenland.
Figure 8: Greenland halibut landings (thousands of metic tons) of thirteen west Greenland municipalities, 1988-98. Data source: Statistics Greenland.
Figure 9: Greenland-born population (thousands) of thirteen west Greenland municipalities, 1970-98. Data source: Statistics Greenland.
Figure 10: Birth rate and per capita subsistence catch value (kroner) among 13 west Greenland municipalities. Data sources: Lyster 1997; Statistics Greenland.
Figure 11: Relative changes in Greenland-born population and commercial landings (in 1994 kroner) among 13 west Greenland municipalities. Raw data: Statistics Greenland.
Figure 12: Crime rate and change in commercial landings value (in 1994 kroner) among 13 west Greenland municipalities. Raw data: Statistics Greenland.
REFERENCES
Berglund, J. 1986. "The decline of the Norse settlements in Greenland." Arctic Anthropology 23(1-2):109-135.
COADS (Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Web site: http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/coads/
Horsted, S. A. 1994. "A review with some proposals for amendments of the catch statistics for the cod fisheries in Greenland waters since 1911." NAFO SCR Doc. 94/38, serial no. N2407.
Lyster, P. 1997. "Subsistence versus commercial use of the living natural resources in the Greenlandic municipalities--Regional patterns of a social transformation process." Paper presented at the NARF seminar, Nuuk, Greenland, March 19-23.
Mattox, W. G. 1973. Fishing in west Greenland 19101966: The development of a new native industry. Copenhagen: Meddelelser om Grønland 197(1).
Rätz, H-J. 1992. Decrease in fish biomass off West Greenland (subdivisions 1B-1F). NAFO SCR Doc. 92/40, Number N2088.