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Threshold Podcast—Season 2, Episode 13: 'Try Harder'

December 18, 2018 | Threshold Podcast
By
Amy Martin
A Sámi bark peeling scar from 1821. Image by Amy Martin. Sweden, 2018.

A Sámi bark peeling scar from 1821. Image by Amy Martin. Sweden, 2018.

Eighteen months of reporting. All eight Arctic countries. So many fascinating people. On the final episode of season two of Threshold, we pull back a little and try to see the big picture.

Aqqalooraq Heilman-Lennart is Arctic, and indigenous. He speaks three languages, loves jazz, and says he watches too much YouTube. Image by Amy Martin. Greenland, 2018.

Aqqalooraq Heilman-Lennart is Arctic, and indigenous. He speaks three languages, loves jazz, and says he watches too much YouTube. Image by Amy Martin. Greenland, 2018.

Sisimiut is Greenland's second largest city with 6,000 people. Image by Amy Martin. Greenland, 2018.

Sisimiut is Greenland's second largest city with 6,000 people. Image by Amy Martin. Greenland, 2018.

Since three-quarters of Greenland is covered by an ice sheet, people live in the thin strip of land between the ice and the ocean. Image by Amy Martin. Greenland, 2018.

Since three-quarters of Greenland is covered by an ice sheet, people live in the thin strip of land between the ice and the ocean. Image by Amy Martin. Greenland, 2018.

Jim White is the director of INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research) and a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Image courtesy of Jim White. Greenland, 2018.

Jim White is the director of INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research) and a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Image courtesy of Jim White. Greenland, 2018.

A Sámi bark peeling scar from 1821. Image by Amy Martin. Sweden, 2018.

A Sámi bark peeling scar from 1821. Image by Amy Martin. Sweden, 2018.

Lars Östlund, a forest historian at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, finds clues about the past in the forest itself. Image by Amy Martin. Sweden, 2018.

Lars Östlund, a forest historian at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, finds clues about the past in the forest itself. Image by Amy Martin. Sweden, 2018.

Ulf Isak Aleksandersen helps his father fix a fence. Image by Amy Martin. Norway, 2018.

Ulf Isak Aleksandersen helps his father fix a fence. Image by Amy Martin. Norway, 2018.

The mountaintop where the Aleksandersens herd their reindeer. Image by Amy Martin. Norway, 2018.

The mountaintop where the Aleksandersens herd their reindeer. Image by Amy Martin. Norway, 2018.

LEARN MORE

ARCTIC REPORT CARD

The Arctic Report Card is an annual, peer-reviewed source of information on the current state of the Arctic environmental system relative to historical records. One of the significant findings from the 2018 report card is that Arctic air temperatures from 2014 to 2018 have exceeded all previous records since 1900.

MORE THAN SCIENTISTS: JIM WHITE

James White is a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and the director of The Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). Watch this short video in which he makes the argument that the issue of climate change is about ethics.

BARK PEELING, FOOD STRESS, AND TREE SPIRITS

The Sami people of northern Scandinavia and many indigenous peoples of North America have used pine inner bark for food, medicine and other purposes. This study co-authored by Lars Östlund compares bark-peeling and subsequent uses of pine inner bark in Scandinavia and western North America, focusing on traditional practices.