By Federico Citterich<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cThey really have a perfect relationship with the environment,\u201d says Bernardo Groschopp as he sits down in front of me. Around us, the Drake Passage is growing increasingly rough \u2013 the so-called \u201cDrake Shake\u201d. The waves reach a height of almost seven metres, and we can barely stay seated without falling.<\/p>\n
I had the pleasure of meeting Groschopp, the historian aboard HX Expeditions\u2019 MS Fridtjof Nansen<\/i>, during my latest press trip to Antarctica with the company. On our way back to Ushuaia, Argentina, he delivered a lecture on indigenous populations and kindly agreed to chat with me right afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had interactions with populations from both the Arctic and Tierra del Fuego,\u201d says Groschopp. His remark highlights one of the key differences between the Earth\u2019s two polar regions: the Arctic is home to indigenous peoples, while Antarctica \u2013 a frozen continent isolated from the rest of the world \u2013 has none. To encounter the southernmost indigenous communities, one must travel to the far south of South America, in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"http:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/content\/dam\/vaticannews\/agenzie\/images\/afp\/2026\/01\/19\/10\/1768814517158.jpg\/_jcr_content\/renditions\/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg\" "\\"An")
<\/picture> <\/figure>\nAn Inuit hunter rides his dog-sledge in Greenland in the Arctic Circle \u00a0 (AFP or licensors) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
A long-lasting relationship with the environment<\/h2>\n
\u201cBut regardless of their origin, they really do care about the environment in the same way,\u201d Groschopp adds. As he goes on to explain why, he says something I will hardly ever forget.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome time ago, a colleague of mine went fishing with the S\u00e1mi, an indigenous community of the Arctic Scandinavia,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAt one point they stopped fishing and when my colleague asked why, they replied \u2013 almost confused \u2013 that they had already caught what they needed, so there was no need to fish anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listening to him, I couldn\u2019t help thinking about how differently we tend to treat the environment. Where those fishermen stopped once they had what they needed, we often keep going \u2013 catching more fish, extracting more resources, pushing natural systems far beyond what they can sustain. And in doing so, in addition, we frequently end up with more than we actually need, much of which eventually ends up as waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the contrary, these indigenous populations use everything they can from what they catch or gather,\u201d Groschopp notes. \u201cMeat, skin, bones \u2013 everything is utilized and nothing is wasted.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he explains this, I notice that one of the slides from his presentation is still on the screen, showing a group of Arctic indigenous people hunting a seal. That\u2019s when a new question comes to my mind: how is climate change\u2013driven migration of animals affecting these communities?<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/content\/dam\/vaticannews\/agenzie\/images\/reuters\/2019\/12\/03\/09\/1575362974309.JPG\/_jcr_content\/renditions\/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg\" "\\"A")
<\/picture> <\/figure>\nA penguin in Antarctica <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The impact of a changing climate<\/h2>\n
\u201cIn the past \u2013 Groschopp says \u2013 the Inuit, an indigenous community of North America, travelled all the way to Greenland following the marine animals they depended on as a warmer climatic period affected their migration patterns.\u201d Indeed, many animal species respond to warming climates by migrating toward higher latitudes in search of suitable environmental conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, however, most Inuit are no longer nomadic,\u201d Groschopp explains. \u201cThis means that when animals migrate they have to adapt and shift to hunting different species.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that is not always possible. Some animals require\u00a0different boats, weapons, or travel distances, which can make the hunt\u00a0too costly or dangerous; <\/b>in some regions \u2013 moreover \u2013 there may simply not be many substitute species that provide similar amounts of food or materials.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But climate change poses other challenges for these communities as well. \u201cJust think about thawing permafrost in the Arctic,\u201d Groschopp adds. \u201cMany indigenous populations live on land that was once permanently frozen, but as permafrost thaws the ground can collapse, damaging houses, roads, and water systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as I thought he was done and I was about to ask another question, Groschopp continued, listing a whole range of other problems that thawing permafrost creates for Arctic communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombined with reduced sea ice \u2013 he explains \u2013 permafrost thaw can make Arctic coasts more vulnerable to erosion from waves and storms, forcing communities to relocate. Or again, it can alter the course of streams and rivers, making traditional hunting routes unreliable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all. Thawing ground also alters vegetation and wetlands, affecting animal behaviour and movement patterns. \u201cAnd that brings us back to the issue of species migration,\u201d Groschopp notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s striking how many problems thawing permafrost can create for these communities,\u201d he then adds. \u201cAnd we should not forget that this process also releases enormous amounts of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, creating a feedback loop that further alters Arctic environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Wildflowers](\"http:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/content\/dam\/vaticannews\/agenzie\/images\/reuters\/2021\/08\/09\/04\/1628475065857.JPG\/_jcr_content\/renditions\/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg\" "\\"Wildflowers")
<\/picture> <\/figure>\nWildflowers overlooking a fiord in Greenland <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Those invisible margins<\/h2>\n
Climate change is not the only force reshaping the lives of indigenous communities. Across both the Arctic and the southern tip of South America, political borders \u2013 drawn decades or even centuries ago \u2013 continue to affect how these people can move across lands their ancestors once travelled freely.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeopolitics has a major impact on the lives of these communities,\u201d Groschopp explains. \u201cOf course, what is happening today affects them deeply, but decisions made in the past \u2013 such as the drawing of borders \u2013 also continue to shape their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago \u2013 Groschopp continues \u2013 these people could move from one place to another without restriction, whereas today they need a visa to cross national borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
A shared knowledge<\/h2>\n
Borders may divide the Arctic and the southern tip of South America into nations, but the environmental changes unfolding across these regions ignore such boundaries. And in many cases, the first people to notice these changes are the communities that have lived in these landscapes for generations.<\/p>\n
Today, scientists are increasingly working with them to better understand these transformations. Hunters, fishers and local residents often notice shifts in sea ice, wildlife movements or seasonal patterns long before they appear in scientific datasets. By combining this knowledge with modern scientific tools such as satellite data and climate models, researchers are gaining a more complete picture of how rapidly these environments are evolving.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all. \u201cThese communities not only collaborate with scientists and researchers, but they also share their knowledge with explorers,\u201d Groschopp points out. \u201cAt the beginning of the twentieth century, for example, Nansen and Amundsen spent time living with Inuit communities, learning from them how to survive and travel in polar regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen are among the most famous polar explorers in history. Both Norwegian, they played a central role in the exploration of the Arctic and Antarctica at the turn of the twentieth century. Nansen led groundbreaking expeditions across Greenland and the Arctic Ocean, while Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut indigenous communities had been sharing their knowledge with explorers long before that,\u201d Groschopp says.<\/p>\n
One well-known example comes from the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. In 1845, British explorer Sir John Franklin set out with two ships,\u00a0HMS Erebus<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0HMS Terror<\/i>, in search of the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. The expedition disappeared with all 129 men on board, and for more than 160 years, the wrecks remained missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the Inuit knew where the accident had happened,\u201d Groschopp notes. \u201cFor more than a century, we simply didn\u2019t listen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after the expedition vanished, in fact, Inuit living in the region began sharing what they had seen with British search parties. They spoke of encounters with exhausted European sailors travelling south across the ice, and of ships trapped and later abandoned in the frozen waters. They also reported finding objects that clearly belonged to the expedition, as well as camps and bodies left behind along the route. \u201cIt\u2019s only thanks to them that we finally found the wrecks,\u201d Groschopp adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very ironic,\u201d he continues. \u201cThese people know so much about regions that we know so little about, and they care deeply about them. Yet we often fail to listen to them, and in doing so we also endanger them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This failure is not new. Many of these communities were displaced or persecuted by early Europeans in their own homelands, in some cases to the point of near extinction. As a result, entire systems of knowledge and cultural traditions have been irretrievably lost \u2013 sometimes simply because there were no surviving generations to pass them on, and often because those who encountered them did not consider their preservation important.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, we should be learning from them far more and showing them the respect they deserve,\u201d Groschopp adds.<\/p>\n
As he spoke, his voice almost broke with emotion, his Argentine accent suddenly more pronounced. A reminder that he comes from the same lands where many of the communities he speaks about still live \u2013 and that he understands them perhaps more deeply than many of us ever will.<\/p>\n
![\"Inuit](\"http:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/content\/dam\/vaticannews\/multimedia\/2019\/12\/03\/Indigeni-Canada.jpg\/_jcr_content\/renditions\/cq5dam.thumbnail.cropped.750.422.jpeg\" "\\"Inuit")
<\/picture> <\/figure>\n