LastDaysoftheIceHunters翻譯 - 社會議題

Last Days of the Ice Hunters
Jens Danielsen kneels on his dogsled as it slides along the rough edge of a frozen sea. ”Harru, harru,” he calls out urgently. “Go left, go left. Atsuk, atsuk. Go right, go right.” The 15 dogs in his team move carefully. Despite freezing temperatures in late March, the ice has broken up, making travel dangerous. “The sea ice used to be three feet thick here,” Danielsen says. “Now it’s only four inches thick.”
As big as a bear and with a kind, boyish face, Danielsen is a 45-year-old ice hunter from Qaanaaq, a village of about 650 people whose brightly painted houses cover a hillside overlooking a fjord. He’s heading toward the ice edge to find walruses, as hunters of Inuit ethnicity have done for as long as memory. With his extended family and 57 dogs to feed, he’ll need to kill several walruses on this trip.
Normally the ice comes to northwestern Greenland in September and stays until June. But during the past few years, the ice has been thick and the hunting good for only three or four weeks. The ice shelf gives hunters access to the walruses, seals, and whales they hunt. Without it, hunting becomes nearly impossible. In one recent winter, Qaanaaq’s hunters found themselves without sufficient food to feed their starving dogs. The hunters asked for help, and the government responded with money while fishing corporations assisted by sending fish by airplane.
Update:
Today, fewer than 500 ice hunters are able to live by hunting alone. They travel by dogsled, wear skins, and hunt with harpoons. At the same time, they also use guns, cell phones, and watch TV. “This changing weather is bad for us,” Danielsen says, scowling.
Update 2:
“Some [of our] people have to go other ways to make a living.” His wife, Ilaitsuk, who used to go with him on these hunting trips, has had to take a job at a day-care center in Qaanaaq to help pay their bills. The government now funds job training programs to help ice hunters find other employment.
Update 3:
Warmer weather does provide some opportunities. Quantities of valuable fish that prefer warmer water are increasing, and melting ice has uncovered some of Greenland’s valuable natural resources-minerals, metals, and gems.
Update 4:
Electrie power plants may soon be built on rivers filled by melting ice. But the last ice hunters may not be able to get used to working as fishermen, in mines, or ini power plants. As Danielsen says, “Without ice, we can’t live. Without ice, we’re nothing at all.”