This story appears in the September 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.
In the spring, when animals migrate north and the sun never sets, Inuit children join their families on weeks-long camping trips across Canada’s Arctic. They’re taught hunting skills and cultural values passed down for more than 5,000 years. In the past three decades, multiyear ice, the thickest (and oldest) type that supports the Arctic marine ecosystem, has declined by 95 percent. Elders no longer can predict safe travel routes on thinning ice, and animal migration patterns are changing. The future of the ice—and those who live on it—is uncertain.
Acacia Johnson is a photographer from Alaska, focused on human relationships to the Earth’s polar regions. She has made over 55 expeditions to the these regions as a photographer and expedition guide.
