A Inuit man prepares to go out in his boat on Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Aug. 23, 2009. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

A new study suggests the financial burden of Arctic climate change is already falling on Inuit people and the heaviest costs are hurting those families least able to pay.

The study backs demands made by Inuit leaders for a share of global funds being proposed to help adapt to a warming planet. It says governments should shift some of their funding focus to help the Inuit meld new tools with traditional knowledge to survive in today's North.

"Inuit can adapt to climate change," says James Ford, a geographer at Montreal's McGill University, whose paper will be published early in 2010. "We have a number of concerns about whether Inuit can afford to adapt."

Concrete examples of climate change in the North have been piling up for years. Temperatures are rising at twice the global average, sea ice is disappearing and becoming more dangerous and weather is becoming less predictable.

The Inuit, many of whom rely on the land for some or all of their food, are adapting. They've begun to use GPS locators, satellite phones and immersion suits to stay safe. They've bought all-terrain vehicles to back up their snow machines because the land stays bare longer, and they're stalking their prey from boats as sea ice grows less reliable. They've found new places to hunt and new ways to get to old ones.

But those adaptations cost money, Ford said.

Early results from another of Ford's projects suggest that new hunting routes developed to bypass now-unreliable ice or newly uncrossable rivers average twice as long as the originals. Gas for snow machines or ATVs currently sells in Iqaluit for about $1.20 a litre.

And the families that rely most heavily on hunting are the least likely to be plugged into the wage economy.

"These adaptations always involve more money, money that many households don't have access to," he said.

Climate change brings new dangers

As well, younger hunters don't always have the same survival skills their elders had. Many need to be trained to recognize danger and get themselves out of a jam.

"These skills aren't being passed on as much as they need to be," Ford said. "At the same time, climate change is making [the land] more dangerous."

His report says evidence suggests that climate-related accidents are increasing.

Finally, the federal government has cut back on weather forecasting in the North at a time when conditions are becoming less predictable. Four forecasters now cover the entire Arctic. All are based in Winnipeg instead of the North and they rely on generalized satellite data instead of specific local information that hunters need.

"I was talking to local people [in Iqaluit] and they noted that over the last five, 10 years the quality of the forecasts have significantly decreased," Ford said.

Some federal and territorial programs have already begun to address the costs of adapting, Ford acknowledges. But he points out that more changes in the Arctic are inevitable and government policy has to focus as much on dealing with them as with reducing greenhouse gases.

Ford's current study doesn't estimate the actual costs, but he supports recent statements from Mary Simon, head of Canada's main Inuit group, that northern peoples around the world should be eligible for the proposed adaptation fund being discussed at the climate conference in Copenhagen.

"I think there's a strong case for Inuit to have access to a vulnerable peoples' adaptation fund," he said.