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Scientists from the eight nations bordering the Arctic recently enlisted representatives of the region’s native peoples to help assess climate change there. What they found put a human face on a debate often involving distant projections and abstract numbers.

Less snow, less sea ice, freezing rain in winter, and the appearance of mosquitoes and robins, creatures so foreign the native residents have no word for them.

The experience of the Arctic peoples is a harbinger of things to come, according to James McCarthy, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography.

“It’s the canary in the mine, a glimpse of what’s going to happen at lower latitudes,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy spoke about the impact of climate change on the world’s poles Tuesday (Feb. 6) at the Geological Lecture Hall as part of the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s lecture series marking International Polar Year, which officially begins in March.

McCarthy’s talk came just days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, concluding that the world is warming and it is a near certainty the warming is caused by human activity.