It's early morning, 350 km north of the Arctic
cirlcle.
Reindeer herder Reiulf Aleksandersen is on
his way to the mountains near Tromsø.
It is here in the Arctic where climate change
is happening much faster than anywhere else
in the world.
And he is responding by doing something that
reindeer herders have never done here before:
He is feeding his herd roaming freely in the
wildernis.
If nature doesn't provide enough food for
the animals during all of the year, they simply
have to be fed by us, so we can live off of
them.
But it's actually crazy: providing concentrates
so that we can eat meat.
It doesn't make sense.
But we have no other choice.
For centuries reindeer were able to find enough
to eat in the mountains -- even in winter.
They can find grass and mosses several meters
under the snow.
It sounds paradoxical but the increased temperatures
make it almost impossible for the reindeer
to find food.
Reiulf Aleksandersen is trying to explain
the problem.
Here we can see it very well: This is already
the ground.
The snow is very wet, but the ground should
be frozen.
It is very easy right now to just stick your
finger in here and get a piece of soil.
In December!
That is far from normal.
It becomes problematic for the animals when
it gets colder: The wet snow turns into a
hard layer of ice and blocks access to the
ground.
The reeindeer can no longer reach the plants
with their hooves.
They need to move on and find new grazing
areas somewhere else.
But this would mean that Reiulf and his family
could loose their herd and thus their livelihood.
Climate change is impacting the Aleksandersen
on yet another level: To produce sustainable
electricity one of the biggest wind parks
in Europe is currently built here ((in Northern
Norway)) with the help of German technology
and investments.
((Almost 50 kilometers of roads and paths
have already been built for it.))
The goal is to have 67 wind turbines here.
((Reiulf isn't sure what is more threatening:
climate change or the wind park.
I don't have other grazing areas besides these.
I don't know how it's going to be.
I have friends who breed reindeer in Sweden.
They see it crystal clear: reindeer just don't
live in wind parks.
They disappear.
If the animals see the wind turbines, they'll
leave.
Reiulf has always hoped to pass on the herd
to his children.
Just like many generations of Sami people
have done before.
But now he's skeptical.
He doubts that the region will still have
reeindeer when his children are grown up.
