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Welp: Climate Change and Arctic Identities
When author Michaela Stith left her home in Alaska to visit the Lower 48, she learned that many people think of the Arctic as an icy wasteland devoid of people and filled with polar bears. Climate Change and Arctic Identities challenges that misconception—by inviting you to witness a side of the Arctic few southerners ever get to see.
Through intimate interviews, laugh-out-loud stories, and Stith’s own keen observations, this travel memoir explores the effects of global warming, white supremacy, and cultural biases on Indigenous, Black and dark-skinned residents of the Arctic. You’ll accompany Stith as she pieces together a beautifully honest portrait of the Arctic—the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking—against the backdrop of Norway, Iceland, and her Alaskan home. Above all, Welp offers those living in the North the opportunity to define themselves through their own eyes.
Stith is a firm believer that a truthful story from the heart is the one people most need to hear. If you’re ready to meet the Arctic heart to heart, and to learn what you can do to support the people who live there, allow these stories to guide you.
Through intimate interviews, laugh-out-loud stories, and Stith’s own keen observations, this travel memoir explores the effects of global warming, white supremacy, and cultural biases on Indigenous, Black and dark-skinned residents of the Arctic. You’ll accompany Stith as she pieces together a beautifully honest portrait of the Arctic—the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking—against the backdrop of Norway, Iceland, and her Alaskan home. Above all, Welp offers those living in the North the opportunity to define themselves through their own eyes.
Stith is a firm believer that a truthful story from the heart is the one people most need to hear. If you’re ready to meet the Arctic heart to heart, and to learn what you can do to support the people who live there, allow these stories to guide you.
- GenresNonfiction
254 pages, Paperback
Published May 15, 2021
4 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 30, 2021
Stith is a brilliant, thoughtful individual with a writing style that weaves remarkably intimate storytelling together with reputable research in such a manner as to touch that which is innate within readers. She achieves this while broadening our perspectives and teaching us without us realizing how earnestly we are learning.
Welp: Climate Change and Arctic Identities serves to open a new world to those readers unfamiliar with the subject matter while guiding us as though we're relating to something deeply familiar within ourselves. Stith's work reads as though we're listening to a beloved, old friend.
Welp is an empowering read that has a way of quietly, yet powerfully encouraging readers to reflect on who we are and how we, too, can help realize a more just and equitable future.
Welp: Climate Change and Arctic Identities serves to open a new world to those readers unfamiliar with the subject matter while guiding us as though we're relating to something deeply familiar within ourselves. Stith's work reads as though we're listening to a beloved, old friend.
Welp is an empowering read that has a way of quietly, yet powerfully encouraging readers to reflect on who we are and how we, too, can help realize a more just and equitable future.
September 6, 2023
//3.5stars//
The first half of this book introduced us to the author, her work with the Artic Council, her background in environmental science, her fraught identity with race as a mixed race woman and her Alaskan home apprechiation and valuation of indigenous cultures. In this book she tells us about her experience in Norway learning about the Sami people and the different and similar ways which Norway and the United States enact everyday racism, institutional racism, indigenous erasure and white hegemony. This has a few moments of interest but overall feels like a general overview of different cultural attitudes towards race and oppression.
In the second half, she talks about indigenous groups in Norway and Sweden and this is where the book gets fascinating.
Thought provoking statements such as:
• “The preference toward economic growth is a learned cultural bias”.
• “I think the rate at which you emit carbon dioxide to ship plant-based foods to the Arctic, you'll kill whales just as quickly with climate change."
Interesting facts about indigenous ways of life and hunting such as:
• “Reindeer blood contains vitamin C, the only local souree for Indigenous peoples in the high latitudes from Sápmi to the Far East of Russia.”
• “To make matters worse, German Nazis occupied northernNorway during World War II, from 1940-1945. They scorched entire towns in Finnmark, disproportionately affecting Sámi home ownership.12? Scandinavian governments subsequently increased security at their borders and made many families' reindeer migration routes illegal. It's amazing that, in 1946, Nor wegian ethnographers noted reindeer-herding sidas still traveled along traditional migration routes as their ancestors did.However, those same ethnographers reported that such a practice was "out of date" and required radical modernization."
•”The ones slaughtered had to be chosen based on the Color of the hide, gender, and age in order to keep a diverse herd. The way the reindeer died was important, too. To ensure safe meat, the herder let the reindeer's body rest on the tundra for a certain time based on the weather and temperature. Sámi reindeer herders inherit generations upon generations of knowledge about how to safely care for and slaughter their animals, which contains invaluable knowledge about the Arctic environment. There are words in Arctic languages that have no translation into English and other majority lan-guages. For example, there are over three hundred words in Northern Sámi describing types of snow; the most I ve got are flurries, slush, sleet, blizzard, and snowflake. Fortunately, descendants of Sami speakers are the only ones with the right to herd reindeer in Norway.”
Interesting points about indigineity and renewable energies intersecting:
•(reindeer husbandry)
"Why are wind farms a problem?" I asked. Before coming to Norway, I was amazed that the country quadrupled its number of wind turbines in the past ten years, and many of the onshore projects were built in the wide-open lands of the North.119 As someone trained in environmental science and policy, Norway's progress on energy transition seemed laudable. I'd often lamented the minimal renewable energy projects in Alaska, despite our excess of geothermal, wind, and hydro energy sources."Reindeer stay away from the sound of the turbines," Ole-Ante answered.”
•”Even though reindeer migration routes and wind turbines can coexist on paper, turbines in reindeer pastures effectively reduce the extent of pasture lands. In addition to sound, turbines bring new roads and buildings. Renewable energy infrastructure also requires increased mining for critical minerals, which often takes place in reindeer herding lands. All these activities reduce pasture lands where there was previously no industrial development.”
•”It's ironic that efforts to reduce carbon emissions to fight dimate change have impacted people who lead the most sus-Tainable, traditional livelihoods. That's because climate change is a cultural problem embedded in our relationship with the environment. A green economy » dependent on renewable
energy is not fundamentally different from economic models of the past. Even when replacing fossil fuels with hydropower and wind energy, valleys must be flooded, land cleared, and new roads built to maintain those new energy sources. You also need more mined metals to build windmills, solar panels, and vehicle batteries, which may conflict with traditional economies. 50 As long as the government needs energy to fuel a growth-based economy, it will always require cheap land and resources, which often come at the expense of the people who live on and around them.”
The first half of this book introduced us to the author, her work with the Artic Council, her background in environmental science, her fraught identity with race as a mixed race woman and her Alaskan home apprechiation and valuation of indigenous cultures. In this book she tells us about her experience in Norway learning about the Sami people and the different and similar ways which Norway and the United States enact everyday racism, institutional racism, indigenous erasure and white hegemony. This has a few moments of interest but overall feels like a general overview of different cultural attitudes towards race and oppression.
In the second half, she talks about indigenous groups in Norway and Sweden and this is where the book gets fascinating.
Thought provoking statements such as:
• “The preference toward economic growth is a learned cultural bias”.
• “I think the rate at which you emit carbon dioxide to ship plant-based foods to the Arctic, you'll kill whales just as quickly with climate change."
Interesting facts about indigenous ways of life and hunting such as:
• “Reindeer blood contains vitamin C, the only local souree for Indigenous peoples in the high latitudes from Sápmi to the Far East of Russia.”
• “To make matters worse, German Nazis occupied northernNorway during World War II, from 1940-1945. They scorched entire towns in Finnmark, disproportionately affecting Sámi home ownership.12? Scandinavian governments subsequently increased security at their borders and made many families' reindeer migration routes illegal. It's amazing that, in 1946, Nor wegian ethnographers noted reindeer-herding sidas still traveled along traditional migration routes as their ancestors did.However, those same ethnographers reported that such a practice was "out of date" and required radical modernization."
•”The ones slaughtered had to be chosen based on the Color of the hide, gender, and age in order to keep a diverse herd. The way the reindeer died was important, too. To ensure safe meat, the herder let the reindeer's body rest on the tundra for a certain time based on the weather and temperature. Sámi reindeer herders inherit generations upon generations of knowledge about how to safely care for and slaughter their animals, which contains invaluable knowledge about the Arctic environment. There are words in Arctic languages that have no translation into English and other majority lan-guages. For example, there are over three hundred words in Northern Sámi describing types of snow; the most I ve got are flurries, slush, sleet, blizzard, and snowflake. Fortunately, descendants of Sami speakers are the only ones with the right to herd reindeer in Norway.”
Interesting points about indigineity and renewable energies intersecting:
•(reindeer husbandry)
"Why are wind farms a problem?" I asked. Before coming to Norway, I was amazed that the country quadrupled its number of wind turbines in the past ten years, and many of the onshore projects were built in the wide-open lands of the North.119 As someone trained in environmental science and policy, Norway's progress on energy transition seemed laudable. I'd often lamented the minimal renewable energy projects in Alaska, despite our excess of geothermal, wind, and hydro energy sources."Reindeer stay away from the sound of the turbines," Ole-Ante answered.”
•”Even though reindeer migration routes and wind turbines can coexist on paper, turbines in reindeer pastures effectively reduce the extent of pasture lands. In addition to sound, turbines bring new roads and buildings. Renewable energy infrastructure also requires increased mining for critical minerals, which often takes place in reindeer herding lands. All these activities reduce pasture lands where there was previously no industrial development.”
•”It's ironic that efforts to reduce carbon emissions to fight dimate change have impacted people who lead the most sus-Tainable, traditional livelihoods. That's because climate change is a cultural problem embedded in our relationship with the environment. A green economy » dependent on renewable
energy is not fundamentally different from economic models of the past. Even when replacing fossil fuels with hydropower and wind energy, valleys must be flooded, land cleared, and new roads built to maintain those new energy sources. You also need more mined metals to build windmills, solar panels, and vehicle batteries, which may conflict with traditional economies. 50 As long as the government needs energy to fuel a growth-based economy, it will always require cheap land and resources, which often come at the expense of the people who live on and around them.”
January 21, 2026
A lot of the bones of this book impress me. The concept of this book is really interesting, the author’s life is fascinating, the facts are well-researched, and the main themes that the author is getting at are poignant. However, in terms of execution, I was disappointed. Stith is trying to tackle SO much in this short book, and while she is right that all of the themes are connected, her telling of it felt jumpy and disjointed at times.
May 25, 2021
MUST READ!! This book is informative, amazing and fun to read. Stith encourages individuals to take an interest into climate change and social justice through her storytelling. As someone who is unfamiliar with Arctic policies and its impact, this book guided me through the mechanisms (and beliefs) that affect our every day lives.
May 24, 2021
Stith "breaks the ice" about the relationship between climate change, racism, and what I'm struggling to articulate as anything other than a type of orientalism in regards to the "Global Center's" views of the Arctic.
February 3, 2022
I loved Michaela Stith’s reflections on culture across the Arctic, centering Indigenous cultures. As a fellow Alaskan, and someone with Scandinavian heritage, this was interesting reading — the author brings important insights and hopes for the future. Her voice gives me hope.
July 5, 2024
a moving, beautiful retelling of an author's journey through the arctic during a critical time for climate advocacy and Indigenous empowerment. Michaela is a talented novelist whose prose goes beyond the pages and moves the audience to action. can't wait for more books from her!!!
June 9, 2021
Opens such an important conversation about racism and environmental justice. I will be recommending this look for a long time!
November 30, 2021
It’s the subtile realizations that make you pause and reflect. Insightful and moving.
July 9, 2023
Duke undergrad Michaela Stith eloquently talks about her experience as an indigenous woman in Alaska and at Duke.
June 1, 2021
Fantastic book!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews