Arctic Uluses of Yakutia in Natural Emergencies: Social Challenges and Experience of Confrontation

Abstract

The subject of the study is to identify the social aspects of the impact of global climate change on the safety of life and life support of the population of the Arctic zone of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The article examines the dangerous hydrological, meteorological, agrometeorological and geophysical phenomena caused by these changes, which caused natural emergencies that occurred in the Arctic uluses (districts) of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) over the past ten years. Special attention is paid to the dangerous hydrological phenomena that had the character of catastrophic floods in the studied chronological period. General scientific methods of dialectical, comparative-system, structural-level analysis were used. State reports on the state and environmental protection of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for 2010-2020, documents of the republican departmental and municipal archives, statistical data are used as sources. The social risks, impact, and economic damage caused by extreme flood processes, forest fires, heavy snowfall, and other natural disasters to settlements and residents of the Arctic have been identified. It is emphasized that natural and climatic changes and related emergencies multiply and exacerbate the existing social, economic and environmental problems of the indigenous peoples of the North and, thus, can be recognized as a threat to the safety of their livelihoods. A set of measures is proposed to reduce the impact of the negative consequences of climate change and, above all, the occurrence of natural emergencies, on the socio-economic development, health and traditional life support systems of the population of the Yakut Arctic.