Willow grouse, a small landfowl living in the northern forests, has just changed its summer protective color to a white plumage. The mottled brown color has helped it blend in with the summer environment, and in white it blends in well with the winter snow. This autumn, however, the snow has already fallen on the ground a few times, but has melted away. The poor willow grouse stays white in the brown-gray terrain of early winter. It is an easily spotted target for its predators.

The willow grouse’s struggle is one example of the kind of changes species in the arctic region face as our climate warms.

The Arctic region is warming three times faster than the global average, especially in winter, and this is causing many visible changes.

Climate change is caused by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse effect is a necessary condition for life on our planet, because without it the earth would be too cold. However, due to greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans, global warming has intensified too much, and the climate is warming dangerously quickly and strongly.

The name of the greenhouse effect comes from the fact that in a greenhouse, the glass lets sunlight in, but slows down the escape of the heat reflected by the earth's surface. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide act like glass in a greenhouse and prevent heat loss. The visible consequences of climate change are, for example, extreme weather phenomena, such as increasing hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires.

The consequences of the changes taking place in the Arctic region are dramatic for the entire planet. The melting of glaciers raises the sea level, which affects the settlement and life of the coasts around the world. The melting of permafrost, on the other hand, releases carbon dioxide and methane, which further accelerates global warming. As the climate changes, the utilization of natural resources in the Arctic region will become easier in some respects.

In Arctic nature and the way of life, change can be seen in many ways. The forest line is getting higher and the northern plants are retreating further north. The tundra vegetation begins to decline because the sea prevents it from spreading further north. Arctic animals such as sea ice-dependent polar bears, walruses and seals are at risk. If the sea ice shrinks as predicted, the polar bear, for example, must learn to live on land to survive.

For many indigenous people, climate warming in the Arctic region means changes in culture and living conditions. For example, reindeer husbandry suffers from climate change. The mild periods of autumn and winter create layers of ice in the snowpack, which make it difficult for reindeer to eat lichen.

Climate change can no longer be stopped. However, it is important that we can slow it down, because then people, animals and nature have more time to adapt to their changing habitat – also in the Arctic region.