BY TSUYOSHI TAKEDA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 
As the fields of ice surrounding his home rapidly become thinner, Ikuo Oshima knows firsthand that the effects of global warming are not a problem of the distant future, but a present danger. It was the vast fields of the Arctic ice where Oshima, 61, managed to feed and raise five children, hunting walruses and seals and riding his dogsled. And that self-sustainable life has allowed him to become a member of the Inuit indigenous community in Siorapaluk, Greenland, the northernmost inhabited settlement on the planet. "I have only to thank the frozen sea for providing me with its bounty," Oshima said. …things are quickly changing. The layer of ice covering the sea started to get thinner more than 10 years ago, and today it is difficult to travel far out from the shore, even in the middle of winter. The roughly 200 dogs, nearly double the human population in Siorapaluk, are on the verge of unemployment and risk turning into domestic animals. Faced with this plight, many youths have given up hunting on the thin ice and have chosen, one by one, to leave the hamlet.
‘Japanese Inuit’ warns of climate change danger
