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Living with Baltic Sea Ice

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Living and Working With Snow, Ice and Seasons in the Modern Arctic

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Abstract

This chapter offers a comprehensive overview of Baltic Sea ice. It explores how humans relate to seasonal changes of the Baltic Sea landscapes and how spatiality and temporality of sea ice have shaped human culture. It deals with the core concept of seasonality in relation to natural landscape changes and human responses in terms of perception, vulnerability and adaptation. In a changing climate, Baltic Sea ice is becoming a fragile environment, and this chapter raises the question of the environmental heritage that the Baltic Sea ice may represent in the near future.

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Acknowledgements

My deepest thanks go to Salla Rahikkala, resident of Hailuoto, and Heikki Myllylahti, initiator of the Frozen People festival for the time they took to exchange their experiences of and with sea ice. The local Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment is also acknowledged for providing data on the opening and closing dates of the ice road between Oulu and Hailuoto. The writing of this chapter was supported by the University of Oulu and The Academy of Finland Profi4 Grant 318930 ArcI.

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  1. Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Élise Lépy

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  1. Élise Lépy
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Correspondence to Élise Lépy .

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  1. Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo

  2. Artic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Monica Tennberg

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Lépy, É. (2023). Living with Baltic Sea Ice. In: Strauss-Mazzullo, H., Tennberg, M. (eds) Living and Working With Snow, Ice and Seasons in the Modern Arctic. Arctic Encounters. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36445-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36445-7_3

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