"The Inughuit use traditional methods like sled dogs to hunt for the meat that makes up the bulk of their diet.

Climate change may soon force the Inughuit people of northern Greenland to abandon their icy home and traditional hinting way of life. Cambridge University researcher Stephen Pax Leonard tells host Jeff Young about his upcoming yearlong trip to document the Inughuit language and culture.

YOUNG: Well, according to that old sea-shanty – "Greenland is a dreadful place. It's a land that's never green, where there's ice and snow and the whale-fishes blow, and the daylight's seldom seen."

Not exactly vacation land. But we caught up with a researcher from the UK's Cambridge University as he was packing for a yearlong stay in Greenland. Stephen Pax Leonard is an anthropological linguist, and for the next year he'll be in one of the northern most settlements on earth.

YOUNG: Well, tell us about the Inughuit and how they live, and what's compelling you to visit. LEONARD: Well, this is one of the last hunter-gather societies left in Greenland. And, although these people live in the remote northwest corner of Greenland, they really represent the cultural center. In the sense that there's a tradition of storytelling which really goes back to the basis of Greenlandic culture and narrative.

The reason why I'm going- there are two reasons, really, in fact- first of all, is to document their language, which is called Inughuitun and second, to record, digitize, archive and ultimately give back to the community a collection of stories and narratives which tell us about this extraordinary arctic societies' history and identity."

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Native Traditions and Climate Change (Living on Earth 9/10)