Figure A. Some socio-economic drivers (blue boxes) and climatic drivers (red) of change in the Arctic, and the temporal and spatial scales over which they act (modified from Arctic Council, 2013). Although changes in the social drivers are more difficult to project with scientific rigor than are changes in the climatic drivers, they are usually more important than environmental/climatic drivers in shaping policies and personal decisions (see Andrew, 2014; IPCC, 2014). Climate change effects include changing seasonality and an increase in the incidence of very localized extreme weather events, which can last from hours (e.g., heavy rains or snowfall, flash floods, storms) to days, weeks, or months (e.g., heat waves or cold waves, droughts). These types of changes are already being felt much more than the changes in long-term average conditions (for example, ice conditions and mean temperature) that are affecting most of the Arctic and the globe.