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Last reviewed:
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Witnesses to Change
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Traditional Knowledge and Local Observations
Advancing landscape change research through the incorporation of Iñupiaq knowledge
W. Eisner et al. Arctic (2009) 62(4):429-442. The authors interviewed Iñupiat elders, hunters, and other knowledge-holders in the villages of Barrow and Atqasuk on the western Arctic coastal plain of northern Alaska to gain further insight into the processes governing the ubiquitous lakes and the dynamics of landscape change in this region of continuous permafrost.Alaska Natives assessing the health of their environment
D. Garza. International Journal of Circumpolar Health (2001) 60(4):479-486. The changes in Alaska's ecosystems caused by pollution, contaminants and global climate change are negatively impacting Alaska Natives and rural residents who rely on natural resources for food, culture and community identity.Alaskan Native thoughts on climate change
A resident of the Native village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. It's his second time on board the HEALY where he was invited by Chief Scientist, Jackie Grebmeier, to observe and participate in some of the research that was being done during the cruise.Anatomy of a closing window: Vulnerability to changing seasonality in Interior Alaska
S.M. McNeeley, M.D. Shulski. Global Environmental Change (2011) 21(2):464-473. The well-being of rural Native communities is still highly dependent on access and ability to harvest wild foods such as salmon and moose, among many others. Over the past decade, communities in the Koyukuk–Middle Yukon (KMY) region of Interior Alaska report an inability to satisfy their needs for harvesting moose before the hunting season closes, citing warmer falls, changing precipitation and water levels, and the regulatory framework as primary causes.Answers from the ice edge: The consequences of climate change on life in the Bering and Chukchi seas
Report prepared by the Arctic Network in collaboration with Greenpeace Alaska, June 1998. Climate change is a grave threat to northern ecosystems and thus to the subsistence way of life that is the heart of Yup'ik and Inupiat cultures. This report is about changes Alaska Native peoples of the northern Bering and Chukchi seas observe in their surroundings. (PDF 1.26 MB)Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely
This website incorporates images and information from the Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Includes the film Eye Witness to Change.Arctic biodiversity and Inuit health
C. Knotsch, J. Lamouche. National Aboriginal Health Organization, March 2010. This report summarizes the many changes Inuit have reported as impacting biodiversity, such as the appearance of insects formerly not seen, and at the same time examines how local knowledge is crucial to adapting to changes in biodiversity. Finally, it discusses the connection between biodiversity and Inuit health and why changes in Arctic biodiversity will mean changes to human life in the Arctic.Arctic change
Above & Beyond, January/February 2012. In Nunavut, the concept of Qaujimajatuqangitat (IQ), a compendium of Inuit traditional knowledge gained and passed down through the generations, is now being applied in areas of social and economic development, governance, and education, based on the principle that better, far more relevant and palatable solutions to some modern issues can and will flow out of closer adherence to ancient Inuit wisdom.Arctic science needs more Inuit, Greenlandic scientists say
J. George, Nunatsiaq Online, May 16, 2011. Parnuna Egede and Minik Rosing, both Greenlandic scientists, would like to see more young Inuit study science and work towards a career in science.The Arctic's melting glaciers
PBS Online NewsHour, May 11, 2005. Jonathan Rugman of Independent Television News examines how global warming is affecting those who live in the Arctic.Assessing the impacts of local knowledge and technology on climate change vulnerability in remote communities
C. Bone et al. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2011) 8(3):733-761. A model is developed that simulates how a collection of individual perceptions about changes to climatic-related variables manifest into community perceptions, how perceptions are influenced by the movement away from traditional resource use, and how the transmission of knowledge mitigates the potentially adverse effects of technology-induced distancing.At the edges of science: Dissolving dichotomies and transforming power
L.M. Cockburn. Proceedings of the Fifth Northern Research Forum (2008). Climate change has become an important and politically charged arena where Western scientific knowledge meets traditional indigenous knowledges. How we react and adapt to the threats and challenges of climate change will depend greatly on the philosophical framework(s) through which we understand the world.At the gates of the sun
This 140-page book documents the life of Nizni-Kolyma and Neriungri uluses, two regions of Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Siberia, as seen by the visiting Finnish members of the Snowchange Cooperative. The photos in the book were taken between 2004 and 2009 as part of the joint project "Traditional Knowledge of the Indigenous Peoples of the North of Sakha-Yakutia in the Context of Arctic Climate Change." These two regions maintain nomadic reindeer herding in the setting of rapid arctic climate change, resource development, and cultural change.Atlas of Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use
In this atlas you will learn about Inuit knowledge of sea ice (siku) around Baffin Island, Nunavut.Biocultural diversity and indigenous ways of knowing: Human ecology in the Arctic
K-A S. Kassam, ed., University of Calgary Press, 2009, 288 pages. Relations between human beings and their environment are in peril, with mounting threats to both biological diversity of life on earth and cultural diversity of human communities. The peoples of the circumpolar Arctic are at the forefront of these challenges and lead the way in seeking meaningful responses.Breaking the ice
D. Whipple. Nature Reports Climate Change, April 24, 2008. Scientists are becoming increasingly open to using local knowledge to understand how climate change could affect the world's most vulnerable, and often inaccessible, regions.Bridging scientific and traditional knowledge of climate change in the Canadian Arctic
J. Castleden. Global Change Newsletter (2001) 47:5-8. At the recent Global Change Open Science Conference in Amsterdam, it was apparent that the level of interest in diverse knowledge systems, and the synergies between knowledge systems, is growing. The opportunity is ripe for reflection on how communities and local people may inform the growing field of global change research.Canada's North in a changing climate: Hearing from the women of Nain
M. Nallainathan. Canadian Women's Health Network (2009). These days, there is a growing reticence to go out onto the land. With the warmer climate and changes in ice formation, the ability to skidoo on the ice and reach natural resources has diminished. So, there are fewer opportunities to access wild food and to experience that connection and rejuvenation of being out on the land. Women's insights about climate change come from their experiences traveling, hunting, harvesting, hanging fish and laundry outdoors to dry, and raising their families.Changes in weather persistence: Insight from Inuit knowledge
E. Weatherhead et al. Global Environmental Change (2010) 20(3):523-528. Since the 1990s, local residents from around the Arctic have reported changes in weather predictability. Examination of environmental measurements have not, until now, helped describe what the local inhabitants have been reporting, in part because prior studies did not focus directly on the persistence aspect of weather. Here, authors provide evidence of changes in persistence in weather over the past two decades for Baker Lake, Nunavut, Canada.Changes we have seen: Traditional knowledge proceedings from the 2008 SACNAS national conference
The 2008 Society for Advancing Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) national conference was one of the largest International Polar Year focused events in the world. Changes We Have Seen captures some of the most important dialogue on traditional knowledge and climate change from this historic conference.Changing Arctic: Indigenous perspectives
Chapter 3 of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, ACIA Secretariat and Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2005. This chapter reviews the concept of indigenous knowledge, summarizes those indigenous observations of environmental and climatic change that have been documented to date, and presents a series of case studies, largely from hunting and herding societies, examining the perspectives of specific communities or peoples. (PDF 1.37 MB)Changing sea ice brings arctic hunters together
E. Quinn. Eye on the Arctic (2010). The Siku-Inuit-Hila Project was started by Canadian scientist Shari Gearheard and funded by the National Science Foundation in the United States. The name of the project means "Sea Ice - People - Weather." The objective of the project is to document the changing relationship of Inuit to the sea ice.Climate and society: Lessons from the past 10,000 years
S.E. van der Leeuw. Ambio (2008) 37(sp14):476-482. One needs to look at the combined socio-environmental systems over the longer term that reflect the buildup and culmination of shifts in social and environmental risk spectra due to the human-environmental interactions in periods before the "crisis" occurs, which are a fact of life in any society's interaction with its environment, and should be seen as "social" challenges rather than "environmental" ones.Climate change and health: A project with women of Labrador
S.L. Owens, Master's Thesis, Université Laval, 2005. This research project is exploratory, utilizing a qualitative approach to identify environmental and climate changes in the Nain, Labrador, region and the effects of these changes by accessing the local knowledge of resident women. The objective of the research was to identify the implications of these changes to health.Climate change and health impacts: Point Hope, Alaska
Center for Climate and Health, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. This report describes climate impacts observed in Point Hope, Alaska. It relies upon the observations, data and traditional ecological knowledge provided by local partners. Additionally, scientific data on environment, health and climate is provided where available. The purpose is to describe changes that are occurring so as to help in the development of adaptive strategies that encourage community health and resilience. Published October 2009 (6.83 MB PDF).Climate change and the Inuvialuit of Banks Island, NWT: Using traditional environmental knowledge to complement Western science
D. Riedlinger. Arctic (1999) 52(4):430-432. The extensive use and knowledge of the land found in Inuvialuit communities provide a distinctive source of environmental expertise--expertise that is guided by generations of experience. Environmental change associated with variations in weather and climate has not gone unnoticed by northerners who are experiencing such change firsthand.Climate change and Pacific Rim indigenous nations
Report published by Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute (NIARI), 2006. Native nations of the Arctic and Subarctic are already feeling catastrophic effects of warmer temperatures, in the melting of sea ice, permafrost, and glaciers, and increase in fires, insects, flooding, and drought patterns. (PDF 1.76 MB)Climate change and sea ice: Local observations from the Canadian western Arctic
T. Nichols et al. Arctic (2004) 57(1):68-79. In the small Inuvialuit community of Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, the authors interviewed all of the 16 community members and elders considered to be local experts on sea ice to ask about their observations.Climate change in Alaska – in their own words: Interviews with Alaska Native elders
Collection of recorded interviews made available by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.Climate change in the Arctic: An Inuit reality
D. Smith. UN Chronicle (2007) 44(2):40-41. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) characterizes the circumpolar Arctic as the world's climate change "barometer." The 160,000 Inuit who live in northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in Russia have witnessed the changing of the natural environment as a result of global warming for almost 20 years.Climate change in northern Quebec: Adaptation strategies from community-based research
M. Tremblay et al. Arctic (2008) 61(1):27-34. Arctic communities are recently reporting warmer and shorter winters, which have implications for the ice season and, consequently, on the access to local territories and resources by members of these communities. These climatic shifts are resulting in increased risks for travel during the winter season associated with less stable and thinner ice.Climate change in Unalakleet
In this 2007 YouTube video, elders in the Native village of Unalakleet, Alaska, talk about changes in the environment that they have noticed in recent years.Climate Change Project Jukebox
This project is a collaboration between the Oral History Program and the Observing Locally, Connecting Globally (OLCG) teacher education project. Since one of OLCG's goals was to introduce teachers to the climate change observations of local experts, OLCG invited Caleb Pungowiyi of St. Lawrence Island to share his knowledge at a teacher workshop in Fairbanks. This initial presentation was recorded by the Oral History project and provided the inspiration for development of the Climate Change Jukebox Project.Climate change, wellbeing and resilience in the Weenusk First Nation at Peawanuck: The moccasin telegraph goes global
H. Lemelin et al. Rural Remote Health (2010) 10(2):1333. This article describes the analysis of 22 interviews conducted with members of the Weenusk First Nation at Peawanuck in northern Ontario. Findings indicate that residents are concerned with a variety of changes in the environment and their ability to use the land. Possible impacts of these changes on the community's wellbeing and resiliency are examined.Climate, language and indigenous perspectives
This page links to the original audio recorded during the Elders' Panel of the Climate, Language, and Indigenous Perspectives conference held August 13-15, 2008, in Fairbanks, hosted by the Alaska Native Language Center and the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. The recordings are password protected; with permission, you can access them.Climate modeling and Native knowledge
Native American communities in Alaska are providing important information that helps scientists downscale climate change models, giving us a clearer picture of how changes will impact specific locations. This marriage of traditional Native American knowledge and academic research is benefiting us all.Climate variability, oceanography, bowhead whale distribution, and Iñupiat subsistence whaling near Barrow, Alaska
C.J. Ashjian et al. Arctic (2010) 63(2):179-194. The annual migration of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) past Barrow, Alaska, has provided subsistence hunting to Iñupiat for centuries. Bowheads recurrently feed on aggregations of zooplankton prey near Barrow in autumn. The mechanisms that form these aggregations, and the associations between whales and oceanography, were investigated using field sampling, retrospective analysis, and traditional knowledge interviews.Climate witness in the Arctic
In the Climate Witness projects sponsored by WWF, people can tell their stories about how they're experiencing the changes in climate and what it means to them.Combining Iñupiaq and scientific knowledge: Ecology in northern Kotzebue Sound, Alaska
A. Whiting et al., Alaska Sea Grant, 2011, 71 pages. This book brings together traditional ecological knowledge and scientific ecological knowledge to present a comprehensive understanding of species and environmental processes in Kotzebue Sound in northwestern Alaska.Community monitoring of environmental change: College-based limnological studies at Crazy Lake (Tasirluk), Nunavut
M.G. Dyck. Arctic (2007) 60(1):55-61. In light of the difficult logistics and high cost of polar research into climate change, involvement of local people can contribute immensely to important data collection. One can use the knowledge and skills of human resources that are already present—teachers, students, and community members.Community perspectives on the impact of climate change on health in Nunavut, Canada
G.K. Healey et al. Arctic (2011) 64(1):89-97. The purpose of this study was to explore community perspectives on the most important ways that climate change is affecting the health of northern peoples. Participants believed that by engaging in a process of ongoing reflection, and by continually incorporating new knowledge and experiences into traditional knowledge systems, communities may be better able to adapt and cope with the challenges to health posed by climate change.Conservation value of the North American boreal forest from an ethnobotanical perspective
A. Karst, report commissioned by the Canadian Boreal Initiative, the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Boreal Songbird Initiative, 2010. The traditional territories of hundreds of Aboriginal communities are within the Canadian Boreal region. The Boreal has significant ethnobotanical importance to indigenous people from this region, and their connections to this landscape are both utilitarian and sacred. Boreal plants currently face widespread human-induced pressures including habitat loss and climate change.Constructing confidence: Rational skepticism and systematic enquiry in local ecological knowledge research
A. Davis, K. Ruddle. Ecological Applications (2010) 20(3)880-894. Key attributes of the social research contributions on indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK), local ecological knowledge (LEK), and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) are analyzed using the most frequently cited literature generated by the "ISI Web of Knowledge" and "Google Scholar" search engines.Contributions of traditional knowledge to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic
D. Riedlinger, F. Berkes. Polar Record (2001) 37(203):315-328. Environmental change associated with variations in weather and climate has not gone unnoticed by communities that are experiencing change firsthand. Based in part on a collaborative research project in Sachs Harbour, western Canadian Arctic, this paper discusses five areas in which traditional knowledge may complement scientific approaches to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic.Dangerous Ice
As part of University of Alaska Fairbanks' Project Jukebox, a 2004 NSF-funded workshop brought together local community members and scientists to share observations about changes in Interior Alaska river and lake ice conditions.The earth is faster now: Indigenous observations of arctic environmental change
I. Krupnik, D. Jolly (eds.), Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, 2002. This is a link to the table of contents, foreword, and introduction of a 384-page book that documents Native observations of current environmental change across the Arctic, from weather to sea ice to caribou to marine mammals to permafrost to plant communities. Local experts interpret shifts, transitions, and abnormal events in their familiar habitats.The effects of environmental change on an Arctic Native community: Evaluation using local cultural perceptions
J. McBeath, C.E. Shepro. American Indian Quarterly (2007) 31(1):44-65. This article presents the research conducted by the authors in an Inupiat Eskimo village on the Alaska North Slope. The authors describe changes observed by subsistence hunters and fishers and discuss how village residents have responded to change.Environmental change - The elders speak
B. Nicholson, B. Scribe. Canadian Journal of Native Studies (2007) 27(2):393-424. This article presents the words of First Nations Elders as they look back over their lifetimes at the changes that have taken place in the environment.Environmental change and traditional use of the Old Crow Flats in northern Canada: An IPY opportunity to meet the challenges of the new northern research paradigm
B.B. Wolfe et al. Arctic (2011) 64(1):127-135. The authors describe the evolution of a community-researcher partnership that defines the Government of Canada International Polar Year (IPY) investigation on "Environmental Change and Traditional Use of the Old Crow Flats in northern Canada (Yeendoo Nanh Nakhweenjit K'atr'ahanahtyaa)," hereafter referred to as YNNK, one of very few fully endorsed programs led by northern-based individuals or aboriginal organizations in Canada.Eternal kantele at the end of time: Reflections on retraditionalization of traditional knowledge in the face of rapid ecological changes in the Arctic
T. Mustonen. Proceedings of the Fourth Northern Research Forum (2006). This paper looks at the role of traditional knowledge and revitalization attempts of this knowledge in the face of rapid social and ecological changes in the Arctic, more specifically in the context of human-induced Arctic climate collapse.Eurasian reindeer pastoralism in a changing climate: Indigenous knowledge & NASA remote sensing
N.G. Maynard et al. NASA Technical Report, 2008. Eurasian reindeer herders have created the EALAT project, a comprehensive new initiative to study the impacts of climate change and to develop local adaptation strategies based upon their traditional knowledge of the land and its uses—in targeted partnership with the science and remote sensing community—involving extensive collaborations and coproduction of knowledge to minimize the impacts of the various changes.Evolving culture: Where do we go from here?
NPR's "Morning Edition," September 6, 2010. Archaeologist Ben Potter of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, thinks of ancient sites of human habitation as a laboratory to understand how humans coped "when they're pushed to their limit, or when they are approaching an environment that they're not equipped for biologically." Aron Crowell, Alaska Director of the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center, states, "It's easy to see that it's not individual intelligence that makes us so good at adapting. It's an important component, but we also need the ability to accumulate knowledge gradually over a whole population of people over hundreds or maybe even thousands of years."Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA)
The goal of ELOKA is to facilitate the collection, preservation, exchange, and use of local observations and knowledge of the Arctic by providing data management and user support, and to foster collaboration between local and international researchers.Exploring ecological changes in Cook Inlet beluga whale habitat through traditional and local ecological knowledge of contributing factors for population decline
B.T.G. Carter, E.A. Nielsen. Marine Policy (2011) 35(3):299-308. This study documented traditional and local ecological knowledge of Alaska Native subsistence hunters and fishers and commercial fishers through participatory research to explore ecological changes in Cook Inlet over time and to identify potential factors impacting this beluga whale population. Study results identified potential environmental and climate change factors that may indicate an ecosystem regime shift in the Cook Inlet region.Eye on the Arctic: Views from Up North
Initiated and coordinated by Radio Canada International, this site brings together media from all circumpolar countries to better tell the stories of communities and people directly affected by climate change.Faces of Climate Change
Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, 2011. These three short videos showcase the dramatic changes in Alaska's marine ecosystems through interviews with scientists and Alaska Natives. They were produced in partnership with Alaska Ocean Observing System, Alaska Marine Conservation Council, and COSEE Alaska.
- Introduction to Climate Change (MP4 5:55 min)
- Disappearing Sea Ice (MP4 10:45 min)
- Life on the Ice (MP4 7:33 min)
First person singular: Yup'ik students' direct relationship with climate change
In this YouTube slideshow, three high school students from Kwigillingok, Alaska, share their personal stories of how climate change is affecting their village—and their lives. (4:28 min)Generation and transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills in adaptation to climate change in the Arctic
T. Pearce. Proceedings of the Fifth Northern Research Forum (2008). This paper outlines the rationale and objectives of research that documents and describes how environmental knowledge and land skills are generated and transmitted among Inuit in an Arctic community, and investigates how this influences adaptation to climate change.Geographies of Inuit sea ice use
C. Aporta et al. Canadian Geographer (2011) 55(1). This special issue of Canadian Geographer presents insights that Inuit hunters have shared with the authors about what declining sea ice means to them, reflecting different perspectives that emerge from different communities. Articles include:
- Introduction
- Shifting perspectives on shifting ice: Documenting and representing Inuit use of the sea ice
- Looking back—and looking ahead—35 years after the Inuit land use and occupancy project
- An elder on sea ice: An interview with Aipilik Inuksuk of Igloolik, Nunavut
- On the nature of sea ice around Igloolik
- The Igliniit project: Inuit hunters document life on the trail to map and monitor Arctic change
- 'How many Eskimo words for ice?' Collecting Inuit sea ice terminologies in the International Polar Year 2007-2008
- Cracks in the knowledge: Sea ice terms in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik
- Evaluating the Floe Edge Service: How well can SAR imagery address Inuit community concerns around sea ice change and travel safety?
- Towards an Indigenist data management program: Reflections on experiences developing an atlas of sea ice knowledge and use
Glaciers and climate change: Perspectives from oral tradition
J. Cruikshank. Arctic (2001) 54(4):377-393. Academic debates, whether in science or in history, too often evaluate local expertise as data or evidence, rather than as knowledge or theory that might contribute different perspectives to academic questions.Guidelines for improved cooperation between Arctic researchers and northern communities
There is a rich history of scientific research in the Alaskan arctic. Fieldwork can interrupt subsistence hunting or disturb species protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act or Endangered Species Act. These Guidelines (2004) were drafted by the Arctic Sciences Section of the Office of Polar Programs at the National Science Foundation and the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium in order to help researchers attain the objectives adopted in 1984 by the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee and the Polar Research Board. (PDF 701 KB)Human geographies of sea ice: Freeze/thaw processes around Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada
G.J. Laidler, P. Elee. Polar Record (2008) 44(01):51-76. This paper provides insights into local-scale ice conditions and dynamics around Cape Dorset that are not captured in regional-scale studies of Hudson Bay and/or Hudson Strait. Results have the potential to inform future research efforts on local/regional sea ice monitoring, the relationship between Inuit knowledge, language, and the environment, and addressing community interests through targeted studies.Hunting, herding, fishing, and gathering: Indigenous peoples and renewable resource use in the Arctic
Chapter 12 (pages 649-690) of ACIA Scientific Report, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Climatic variability and weather affect the abundance and availability of animals and thus the abilities and opportunities to harvest and process animals for food, clothing, and other purposes. Arctic communities experience forces that threaten to restrict harvesting activities and sever these relationships. (PDF 666 KB)'The ice we want our children to know': SIKU Project in Alaska and Siberia, 2007-2008
I. Krupnik. Alaska Park Science (2009) 8(2):97-101. This paper presents an overview on the origins, structure, and current activities under the Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU) project, which is a part of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 science program.Imam cimiucia: Our changing sea
A. Salomon et al., University of Alaska Press, 2011, 123 pages. Through the lens of Western science and traditional Native knowledge, art, and photography, the authors uncover some of the ecological, social, and economic causes of coastal ecosystem change on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.Indigenous knowledge and scientific data to improve climate change adaptation strategies
Science Poles. December 25, 2008. The intimate understanding they have of the environment around them gives indigenous Arctic peoples special insight into the changes in ecosystems taking place as climate change gradually alters the face of the Arctic, and researchers can use this to their advantage in conducting studies.Indigenous knowledge in modern polar science
C. Brooks. Ice Stories. October 29, 2008. One IPY-sponsored project that is bringing indigenous knowledge into polar science is the Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU) project.Indigenous knowledge of a changing climate
D. Green, G. Raygorodetsky. Climatic Change (2010) 100(2):239-242. Much of the world's remaining diversity—biological, ecosystem, landscape, cultural, and linguistic—resides in indigenous territories. Indigenous peoples play a significant role in maintaining locally resilient social-ecological systems. Despite the recent adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, indigenous people remain largely excluded from the official UN climate negotiations.Indigenous knowledge vital to understanding climate change
A. Minard. National Geographic Newswatch, May 17, 2010. Shari Gearheard, an arctic resident and research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, teamed up with her colleague, CIRES senior research scientist Elizabeth Weatherhead. Together, they've put science to the Inuits' observations, documenting for the first time a subtler effect than global warming.Indigenous observations of climate change in the Lower Yukon River Basin, Alaska
N. Herman-Mercer et al. Human Organization (2011) 70(3):244-252. This paper relates the findings from fieldwork conducted in the Lower Yukon River Basin of Alaska in the spring of 2009. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with hunters and elders in the villages of St. Mary's and Pitka's Point, Alaska, to document observations of climate change.Indigenous people sound the alarm on climate change
B.C. Hoeward, National Geographic Daily News, October 11, 2011. News coverage of the conference "Seeking Balance: Indigenous Knowledge, Western Science and Climate Change.".Indigenous peoples and climate change
Publication by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Oxford, 2007. Indigenous and other local peoples are vital and active parts of many ecosystems and may help to enhance the resilience of these ecosystems. In addition, they interpret and react to climate change impacts in creative ways, drawing on traditional knowledge as well as new technologies to find solutions, which may help society at large to cope with the impending changes. (PDF 1.65 MB)Indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge related to biological diversity and responses to climate change in the Arctic region
Brochure published by Ministry of the Environment of Finland, 2009. While the results of scientific studies on the impacts of climate change on Arctic species and ecosystems are useful, they present only one snapshot of a vast and complex system. Indigenous and traditional knowledge from the Arctic region reveals another view of life and lifestyles under threat. (PDF 1.36 MB)Indigenous people sound the alarm on climate change
B.C. Hoeward, National Geographic Daily News, October 11, 2011. News coverage of the conference "Seeking Balance: Indigenous Knowledge, Western Science and Climate Change."Indigenous Voices on Climate Change
Video recording (October 2011) of a discussion between practitioners of both indigenous and western science seeking to address climate and environmental challenges facing the planet. Panelists include indigenous partners featured in the exhibition "Conversations with the Earth: Indigenous Voices on Climate Change" and representatives from NASA, NOAA, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, United Nations Development Program, United Nations University, U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. EPA. Part 2 of the recording is available here.The interface between indigenous and local knowledges and Western science
This webpage from North by 2020, an International Polar Year initiative, stresses that indigenous peoples of the Arctic have been caretakers of the land for millennia and have acquired extensive deep knowledge regarding the environment in which they live, and that indigenous residents of the Arctic are at the forefront of debates about the impacts and responses to accelerating ecological changes.Inuit and scientific perspectives on the relationship between sea ice and climate change: The ideal complement?
G.J. Laidler. Climatic Change (2006) 78(2-4):407-444. This paper explores the relationship between sea ice and climate change from both scientific and Inuit perspectives. Based on an overview of diverse literature, the experiences, methods, and goals which differentiate local and scientific sea ice knowledge are examined.Inuit economic adaptations for a changing global climate
T.B. Leduc. Ecological Economics (2006) 60(1):27-35. This paper proposes that market economic rationality limits the general Western approach towards climate change and indigenous knowledge.Inuit fight climate change with human-rights claim against U.S.
E. Gertz, Grist, July 26, 2005. Read about Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Canadian Inuit activist and chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.Inuit knowledge and climate change
This new documentary, the world's first Inuktitut-language film on the topic, takes the viewer "on the land" with elders and hunters to explore the social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic. Read more about the project in this CBC News article.Inuit knowledge critical to Arctic science
D. Braun, National Geographic Daily News, August 18, 2011. In this video interview, Martin Lougheed of the Inuit Quajisarvingat Knowledge Center, Ottawa, Canada, makes the case for blending Inuit traditional knowledge with Western science to help understand and find solutions to sweeping changes in the Arctic.Inuit observations of environmental change and effects of change in Anaktalak Bay, Labrador
H. Davies. Thesis submitted to the School of Environmental Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, November 2007. As in many arctic regions, impacts of increasing environmental stressors such as climate change and industrialization (particularly mineral exploration and mine development) have led local Inuit in northern Labrador to notice changes in their environment. In addition, they have expressed concerns that research and monitoring programs aimed at understanding and tracking these changes are lacking in many areas and do not accurately reflect their knowledge and concerns. (PDF 3.51 MB)Inuit Observations on Climate Change
Given the dramatic changes that local people have observed, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Hunters and Trappers Committee of Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, initiated a year-long project to document the problem of Arctic climate change and communicate it to Canadian and international audiences. This webpage has links to project reports, photos, and a video. Find the final report here.Inuit perceptions of climate change in East Greenland
C. Buijs. Inuit Studies (2010) 34(1):39-54. This paper examines how the Tunumiit of East Greenland perceive the weather, the changing climate, and the local environment. It also discusses how their perceptions have been influenced by political debates on global warming, sustainable development, and wildlife management since the 1950s.Inuit Sea Ice Use and Occupancy Project (ISIUOP)
ISIUOP is a collaborative project investigating the importance, uses, and knowledge of sea ice from the perspective of northern communities and Inuit experts.Inuit vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada
T. Pearce et al. Polar Record (2010) 46(02):157-177. Climate change is already being experienced in the Arctic with implications for ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. This paper argues that an assessment of community vulnerability to climate change requires knowledge of past experience with climate conditions, responses to climatic variations, future climate change projections, and non-climate factors that influence people's susceptibility and adaptive capacity.The Inupiat people of Barrow
This film is an entry to a micro-documentary film contest, 'Vulnerability Exposed: Social Dimensions of Climate Change.'Investigating the effects of environmental change on Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) growth using scientific and Inuit traditional knowledge
J.A. Knopp. Arctic (2010) 63(4):493-497. Arctic char is an important biological indicator of climate change in the Arctic because it is the only freshwater fish that has a circumpolar distribution and uses a wide variety of aquatic habitats, including marine, river, and lake environments. With his PhD research, the author hopes to provide the opportunity to exchange information and concepts of Western science and Inuit traditional knowledge and to assist directly with the monitoring and management of local fish resources.'It's not that simple': A collaborative comparison of sea ice environments, their uses, observed changes, and adaptations in Barrow, Alaska, USA, and Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada
S. Gearheard et al. Ambio (2006) 35(4):203-211. Although generally in agreement or complementary to one another, scientific and indigenous knowledge of sea ice often reflect different perspectives and emphases. Reliable knowledge that can be applied under changing conditions is essential. Collaborative research and firsthand experience are critical to generating such new knowledge.'It's so different today': Climate change and indigenous lifeways in British Columbia, Canada
N.J. Turner, H. Clifton. Global Environmental Change (2009) 19(2):180-190. Many people have noted signs of greater environmental change and challenges to their resilience than they have faced in the past: species declines and new appearances; anomalies in weather patterns; and declining health of forests and grasslands. These observations and perspectives are important to include in discussions and considerations of global climate change.The Last Days of Shishmaref
A multimedia documentation of the effect of climate change on the island of Shishmaref in Alaska, which will soon be moved as the ocean claims the island.Linking Inuit knowledge and meteorological station observations to understand changing wind patterns at Clyde River, Nunavut
S. Gearheard et al. Climatic Change (2010) 100(2):267-294. Inuit in many parts of Nunavut are reporting changes in wind patterns in recent years. At Clyde River, a community on the eastern coast of Baffin Island, Inuit have observed that at least three key aspects of wind have changed over the last few decades: wind variability, wind speed, and wind direction.Living with Arctic climate change
BBC News, July 10, 2006. People in the Arctic are living at the front line of climate change. BBC reporter Doreen Walton spent two months living and hunting with an Inupiat family in Barrow, Alaska, to see how the changes affect their daily lives. This is her three-part diary.Local and Traditional Knowledge (LTK)
This is a webpage of the North Pacific Research Board. LTK offers much in the context of research in the North Pacific by adding more information and new perspectives for understanding marine ecosystems.Local knowledge, subsistence harvests, and social-ecological complexity in James Bay
C. Peloquin, F. Berkes. Human Ecology (2009) 37(5):533-545. This paper examines how indigenous Cree hunters in James Bay, subarctic Canada, understand and deal with ecological complexity and dynamics, and how their understanding of uncertainty and variability shape subsistence activities.Local observations of climate change and impacts on traditional food security in two northern Aboriginal communities
M. Guyot et al. International Journal of Circumpolar Health (2006) 65(5):403-415. The primary objective of this study was to record participant observations of changes in the local environment, harvesting situations, and traditional food species and to explore what impact these may have on traditional food.Mapping land cover change in a reindeer herding area of the Russian Arctic using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery and indigenous knowledge
W.G. Rees et al. Remote Sensing of Environment (2003) 85(4):441-452. Traditionally, the tundra and the northern fringes of the boreal forest of northern Europe have been occupied by indigenous peoples whose main economic activity is reindeer herding. Groups of herders accompany their animals as they follow the annual changes in vegetation. As well as climate change, the ecology has been substantially affected by social changes that have had a marked effect on the relationship between reindeer, herder, and pasture.The melting ice cellar: What Native traditional knowledge is teaching us about global warming and environmental change
P.L. Cochran, A.L. Geiler. American Journal of Public Health (2002) 92(9):1404-1409. As far back as the 1970s, Alaska Native communities reported changes we now know to be associated with global warming, such as changing weather patterns, thinning ice, diseased and deformed wildlife, and changes in the look and taste of such subsistence foods as fish and meat.NASA seeks out aboriginal people's knowledge on climate change
C. Petten. Windspeaker (2000) 17(11):8-9. NASA began consultation with representatives from the American Native community in 1998. The consultation process is part of NASA's involvement in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), a program tasked with looking at the impact of climate change in the United States.'No whale, no music': Iñupiaq drumming and global warming
C. Sakakibara. Polar Record (2009) 45(04):289-303. When the environment is less predictable, the homeland eroded, place-based songs gone, and human-whale integrity threatened, how specifically are these changes manifested in the Iñupiat-whale relationship? Providing detailed descriptions of 2005-2006 nalukataq (midsummer whale feasts), this article examines how contemporary Iñupiat respond to environmental changes in the emotional and cultural dimensions through their music making.Notions of time and sentience: Methodological considerations for Arctic climate change research
D.C. Natcher et al. Arctic Anthropology (2007) 44(2):113-126. For anthropologists who are involved in Arctic climate change research, methodologies tend to reflect a culturally based assumption that there exists a single characterization of time and sentience that applies to all Arctic residents. Based on collaborative research with the Koyukon community of Huslia, Alaska, this paper challenges that assumption.Observations of climate change from indigenous Alaskans
Science Daily, September 13, 2011. Personal interviews with Alaska Natives in the Yukon River Basin provide unique insights on climate change and its impacts, helping develop adaptation strategies for these local communities.Observations on shorefast ice dynamics in Arctic Alaska and the responses of the Iñupiat hunting community
G.C. George et al. Arctic (2004) 57(4):363-374. Nearshore ice conditions can change suddenly, endangering even the most experienced subsistence hunter.On thin ice in the Bering Sea
This NOVA video series explores the past and future of the fast-changing Bering Sea region, its culture and people, and the new polar science that is emerging from an expedition on board the Coast Guard cutter Healy.'Our responsibility to keep the land alive': Voices of northern indigenous researchers
D. McGregor et al. Pimatisiwin (2010) 8(1):101-123. This paper is based on experiences, views, and stories shared by the 22 participants who spoke at the Research the Indigenous Way workshop at the Northern Governance Policy Research Conference in November 2009. The paper does not address all the issues raised, but rather focuses specifically on how the workshop sheds new light on the nature of alternative indigenous research that would support indigenous governance.Pacific walruses, indigenous hunters, and climate change: Bridging scientific and indigenous knowledge
I. Krupnik, G.C. Ray. Deep-Sea Research II (2007). This paper presents and evaluates two perspectives on changing climate-walrus-human relationships in the Beringian region, from the viewpoints of marine biology and ecology, and from that of indigenous hunters. Bridging these types of knowledge is vital in order to grasp the complexity of the processes involved.Pausing along the journey: Learning landscapes, environmental change, and toponymy amongst the Sikusilarmiut
A. Henshaw. Arctic Anthropology (2006) 43(1):52-66. Sikusilarmiut toponymy can help inform broader scientific narratives about changing Arctic environments. Sikusilarmiut place names reflect Inuit multisensory notions of place and provide insight into the changing movements of people across the land, sea, and ice on a seasonal basis.Peoples of the Arctic: Human response to Arctic change
The Circle (2010), Issue 2. The Circle is published quarterly by the WWF International Arctic Programme. This issue focuses on the people living in the Arctic; how their lives are influenced by the dramatic changes occurring in the region as temperatures reach record high levels, the sea ice is melting with an alarming speed, and countries and companies compete for access to the wealth of Arctic resources; how people of the North cope with and adapt to these changes; and the role of traditional knowledge in these processes today. (PDF 4.67 MB)Perception of change in freshwater in remote resource-dependent Arctic communities
L. Alessa et al. Global Environmental Change (2008) 18(1):153-164. This paper provides empirical evidence to support existing anecdotal studies regarding the mechanisms by which human communities become vulnerable to rapid changes in freshwater resources on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Authors discuss the role of collective knowledge, through the transmission of knowledge from elders to subsequent generations, in aiding the development of a community's ability to note and respond to changes in critical natural resources.Rising temperature in Alaska, a special report
In this YouTube video, ABC foreign correspondent Sarah Clarke visits Shishmaref, Alaska, and interviews locals about the rapid erosion that is claiming their village. (12:21 min)Sámi traditional ecological knowledge as a guide to science: Snow, ice and reindeer pasture facing climate change
J.Å. Riseth et al. Polar Research (2011) 47(3):202-217. Scientific studies of challenges of climate change could be improved by including other sources of knowledge, such as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in this case relating to the Sámi. This study focuses on local variations in snow and ice conditions, effects of the first durable snow, and long-term changes in snow and ice conditions as prerequisites for understanding potential future changes.Science meets traditional knowledge: Water and climate in the Sahtu (Great Bear Lake) Region, Northwest Territories, Canada
M-K Woo et al. Arctic (2007) 60(1):37-46. In July 2005, several scientists from the Mackenzie GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Study, known as MAGS, met with aboriginal people in Deline on the shore of Great Bear Lake to exchange information on climate and water in the region.Scientific weather data meets traditional Inuit knowledge
T. Hansen. Mother Earth Journal (online). April 23, 2010. For the last 15 years the Inuit have reported that Arctic weather has been less stable and more unpredictable. Now, scientists are listening.Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU): Assessing Arctic environmental and social change
SIKU is one of several IPY 2007-2008 projects aimed at documenting indigenous observations of environmental changes in the polar areas, with its specific focus on sea ice and the use of ice-covered habitats by the residents of the Arctic. Incidentally, the project's acronym SIKU is also the most common word for sea ice (siku) in all Eskimo/Inuit languages, from Chukotka to Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.Sheila Watt-Cloutier Keynote at Health Canada's Pan-Arctic Results Workshop
Video from Isuma TV. Sheila Watt-Cloutier delivers her keynote at Health Canada's - First Nation and Inuit Health Branch - Pan-Arctic Results Workshop, held in Ottawa February 7-10, 2011. This speech navigates the global and local decision-making and impacts of climate change, weaving together human rights and ecological and governance issues, all within Watt-Cloutier's unique indigenous perspective.Should we turn the tent? Inuit women and climate change
M. Dowsley et al. Inuit Studies (2010) 34(1):151-165. The authors' research indicates that gender helps shape Inuit knowledge of environmental change, as well as social responses to perceptions of change. By examining women's perceptions of environmental change, they draw attention to the social aspects and also highlight how women can contribute to adaptation, not only to physical changes but also to the resulting social changes.Stories of the raven: Snowchange 2005 conference report
Snowchange Cooperative, based in Finland, partnered with Alaska Native Science Commission and Inuit Circumpolar Conference-Alaska, among other organizations, to host a circumpolar conference in Anchorage, Alaska, devoted to finding answers and solutions to the challenge of rapidly advancing Arctic climate change. Participants exchanged opinions, observations, and stories about climate change in the Arctic. This report summarizes the Snowchange 2005 conference. (PDF 1.36 MB)Thermal inversion: Reading the sky for signs of climate change
PBS NewsHour Science Report, April 24, 2007. From the thinning Arctic sea ice to the softening permafrost and the northern migration of indigenous animals, scientists and Arctic dwellers are taking note of the gradual impacts of climate change. In one area in particular, Inuit hunters are helping inform local weather record-keepers about a phenomenon occurring in the sky.Toward an integrated coastal sea-ice observatory: System components and a case study at Barrow, Alaska
M.L. Druckenmiller et al. Cold Regions Science and Technology (2009) 56(2-3):61-72. The morphology, stability and duration of seasonal landfast sea ice in Alaska's coastal zone is changing alongside large-scale ice thinning and retreat. The extent and complexity of change at the local level requires an integrated observing approach to assess implications of such change for coastal ecosystems and communities that rely on or make use of the sea-ice cover.Traditional environmental knowledge and western science: In search of common ground
L.J.S. Tsuji, E. Ho. Canadian Journal of Native Studies (2002) 22(2}:327-360. Controversy has surrounded the decision made by the federal government of Canada to give equal standing to traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) with respect to western science in the environmental impact assessment process. Part of the problem relates to the portrayal of TEK and science, in most of the literature, as being significantly different from each other in almost all aspects. In this paper, similarities rather than differences are stressed.Traditional Inuit knowledge combines with science to shape Arctic weather insights
A post from the Climate Change Blog, University of Colorado at Boulder, April 9, 2010.Traditional peoples and climate change
J. Salick, N. Ross. Global Environmental Change (2009) 19(2):137-139. Indigenous and other local peoples are vital and active parts of many ecosystems and may help to enhance the resilience of these ecosystems. In addition, they interpret and react to climate change impacts in creative ways, drawing on traditional knowledge as well as new technologies to find solutions, which may help society at large to cope with the impending changes.Transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills among Inuit men in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada
T. Pearce et al. Human Ecology (2011) 39(3):271-288. The transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills was studied among Inuit men in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. A list of 83 skills important for safe and successful harvesting was generated with 14 active hunters and elders, and examined with a sample of 47 men. This research found that land skills continue to be transmitted most often from older to younger generations through observation and apprenticeship in the environment.Tribes and Climate Change
Videos and other formats illustrate the importance of traditional knowledge in the study of climate change and its impacts.Unikkaaqatigiit: Putting the human face on climate change: Perspectives from Inuit in Canada
The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments at Laval University, and the Ajunnginiq Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization, in cooperation with the regional Inuit organizations and communities and other partners, conducted a series of workshops focused on environmental change and what it means for communities in the four Inuit regions of the Canadian Arctic. These workshops were held from 2002 to 2005 following an International Institute for Sustainable Development research initiative in Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, in 2001. This book presents the results from these workshops.Using indigenous knowledge for studying climate change
D. Grossman. National Geographic Newswatch. December 17, 2009. The author posted this dispatch from Copenhagen following an interview with polar scientist Shari Gearheard.Using traditional knowledge to adapt to ecological change: Denésoliné monitoring of caribou movements
B. Parlee et al. Arctic (2005) 58(1):26-37. Many generations ago, Denésoliné hunters learned that by observing caribou at key water crossings during the fall migration they could obtain critical information about caribou health, population, and movement patterns.Video brings climate change into spotlight
C. Petten. Windspeaker (2001) 18(9):16. Evidence of the dramatic effect climate change is having in Canada's Arctic was presented to delegates of the Sixth Session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP-6), held in the Hague, Netherlands, November 2000, in the form of a video produced by the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) titled "Sila Alangotok: Inuit Observations on Climate Change."Water and ice-related phenomena in the coastal region of the Beaufort Sea: Some parallels between Native experience and Western science
E. Carmack and R. MacDonald. Arctic (2008) 61(3):265-280. Information gained through Native experience is combined here with scientific measurements to describe aspects of the wintertime oceanography of the Eskimo Lakes and Mackenzie River delta regions of the Canadian Beaufort Sea.'We dance around in a ring and suppose': Academic engagement with traditional knowledge
H.P. Huntington. Arctic Anthropology (2005) 42(1):29-32. The concept of "traditional knowledge" describes not a single entity, but a diverse and complex set of ways of knowing. Different ways of studying traditional knowledge are more a product of different academic perspectives than of qualities inherent to traditional knowledge. Different approaches are entirely appropriate, if they suit the particular purposes for which traditional knowledge is sought.The whale and the supercomputer: On the northern front of climate change
C. Wohlforth. North Point Press, 2004, 322 pages. Climate change is not an abstraction in the far north. It is a reality that has already altered daily life for Native people who still live largely off the land and sea. Likewise, its heavy Arctic footprint has lured scientists seeking to uncover its mysteries. Charles Wohlforth follows both groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape.When the weather is uggianaqtuq: Inuit observations of environmental change
S. Fox, National Snow and Ice Data Center, 2003. In this interactive, multi-media CD-ROM, Inuit from two communities, Baker Lake (Qamani'tuaq) and Clyde River (Kangiktugaapik) in Nunavut, Canada, share their observations and perspectives on recent environmental changes.Why traditional knowledge holds the key to climate change
G. Raygorodetsky, United Nations University, December 13, 2011. Although indigenous peoples' "low-carbon" traditional ways of life have contributed little to climate change, indigenous peoples are the most adversely affected by it. This is largely a result of their historic dependence on local biological diversity, ecosystem services, and cultural landscapes as a source of sustenance and well-being.Young Alaskan sees changing way of life
NPR's "All Things Considered," April 19, 2008. Reporter Libby Casey traveled to Arctic Village, Alaska, and talked with Matthew Gilbert about Gwich'in observations of climate change.Yup'ik perspectives on climate change: 'The world is following its people'
A. Fienup-Riordan. Inuit Studies (2010) 34(1):55-70. The Nelson Island Natural and Cultural History Project originated in the desire of community members in the Yup'ik villages of Chefornak, Nightmute, Toksook Bay, Tununak, and Newtok to document and share their history with their younger generation. To do so, they invited non-Native scientists to join them in village gatherings as well as on a three-week circumnavigation of Nelson Island (Alaska), during which elders reflected on changes in weather patterns, animal migrations, sea-ice conditions, and related harvesting activities.Arctic Researchers
Ann Daniels and Phil Coates to test Arctic waters
BBC News, March 1, 2011. British explorers Ann Daniels and Phil Coates will be braving temperatures as low as -75C on a 60-day Arctic trek testing whether changes in sea temperatures affect ocean currents.Applying climate change science in Alaska
Lecture #2 in U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Climate Change Lecture Series, presented March 12, 2009, by Wendy Loya, PhD, of the Wilderness Society. Click here for the audio portion.Arctic Alive!
Interactive, real-time web-based education program that uses a variety of delivery methods and e-learning strategies to deliver arctic research to the classroom.Arctic exploration for climate science
A. Kenward, OnEarth, March 31, 2011. On-the-ground data is what climate scientists need in order to get a more complete picture of how the Arctic is changing and what ramifications there might be for the rest of the world. The quest for such data underpins a unique collaboration between scientists and explorers known as the Catlin Arctic Survey.Arctic science needs more Inuit, Greenlandic scientists say
J. George, Nunatsiaq Online, May 16, 2011. Parnuna Egede and Minik Rosing, both Greenlandic scientists, would like to see more young Inuit study science and work towards a career in science.Arctic Voice
The Arctic Voice Expedition consists of a kayaking journey following the route of the historic Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic in the summers of 2007 and 2008 and an overland journey by ski and dog sled in the winter/spring of 2008. The aim is to visit remote settlements and hunting camps and to meet residents of the Arctic to hear their story of a changing world.Are summers getting warmer up North?
CBC News, September 21, 1961. "One thing we have found is that it appears the summers have been slightly warmer in the past 20 to 30 years. This is rather a small difference, but it seems to be significant," says Dr. Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith in this 1961 radio clip. The scientist is being interviewed about his recent research trip to Ellesmere Island in Canada's Arctic, where his team conducted radiation tests. This is one of the earliest clips in the CBC Archives mentioning a subject that will become a worldwide fixation four decades later.As Polar Year ends, researchers look for climate clues in mountains of data
PBS NewsHour, April 10, 2009. A period of intensive study of the Earth's polar caps, called the International Polar Year, ended in March 2009, leaving researchers with a bounty of data to sort through to help inform the next generation of polar research.The big melt: Notes from the front lines of climate change
E. Grossman. Earth Island Journal (2008) 23(2):34-38. For almost a month, the author's home was the CCGS Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and scientific research vessel that was the first to spend the winter moving through sea ice north of the Arctic Circle. This expedition, which involved more than 200 scientists from 15 different countries, was the largest International Polar Year project underway.Breaking the ice
D. Whipple. Nature Reports Climate Change, April 24, 2008. Scientists are becoming increasingly open to using local knowledge to understand how climate change could affect the world's most vulnerable, and often inaccessible, regions.Bridging scientific and traditional knowledge of climate change in the Canadian Arctic
J. Castleden. Global Change Newsletter (2001) 47:5-8. At the recent Global Change Open Science Conference in Amsterdam, it was apparent that the level of interest in diverse knowledge systems, and the synergies between knowledge systems, is growing. The opportunity is ripe for reflection on how communities and local people may inform the growing field of global change research.Catlin Arctic Survey 2010
Catlin Arctic Survey 2010 is focused on what is widely considered to be the 'other' carbon problem beyond climate change, that of ocean change. The Survey is undertaking vital research into how greenhouse gases could affect the marine life of the Arctic Ocean, including some species that can be described as the core of life on our planet.Climate variability, oceanography, bowhead whale distribution, and Iñupiat subsistence whaling near Barrow, Alaska
C.J. Ashjian et al. Arctic (2010) 63(2):179-194. The annual migration of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) past Barrow, Alaska, has provided subsistence hunting to Iñupiat for centuries. Bowheads recurrently feed on aggregations of zooplankton prey near Barrow in autumn. The mechanisms that form these aggregations, and the associations between whales and oceanography, were investigated using field sampling, retrospective analysis, and traditional knowledge interviews.Dangerous Ice
As part of University of Alaska Fairbanks' Project Jukebox, a 2004 NSF-funded workshop brought together local community members and scientists to share observations about changes in Interior Alaska river and lake ice conditions.Eavesdropping on Arctic birds
N. Boelman, New York Times, June 15, 2011. Natalie Boelman, an ecosystem ecologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, writes from the North Slope of Alaska, where she is studying the effects of climate change on the interactions among plants, insects, and migratory songbirds.Environmental change and traditional use of the Old Crow Flats in northern Canada: An IPY opportunity to meet the challenges of the new northern research paradigm
B.B. Wolfe et al. Arctic (2011) 64(1):127-135. The authors describe the evolution of a community-researcher partnership that defines the Government of Canada International Polar Year (IPY) investigation on "Environmental Change and Traditional Use of the Old Crow Flats in northern Canada (Yeendoo Nanh Nakhweenjit K'atr'ahanahtyaa)," hereafter referred to as YNNK, one of very few fully endorsed programs led by northern-based individuals or aboriginal organizations in Canada.Essays on the Arctic
This is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "Arctic theme page," where experts in Arctic science answer questions.Eurasian reindeer pastoralism in a changing climate: Indigenous knowledge & NASA remote sensing
N.G. Maynard et al. NASA Technical Report, 2008. Eurasian reindeer herders have created the EALAT project, a comprehensive new initiative to study the impacts of climate change and to develop local adaptation strategies based upon their traditional knowledge of the land and its uses—in targeted partnership with the science and remote sensing community—involving extensive collaborations and coproduction of knowledge to minimize the impacts of the various changes.Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA)
The goal of ELOKA is to facilitate the collection, preservation, exchange, and use of local observations and knowledge of the Arctic by providing data management and user support, and to foster collaboration between local and international researchers.Explorers find thin ice at the North Pole
NPR's "All Things Considered," September 24, 2007. Every spring, when there's enough daylight and before the ice begins to fracture too much, there's a brief window of several weeks for scientists and explorers to arrive on the drifting pack ice at the North Pole. But that window is growing smaller due to a warmer climate. For the 2007 season, scientists had to scrap their missions, and explorers were forced to abort their expeditions due to severe storms, thinning ice, and open water.Exploring ecological changes in Cook Inlet beluga whale habitat through traditional and local ecological knowledge of contributing factors for population decline
B.T.G. Carter, E.A. Nielsen. Marine Policy (2011) 35(3):299-308. This study documented traditional and local ecological knowledge of Alaska Native subsistence hunters and fishers and commercial fishers through participatory research to explore ecological changes in Cook Inlet over time and to identify potential factors impacting this beluga whale population. Study results identified potential environmental and climate change factors that may indicate an ecosystem regime shift in the Cook Inlet region.Extreme Ice Survey (EIS)
EIS uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography, and video to document the rapid changes now occurring on the earth's glacial ice. The EIS team has installed 27 time-lapse cameras at 15 sites in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. EIS supplements this ongoing record with annual repeat photography in Iceland, the Alps, and Bolivia.Faces of Climate Change
Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, 2011. These three short videos showcase the dramatic changes in Alaska's marine ecosystems through interviews with scientists and Alaska Natives. They were produced in partnership with Alaska Ocean Observing System, Alaska Marine Conservation Council, and COSEE Alaska.
- Introduction to Climate Change (MP4 5:55 min)
- Disappearing Sea Ice (MP4 10:45 min)
- Life on the Ice (MP4 7:33 min)
Field Notes: The Polar Field Services Newsletter
Blog of Polar Field Services, an organization that works with National Science Foundation–funded scientists to arrange polar expeditions.Geographies of Inuit sea ice use
C. Aporta et al. Canadian Geographer (2011) 55(1). This special issue of Canadian Geographer presents insights that Inuit hunters have shared with the authors about what declining sea ice means to them, reflecting different perspectives that emerge from different communities. Articles include:
- Introduction
- Shifting perspectives on shifting ice: Documenting and representing Inuit use of the sea ice
- Looking back—and looking ahead—35 years after the Inuit land use and occupancy project
- An elder on sea ice: An interview with Aipilik Inuksuk of Igloolik, Nunavut
- On the nature of sea ice around Igloolik
- The Igliniit project: Inuit hunters document life on the trail to map and monitor Arctic change
- 'How many Eskimo words for ice?' Collecting Inuit sea ice terminologies in the International Polar Year 2007-2008
- Cracks in the knowledge: Sea ice terms in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik
- Evaluating the Floe Edge Service: How well can SAR imagery address Inuit community concerns around sea ice change and travel safety?
- Towards an Indigenist data management program: Reflections on experiences developing an atlas of sea ice knowledge and use
Getting wise to the owl, a charismatic sentry in climate change
J. Robbins, New York Times, May 23, 2011. For 19 years, owl researcher Denver Holt has journeyed to Barrow, Alaska, each summer to map out the predator-prey relationship between the lemmings that crawl across the tundra and the white owls that hunt them from above. As he prepares for his 20th field season in the Arctic, he says that the snowy owl has a role to play in understanding ecological changes in one of the fastest changing places in the world.Guidelines for improved cooperation between Arctic researchers and northern communities
There is a rich history of scientific research in the Alaskan arctic. Fieldwork can interrupt subsistence hunting or disturb species protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act or Endangered Species Act. These Guidelines (2004) were drafted by the Arctic Sciences Section of the Office of Polar Programs at the National Science Foundation and the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium in order to help researchers attain the objectives adopted in 1984 by the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee and the Polar Research Board. (PDF 701 KB)Hear from the real iceman
PBS' NOVA ScienceNOW, April 1, 2009. Lonnie Thompson is a senior research scientist at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center and one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient climate. Here he talks about why today's accelerated melting of glaciers should concern us on fronts as divergent as drinking water and coastal living, climate change and infectious disease, refugees, and terrorism.Human geographies of sea ice: Freeze/thaw processes around Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada
G.J. Laidler, P. Elee. Polar Record (2008) 44(01):51-76. This paper provides insights into local-scale ice conditions and dynamics around Cape Dorset that are not captured in regional-scale studies of Hudson Bay and/or Hudson Strait. Results have the potential to inform future research efforts on local/regional sea ice monitoring, the relationship between Inuit knowledge, language, and the environment, and addressing community interests through targeted studies.Ice stories: Dispatches from polar scientists
For the International Polar Year, polar scientists were given cameras and blogging tools and asked to document their field work. Follow along on their adventures and see what it's like to be a research scientist in the Arctic or Antarctica.ICESCAPE blog
The ICESCAPE mission, which stands for "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," will investigate the impacts of climate change on the ecology and biogeochemistry of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along Alaska's northern coast. The NASA mission embarked in June 2010 onboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the United States' newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker.In the Arctic, a time-lapse view of climate change
NPR's "Fresh Air," March 18, 2009. Intent on documenting the effects of climate change, nature photographer James Balog ventured into ice-bound regions with 26 time-lapse cameras, which he programmed to shoot a frame every daylight hour for three years. The resulting images, which make up Balog's "Extreme Ice Survey" project, show ice sheets and glaciers breaking apart and disappearing.Indigenous knowledge and scientific data to improve climate change adaptation strategies
Science Poles. December 25, 2008. The intimate understanding they have of the environment around them gives indigenous Arctic peoples special insight into the changes in ecosystems taking place as climate change gradually alters the face of the Arctic, and researchers can use this to their advantage in conducting studies.Indigenous knowledge in modern polar science
C. Brooks. Ice Stories. October 29, 2008. One IPY-sponsored project that is bringing indigenous knowledge into polar science is the Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU) project.Indigenous knowledge of a changing climate
D. Green, G. Raygorodetsky. Climatic Change (2010) 100(2):239-242. Much of the world's remaining diversity—biological, ecosystem, landscape, cultural, and linguistic—resides in indigenous territories. Indigenous peoples play a significant role in maintaining locally resilient social-ecological systems. Despite the recent adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, indigenous people remain largely excluded from the official UN climate negotiations.The interface between indigenous and local knowledges and Western science
This webpage from North by 2020, an International Polar Year initiative, stresses that indigenous peoples of the Arctic have been caretakers of the land for millennia and have acquired extensive deep knowledge regarding the environment in which they live, and that indigenous residents of the Arctic are at the forefront of debates about the impacts and responses to accelerating ecological changes.International Polar Year kicks off
NPR's "Talk of the Nation," March 2, 2007. A two-year research program aims to better understand the poles and how they affect Earth's climate. Polar explorer Will Steger provides an update from the site of his latest trek, a 1,200-mile dogsled expedition across the Canadian Arctic's Baffin Island.Inuit and scientific perspectives on the relationship between sea ice and climate change: The ideal complement?
G.J. Laidler. Climatic Change (2006) 78(2-4):407-444. This paper explores the relationship between sea ice and climate change from both scientific and Inuit perspectives. Based on an overview of diverse literature, the experiences, methods, and goals which differentiate local and scientific sea ice knowledge are examined.Inuit knowledge critical to Arctic science
D. Braun, National Geographic Daily News, August 18, 2011. In this video interview, Martin Lougheed of the Inuit Quajisarvingat Knowledge Center, Ottawa, Canada, makes the case for blending Inuit traditional knowledge with Western science to help understand and find solutions to sweeping changes in the Arctic.Investigating the effects of environmental change on Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) growth using scientific and Inuit traditional knowledge
J.A. Knopp. Arctic (2010) 63(4):493-497. Arctic char is an important biological indicator of climate change in the Arctic because it is the only freshwater fish that has a circumpolar distribution and uses a wide variety of aquatic habitats, including marine, river, and lake environments. With his PhD research, the author hopes to provide the opportunity to exchange information and concepts of Western science and Inuit traditional knowledge and to assist directly with the monitoring and management of local fish resources.Linking Inuit knowledge and meteorological station observations to understand changing wind patterns at Clyde River, Nunavut
S. Gearheard et al. Climatic Change (2010) 100(2):267-294. Inuit in many parts of Nunavut are reporting changes in wind patterns in recent years. At Clyde River, a community on the eastern coast of Baffin Island, Inuit have observed that at least three key aspects of wind have changed over the last few decades: wind variability, wind speed, and wind direction.Mapping land cover change in a reindeer herding area of the Russian Arctic using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery and indigenous knowledge
W.G. Rees et al. Remote Sensing of Environment (2003) 85(4):441-452. Traditionally, the tundra and the northern fringes of the boreal forest of northern Europe have been occupied by indigenous peoples whose main economic activity is reindeer herding. Groups of herders accompany their animals as they follow the annual changes in vegetation. As well as climate change, the ecology has been substantially affected by social changes that have had a marked effect on the relationship between reindeer, herder, and pasture.Mapping the whalers: Sea ice study goes beyond the numbers
N. Rozell, Alaska Dispatch, July 30, 2011. Like most college students, Matt Druckenmiller did not know much about sea ice when he began his degree program. But now he has walked and snowmachined whalers' trails to the ice edge near Barrow, earning a doctorate and getting to know people who harvest bowhead whales along the way.Meltfactor.org
Ice and climate web log of Jason E. Box, Ph.D.Monitoring seasonal and long-term climate changes and extremes in the Central Alaska Network
P.J. Sousanes. Alaska Park Science (2007) 6(2):22-25. Climate is a primary driver of ecological change and an important component of the Central Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (CAKN). By monitoring seasonal and long-term climate patterns in the region, we can correlate climate changes and extremes to other variations in the ecosystem, such as changes in permafrost extent or vegetation composition.NASA seeks out aboriginal people's knowledge on climate change
C. Petten. Windspeaker (2000) 17(11):8-9. NASA began consultation with representatives from the American Native community in 1998. The consultation process is part of NASA's involvement in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), a program tasked with looking at the impact of climate change in the United States.Newsnight's Arctic adventure
BBC Newsnight, August 21, 2008. BBC Newsnight science editor Susan Watts traveled to the Arctic outpost of Ny Alesund to join up with a team of climate scientists on board the specialist expedition vessel the James Clark Ross.The North Pole was here: Puzzles and perils at the top of the world
A.C. Revkin, New York Times Book, Kingfisher, 2006. New York Times environmental reporter Andrew Revkin leads readers through the mysterious history of arctic exploration; he follows oceanographers as they drill a hole through nine feet of ice to dive into waters below; peers into the mysteries of climate modeling and global warming; and ultimately shows how the fate of the pole will affect us all. Listen to an interview with Revkin on NPR's "Fresh Air" from June 14, 2006.Notions of time and sentience: Methodological considerations for Arctic climate change research
D.C. Natcher et al. Arctic Anthropology (2007) 44(2):113-126. For anthropologists who are involved in Arctic climate change research, methodologies tend to reflect a culturally based assumption that there exists a single characterization of time and sentience that applies to all Arctic residents. Based on collaborative research with the Koyukon community of Huslia, Alaska, this paper challenges that assumption.Observations on shorefast ice dynamics in Arctic Alaska and the responses of the Iñupiat hunting community
G.C. George et al. Arctic (2004) 57(4):363-374. Nearshore ice conditions can change suddenly, endangering even the most experienced subsistence hunter.Observing and understanding Arctic climate change: Monitoring the mass balance, motion, and thickness of sea ice
Website of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). The Arctic sea ice cover plays a key role in global climate change studies, both as an indicator and as an amplifier of climate change. The sea ice cover is undergoing significant climate-induced changes, affecting both its extent and thickness. Observations of ice growth and melt improves our understanding of the ongoing changes and enhance our ability to predict future changes.On thin ice in the Bering Sea
This NOVA video series explores the past and future of the fast-changing Bering Sea region, its culture and people, and the new polar science that is emerging from an expedition on board the Coast Guard cutter Healy.'Our responsibility to keep the land alive': Voices of northern indigenous researchers
D. McGregor et al. Pimatisiwin (2010) 8(1):101-123. This paper is based on experiences, views, and stories shared by the 22 participants who spoke at the Research the Indigenous Way workshop at the Northern Governance Policy Research Conference in November 2009. The paper does not address all the issues raised, but rather focuses specifically on how the workshop sheds new light on the nature of alternative indigenous research that would support indigenous governance.Pacific walruses, indigenous hunters, and climate change: Bridging scientific and indigenous knowledge
I. Krupnik, G.C. Ray. Deep-Sea Research II (2007). This paper presents and evaluates two perspectives on changing climate-walrus-human relationships in the Beringian region, from the viewpoints of marine biology and ecology, and from that of indigenous hunters. Bridging these types of knowledge is vital in order to grasp the complexity of the processes involved.Permafrost science and secondary education: Direct involvement of teachers and students in field research
A.E. Klene et al. Geomorphology (2002) 47(2-4):275-287. Permafrost and periglacial geomorphology are absent from the science curriculum in most secondary schools in the United States. This is an unfortunate situation given the recent increases in development and environmental concerns in northern latitudes and high-mountain areas, and the interesting examples of basic scientific principles found in the history of research on periglacial geomorphology and permafrost.Polar research
Webpage produced by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Polar science
E. Pennisi et al., eds. Science (2007) 315(5818):1513-1540. This special issue of Science contains a series of articles from the International Polar Year (IPY) research initiative, with an exploration of polar processes and their influence on many of our planet's ecological and biogeochemical cycles.Polar warming
PBS Online NewsHour, November 8, 2004. Results of a four-year study released by a team of 300 scientists show the Arctic is warming at twice the global average rate. Tom Bearden reports on the science of the Arctic.Recording the trend: The role of the climate monitoring vital sign in understanding park ecosystems
P. Sousanes. Alaska Park Science (2010) 9(1):10-12. Climate patterns are key to understanding ecosystem processes, yet the available analyses, trends, and models for Alaska are based on relatively few observations. One of the fundamental ways the Alaska Inventory and Monitoring program is helping to assess climate change is by deploying climate stations that record temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, soil temperature, relative humidity, snow depth, and solar radiation.Scaling studies in Arctic system science and policy support: A call to research
Report from the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, June 2010. This report is a call for action to fill the gaps in the knowledge necessary to reach the goal of developing an understanding of the effects of climate and environmental changes at the scale of the whole Arctic environment, including their atmospheric, marine, terrestrial, and human components.Science meets traditional knowledge: Water and climate in the Sahtu (Great Bear Lake) Region, Northwest Territories, Canada
M-K Woo et al. Arctic (2007) 60(1):37-46. In July 2005, several scientists from the Mackenzie GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) Study, known as MAGS, met with aboriginal people in Deline on the shore of Great Bear Lake to exchange information on climate and water in the region.Scientific weather data meets traditional Inuit knowledge
T. Hansen. Mother Earth Journal (online). April 23, 2010. For the last 15 years the Inuit have reported that Arctic weather has been less stable and more unpredictable. Now, scientists are listening.A scientist's blog from the Arctic: Unraveling mysteries of migration
S. Zack, Yale Environment 360, July 12, 2011. Steve Zack, a biologist with the New York–based Wildlife Conservation Society, works extensively in Arctic Alaska. In the first of a series of reports for Yale Environment 360, Zack describes how he and his colleagues are using the latest in miniaturized technology to track the remarkable global migrations of birds that nest on Alaska's North Slope. Subsequent blog posts will touch on how global warming is altering the region's ecosystems.Scientists study Arctic climate
BBC News, August 30, 2007. Scientists from the University of Wales, Bangor, are joining a polar expedition to study the impact of climate change.Sea Ice Group at the Geophysical Institute
This site provides real-time data, including sea-ice videos and photo frames taken every five minutes from webcams in Barrow and in Wales, Alaska, sea-ice radar images updated every 10 minutes, and measurements of snow and ice thickness, local sea level, and water-ice-snow-air temperatures taken every 15 minutes. There are links to archived data.Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU): Assessing Arctic environmental and social change
SIKU is one of several IPY 2007-2008 projects aimed at documenting indigenous observations of environmental changes in the polar areas, with its specific focus on sea ice and the use of ice-covered habitats by the residents of the Arctic. Incidentally, the project's acronym SIKU is also the most common word for sea ice (siku) in all Eskimo/Inuit languages, from Chukotka to Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.Sunderland experts study 18th-century Arctic voyages
BBC News, December 23, 2010. A team from Sunderland University will study records kept by explorers, whalers, and merchants during trips that took place up to 260 years ago. They want to see if the logs provide clues about the ice levels in the area at that time.Taking an icy look at global warming
NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday," May 20, 2007. Two young researchers find out just how difficult global warming research can be when they venture onto the Arctic ice sheet, north of Alaska. Data gathered there is critical to advancing knowledge of the phenomenon. This story is from Alaska Public Radio Network's Annie Feidt.Traditional Inuit knowledge combines with science to shape Arctic weather insights
A post from the Climate Change Blog, University of Colorado at Boulder, April 9, 2010.Unlocking the secrets of the Arctic's melting ice
BBC News, May 27, 2011. A scientist hopes that a better understanding of what is happening beneath the Arctic ice will offer an insight into why summer sea ice is melting at rate that is alarming experts.Wacky weather forces climate change scientists to adapt
CBC News, April 4, 2008. Scientists had to change plans partway through a 10-month project started in October 2007 called the Circumpolar Flaw Lead system study.Water and ice-related phenomena in the coastal region of the Beaufort Sea: Some parallels between Native experience and Western science
E. Carmack and R. MacDonald. Arctic (2008) 61(3):265-280. Information gained through Native experience is combined here with scientific measurements to describe aspects of the wintertime oceanography of the Eskimo Lakes and Mackenzie River delta regions of the Canadian Beaufort Sea.'We dance around in a ring and suppose': Academic engagement with traditional knowledge
H.P. Huntington. Arctic Anthropology (2005) 42(1):29-32. The concept of "traditional knowledge" describes not a single entity, but a diverse and complex set of ways of knowing. Different ways of studying traditional knowledge are more a product of different academic perspectives than of qualities inherent to traditional knowledge. Different approaches are entirely appropriate, if they suit the particular purposes for which traditional knowledge is sought.Writers and Artists
Author Seth Kantner reads from Shopping for Porcupine
University of Alaska Anchorage podcast. The UAA/APU Books of the Year presented author Seth Kantner. His two books, Shopping for Porcupine and Ordinary Wolves, mark him as one of the most interesting and dynamic Alaskan writers. He discussed the Books of the Year theme "Responding to Climate Change in Alaska," illustrated by his own photos and commentary. This podcast was recorded on November 12, 2009. (MP3—33 MB, 71:42)Art & Climate Change
Cape Farewell's Art & Climate Change, created in partnership with the Natural History Museum in 2006, presented contemporary art designed to deepen our understanding of climate change.Art from the Arctic
British artist and filmmaker David Buckland organized three sailing expeditions to the high Arctic as part of a series of collaborations between artists, educators, and scientists, designed to create public awareness of global climate change. This is a 2004 BBC documentary about the Cape Farewell project, directed by David Hinton and produced by David Buckland.Artists condemn British Council's decision to axe climate programme
D. Carrington, guardian.co.uk, July 14, 2011. A group of some of Britain's best-known authors and artists has condemned the British Council's "extraordinary" decision to all but end its groundbreaking international work on climate change and demanded the decision be reconsidered.A change in the climate: New interpretations and perceptions of climate change through artistic interventions and representations
L. Duxbury. Weather, Climate, and Society (2010) 2(4):294-299. This paper sets out to explicate alternative ways of comprehending and addressing some of the complex problems of climate change. Drawing on the work of certain artists and art commentators, this paper argues that, far from being a purely imaginative or aesthetic activity, art is integral to meaningful communication between humans and the changing world.Conversations with the Earth: Indigenous Voices on Climate Change
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, July 22, 2011 - January 2, 2012. Exhibition providing a Native perspective on global climate change through photographs, video, and audio of tribal communities from the Arctic to Brazil. Listen to a news story about Arctic Village's contribution to the exhibit that aired on "Alaska News Nightly" September 5, 2011.Da Vinci sketch recreated on melting Arctic ice—Big picture
guardian.co.uk, September 7, 2011. Leonardo da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man has been recreated by an artist in the Arctic to highlight melting ice.Earth: Art of a Changing World
Exhibition put on by GSK Contemporary, a collaboration between GlaxoSmithKline and the Royal Academy of Arts. The goal is to encourage debate, discussion, and creative thinking about the role art can play in the relevance that climate change has in our daily lives.Eliciting a response through art
M. Ingram. Nature Climate Change (2011) 1:133-134. Review of a Cape Farewell exhibition. Cape Farewell is a London-based nonprofit organization that invites small groups of artists to journey with scientists to places such as the Arctic and the Amazon, where they can experience first-hand the effects of climate change.Greenlandic writer brings climate change to youth
J. George, Nunatsiaq Online, May 2, 2011. Author Lana Hansen moved to Copenhagen from Nuuk in 2010. She writes about the realities of climate change faced by Inuit in Greenland and across the Arctic. Hansen's main job now is organizing an exhibition featuring Greenland's top climate artists which will open in 2012 in Berlin and then travel around the world.High Arctic: Future Visions of a Receding World
In September 2010 Matt Clark of United Visual Artists traveled with the arts and climate science foundation Cape Farewell to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Sailing aboard The Noorderlicht, a 100-year old Dutch schooner, Matt saw vast tundra, monochromatic rainbows, and huge chunks of ice falling from calving glaciers. Conceived as a response to the expedition, the exhibition High Arctic uses a combination of sound, light, and sculptural forms to create an abstracted Arctic landscape for visitors to explore.Ian McEwan, teasing farce from flawed humanity
NPR's "Morning Edition," April 2, 2010. About five years ago, writer Ian McEwan joined a group of artists and scientists on a weeklong trip to the Arctic. The trip was sponsored by a British-based project called Cape Farewell, and the idea was to inspire artists to think about climate change. The trip was partly responsible for inspiring McEwan's latest novel, Solar. Lynn Neary interviewed the author. This link includes an excerpt from the novel.Ian McEwan's climate 'boot room'
BBC News, March 14, 2010. This is Andrew Marr's interview with author Ian McEwan on how McEwan's scientific background and trip to the North Pole influenced his new novel about the fears of global warming. McEwan states that his book Solar began from thinking of the boot room on his Arctic boat as a metaphor for the clutter surrounding the issue of climate change.In a changing Arctic, artists seek to inspire change
NPR's "Morning Edition," May 21, 2007. Artist and photographer David Buckland had been talking with scientists about global warming, and he was convinced they needed help to communicate what they knew about the way the world's climate was changing. Buckland has now taken three voyages to the Arctic with groups of artists for his Cape Farewell project. "I think what the artists did is to find a way of making the stories personal," he states. Included here are two video clips, one featuring David Buckland and the other Ian McEwan, from a BBC documentary about the project.The last days of Disko Bay
O. Heffernan, Nature News, September 16, 2008. Founded by artist David Buckland in 2001 to engage the public in climate change, the Cape Farewell project launches its seventh and most ambitious expedition yet at London's Science Museum.Mediating change: Culture and climate change
Every generation faces challenges that previous generations could scarcely imagine. Twenty years ago, few people were talking about climate change; now it's one of the most hotly contested areas in politics. How do artists, writers, musicians, and broadcasters respond when a new subject appears that is as large and significant as this? What kinds of novels, plays, paintings, sculptures, movies, and music begin to emerge? "Mediating Change" is a four-part series produced in 2011 and chaired by BBC Radio 4's Quentin Cooper that looks at what happens when culture meets climate change.Melting Ice / A Hot Topic
For United Nations World Environment Day 2007, the Natural World Museum in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) produced an exhibition that addresses the theme of climate change from a global perspective. Melting Ice / A Hot Topic features paintings, sculptures, photography, multimedia, and conceptual installations from more than 40 international artists from 25 countries. The touring exhibition began June 2007 at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway.Musical weather shows climate influence
Science Daily, September 27, 2011. Scientists at the Universities of Oxford and Reading have catalogued and analyzed depictions of weather in classical music from the 17th century to the present day to help understand how climate affects how people think.Noises off: When is 'relevance' not relevant?
Theatre Blog, guardian.co.uk, February 25, 2011. Global warming may fascinate contemporary theatre, but some bloggers are arguing that the best art focuses on human fundamentals, not the headlines.Novelists try climate change story telling: A critical review of two recent entries
S. Peach, Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, March 4, 2011. In explaining how climate change will remake the world, novelists have some real advantages over journalists. They can play a crucial role in effective climate communications and can illustrate the suffering that climate change may unleash for specific human characters, without the constraints of sound evidence or peer review. Here, Sara Peach reviews two novels: 2045: A Story of Our Future by Peter Seidel, and Human Scale by Kitty Beer.Olympic Arctic art project deserves to sink
Environment Blog, guardian.co.uk, September 22, 2011. This blogger writes, "For a project that claims to be driven by environmental concerns, where is the logic in digging up six tonnes of rock from a pristine environment and then towing it by barge hundreds of miles away for display? If the aim of the project was to raise awareness about the urgency of climate change then, sadly, it seems to have already failed."Sculptures on iceberg highlight climate change
CBC News, March 22, 2010. Two sculptures created by a Dutch artist have been erected on a moving iceberg off the coast of Greenland in an effort to raise awareness about global warming.Theatre: Poles apart on climate
K. Smith. Nature (2011) 471(7336):32-33. Kerri Smith reviews two plays about climate change: Greenland, a production of the National Theatre in London, written by Moira Buffini, Matt Charman, Penelope Skinner, and Jack Thorne; and The Heretic, a production of the Royal Court Theatre in London, written by Richard Bean.Thin Ice: Inuit Traditions within a Changing Environment
N. Stuckenberger (ed.), Hood Museum of Art, 2007, 80 pages. This book accompanies an exhibition that opened on January 20, 2007, at the Hood Museum of Art, that explores the Inuit concept and perception of the Arctic climate as part of their culture. The exhibition presents objects from the Hood's permanent collection—boat miniatures, harpoons, masks, clothing, prints, and canoes, along with photographs—that are deeply embedded in the social and spiritual fabric of Inuit society while addressing the global debate around climate change.Top writers tackle climate change in short stories
A. Flood, guardian.co.uk, August 10, 2011. Novelists from Margaret Atwood to David Mitchell are hoping to bring the dangers posed by climate change to life through a new collection of short stories tackling the climate crisis called I'm with the Bears.Welcome to the greenhouse
G. Van Gelder (ed.), OR Books, 2011, 348 pages. Paolo Bacigalupi reviews a short story collection in which science fiction writers ask if climate change is transforming Earth into the ultimate alien planet.The whale and the supercomputer: On the northern front of climate change
C. Wohlforth. North Point Press, 2004, 322 pages. Climate change is not an abstraction in the far north. It is a reality that has already altered daily life for Native people who still live largely off the land and sea. Likewise, its heavy Arctic footprint has lured scientists seeking to uncover its mysteries. Charles Wohlforth follows both groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape.