Presentation short abstract

What does it mean to be a “good” Arctic scientist in times of climate change? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from one of the most productive research stations on the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, I explore how “good” scientific practices form under the shadow of the climate crisis.

Presentation long abstract

Environmental science is relied upon to produce representations of environmental futures to inform global climate targets. I explore how, as the relationship between environmental predictions and governance proves uncertain and scientists develop relationships with the places they study, environmental scientists question and find meaning in their work.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from one of the most productive research stations on the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, the Abisko Scientific Research Station in northernmost Sweden, I ask: What are understandings of what it means to be a “good Arctic scientist” in times of climate change?

Through participant observation during field campaigns alongside interviews, I show how “good” scientific practices change under the shadow of the climate crisis. The scientists revealed these dimensions of their practices by sharing moments of moral ambivalence, feelings of responsibility to Abisko as a place and the Sámi communities whose land they work on, opinions on structural failures in academia and climate governance, challenges they have navigating and communicating uncertainty, and the reasons they continue or fail to be motivated by the project of environmental science. Fundamentally, the omnipresence of climate change in the work of Arctic scientists raises ethical questions, which scientists must orient themselves around, ultimately shaping their practices.

By foregrounding scientists’ doubts, ethical deliberations, and efforts to make their work meaningful, this paper repositions environmental science not as a placeless, detached project of understanding and predicting Arctic worlds but as a deeply human practice embedded in environmentally and socially dynamic Arctic worlds.