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- Convenors:
-
Robert Wishart
(University of Aberdeen)
Krister Stoor (Umeå University)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
This panel will examine local and indigenous narratives of Arctic landscapes changing under accelerating climate change. The papers will examine the moral and ethical interpretations of climate change, and challenge the idea that the climate can be written and read by experts.
Long Abstract:
Climate change is having stark effects in Arctic landscapes with local communities struggling both with flooding, uncontrolled wildfires, erosion of banks, and the appearance of new species. Climate has classically been written and read by experts who consult instruments and written records. In this panel we examine broader narratives of landscape change by indigenous observers who often link the agency of fire and water to ethical dilemmas within local communities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper Short Abstract:
This paper engages the work of contemporary Inuit artists from Kinngait to think about the ways in which art has historically documented and responded to local coastal sea ice change within the community and more broadly the impact climate change is having on the art-making of the community.
Paper Abstract:
For many Arctic communities and ecosystems, one of the most impactful consequences of climate warming is the deterioration of coastal sea ice which forms along the Arctic coastline during winter and spring. Further, the experience of sea ice, siku, and the floe edge, sinaaq, varies among local communities. And yet, it is the highly localised and complex nature of the floe edge that has often precluded detailed research into changes to coastal sea ice at community scales. Since the founding of the Kinngait Studios (part of the West Baffin Co-operative, Nunavut) in 1959, countless artists have visually documented sea ice in and beyond the community. Drawings and prints made by Inuit artists and printmakers have, over the past 65 years, engaged with the materiality of sea ice and the important role it plays in facilitating access to the land and open sea. As ice formation becomes increasingly unpredictable, its role and importance within local image-making is similarly evolving. Conscious of Ursula K. Heise’s imperative to consider that local “cultural and ecological systems are imbricated in global ones”, with this paper I engage the work of contemporary Inuit artists from Kinngait to think about the ways in which art has historically documented and responded to local coastal sea ice change within the community and more broadly the impact climate change is having on the art-making of south Qikiqtaaluk.
Paper Short Abstract:
Stories of the way Gwich'in and climate scientists share ideas about events and causation will be presented from the late 1990's when climate change science was beginning to shape research in the Canadian North. Moments of confusion and convergence will be discussed.
Paper Abstract:
In the late 1990's the effects of global climate change were becoming apparent to Gwich'in in the Mackenzie Delta, NWT but also to the teams of climate scientists who were excited to setup their fieldwork sites and begin their sampling of fish, trees, insects, permafrost, water, etc. As a social scientist I was often privy to both sets of descriptions and observations about the way that things had changed. There were times when there were miscommunications and mistrust between them, there were also times when there was convergence between the Gwich'in understanding of causation and that of the scientists. This paper will tell some stories of these times and will attempt to discuss how a change in field practice in this area is perhaps leading to more positive relationships but also to an amplification of academic bureaucracy within the delta.
Paper Short Abstract:
While the people of Tasiilaq (East Greenland) are experiencing the effects of a changing climate, the anthropogenic causes are often questioned. This talk focuses on the challenges of translating between theory and practice in how people learn about climate change and between relational lifeworlds and science.
Paper Abstract:
Climate change is having a profound impact on Arctic communities, as the case of Tasiilaq in Tunu, on Greenland's east coast, illustrates. Drastic reductions in fjord and sea ice and glaciers, an increase in extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, rising temperatures, and corresponding changes in flora and fauna are just some of the effects. While these climatic and environmental changes are well experienced by local people, our research shows that some of them question whether the climatic changes are indeed human-made. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in the region, in this presentation I will focus on findings from a transdisciplinary project on precipitation change in the Tasiilaq region, involving climate scientists, anthropologists and local partners. The project revealed clashes between the scientific explanations and local understandings of climate and environmental change, between bringing together relational lifeworlds and science based on a strong nature/society divide. Drawing on climate change reception studies, I illustrate the challenges of translating between theory and practice in how people learn about climate change and provide an example of a multi-directional approach to living with climate change. The case study supports the findings of a recent Greenland-wide survey that speaks of “a widespread gap between the scientific consensus and coastal Kalaallit views of climate change” (Minor et al. 2022), which is particularly strong in Greenland’s most peripheral regions, on the east coast and in North Greenland. This gap has implications for climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as for science communication.