Canaries in the Ice: The Politics, Science and Community of Climate Change in the Arctic.

Indigenous or Native knowledge reflects a long-term record of environmental functioning and change. Yet, new claims are being made that climate change in the Arctic is erasing the relevance of indigenous knowledge in the circumpolar region. This research begins to explore how climate change and its resultant social, scientific and ecological processes alter Native Arctic knowledge and in so doing shape how adaptation to global warming occurs. Climate-induced processes intersect in intimate ways. Their interrelationships reflect the close connection between environment, knowledge, and everyday life for the Inuit. These processes include melting permafrost that results in forced displacement and loss of cultural practices like hunting and fishing; expert knowledge of temperature change and projected impacts replacing local indigenous knowledge in environmental management; and shifting health risks raising questions about the most basic aspects of life like diet and travel. By taking a combined methodological approach that includes interviews, life histories, film and geographic information systems mapping, I intend to create an understanding of how indigenous Arctic knowledge is shaped by unparalleled ecological change and Western science, and what needs to be done to save their cultural legacies as the earth warms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]