Abstract:

Despite much scientific research, a considerable amount of uncertainty exists concerning the rate and extent of climate change in the Arctic, and how change will affect regional climatic processes and northern ecosystems. Can an expanded scope of knowledge and inquiry augment understandings of climate change in the north? The extensive use of the land and the coastal ocean in Inuit communities provides a unique source of local environmental expertise that is guided by generations of experience. Environmental change associated with variations in weather and climate has not gone unnoticed by communities that are experiencing change first hand. Little research has been done to explore the contributions of traditional knowledge to climate-change research.