Our best understandings of climate change are as much about culture as about science.
But it’s challenging to bring these two perspectives together. The three sources described here – an article, a podcast, and a book – do so effectively, each looking at some of what global warming is bringing to Arctic Alaska. They recognize the valuable contributions to our understanding made by scientists, by preserved and recovered cultural artifacts and traditions, and by the experience and expertise of indigenous people.
”One Click To Tweet- “In Alaska’s Thawing Permafrost, Humanity’s ‘Library Is on Fire,’” Sabrina Shankman, Inside Climate News (and The Weather Channel), 2017. The title is much narrower than the terrific story.
- The Threshold Podcast, Season 2, “Cold Comfort,” 2018. All 13 half-hour episodes, spanning the global Arctic, are wonderful, but numbers 1, 2, and 8 are set in Alaska, and number 4 focuses on thawing permafrost. (Amy Martin is narrator and executive producer; Nick Mott is producer.)
- The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change, Charles Wohlforth, Northpoint Press, 2004. A nonfiction book you can really get lost in … while you learn a lot about the divergences and intersections of Western and Inupiaq approaches to the land and to knowledge.
This series is curated and written by retired Colorado State University English professor and close climate change watcher SueEllen Campbell of Colorado. To flag works you think warrant attention, send an e-mail to her any time. Let us hear from you.