Scientific interest in the Arctic as key to understanding climate change is over a century old. Since then, the issues have changes from trying to understand what caused the ice ages to portraying the Arctic as a bellwether for global warming. The international political landscape has also shifted: from nationalism to an onus on international cooperation, and from Cold War division of the world into East and West to increasing tensions between the global North and global South following decolonization. These changes have come later in the Arctic than globally but are now having major impacts on both science and politics in the region.
This book chapter places the development of climate change science and its interest in the Arctic into the context of these political developments globally and in the Arctic. Based on a case study of the science and policy in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, it highlights how indigenous knowledge is becoming increasingly recognized and connects this recognition to norms for international cooperation in the Arctic and to a challenge of the prerogative of academic science to speak for nature and to define the Arctic.
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