Project Overview
As the world continues to grapple with the devastating effects of climate change, Arctic communities are increasingly facing challenges that not only threaten their environment, but also their traditional ways of life, cultural heritage, and their deep-rooted ties to their lands.
The LostToClimate project studies the unavoidable, non-economic losses caused by climate-induced events among rural Arctic communities. The losses explored through this project extend beyond financial and material damages. This project highlights the importance of recognizing the impacts of climate change that affect people’s identities, their relationships with their ancestral lands, and their connections across generations. The project relies on a range of ethnographic methods that seek to place scientists and community members on an equal footing, to answer four research questions:
- What types of non-economic losses and damages are expected?
- What trade-offs are communities willing to make?
- What evidence supports just responses?
- What responses to non-economic losses and damages do Arctic communities prefer?
Project Team
The LostToClimate team consists of researchers from nine countries, representing eleven institutions: Danish Institute for International Studies (Denmark), University of Southern Denmark (Denmark), University of Turku (Finland), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), University of Bergen (Norway), University of the Faroe Islands (the Faroe Islands), University Centre of the Westfjords (Iceland), University of Alberta (Canada), University of Colorado Boulder (USA), Indiana University (USA), and Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland).
The EDeN Team's Role
The Environmental Demography Network (EDeN) research group at Indiana University is dedicated to understanding and addressing the complex interactions between human populations and their environments. EDeN contributes to the LostToClimate project through:
- Providing data-driven insights into climate migration and adaptation;
- Collaborating on community-engaged research in vulnerable regions;
- Sharing expertise in spatial modelling and environmental demography; and
- Participating in international workshops and knowledge exchange.