Centering Arctic Knowledge in Climate & Security Cooperation With Melody Brown Burkins

Mark your calendars! Laurier’s Cold Regions Research Center and the BSIA Environment and Resources Cluster invite you to a co-sponsored event:

Centering Arctic Knowledge in Climate & Security Cooperation

With Melody Brown Burkins | Wednesday, March 8, 4:00-5:30 ET

Location in person: Balsillie School of International Affairs, Room 143, 67 Erb St. W. Dinner follows for all attendees. Attendance also available via Zoom.

Please register here (both in-person and Zoom links available).

The Arctic region is warming several times faster than the rest of the planet, imperiling Arctic communities as sea ice and permafrost degrade, coastlines erode, Arctic storms intensify, and the seasonal patterns of animals and plants rapidly shift. Amidst these changes, there is increasing pressure for resource extraction, including critical minerals for global transitions to low-carbon economies. Meanwhile, new geopolitical tensions have put cooperative activities with Russia on hold, including meetings of the Arctic Council – a trusted platform for science and policy cooperation between Arctic Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples for over 25 years. Arctic lands and waters have been stewarded for countless generations by diverse Arctic Indigenous Peoples. To reach sustainable, peaceful solutions to the parallel challenges facing the Arctic today, the co-development of knowledge and policy with Arctic Indigenous communities must be at the heart of future Arctic climate and security cooperation.

Melody Brown Burkins, PhD, is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth. She also serves as the 2022-2026 UArctic Chair in Science Diplomacy and Inclusion and, last spring, was honored to be named an International Science Council (ISC) Fellow for her work to advance more inclusive, ethical science policy and diplomacy in the Arctic and around the world.