News | Study of Environmental Arctic Change
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SEARCH is a complex collaboration of 50 Indigenous Knowledge holders, scientists, & decision makers co-producing solutions to problems that people face as the Arctic environment changes rapidly. We operate with funding from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs. Our premise is that meeting the profound challenges of rapid environmental change requires decisions informed…
All of SEARCH and many people in Utqiagvik and around the world are greatly saddened by the loss of our colleague and friend, John Craighead George. Craig was lost in a rafting accident on the Chulitna River on 5 July and his body recovered on 16 July. A resident of Utqiagvik for the past 46…
We are pleased to welcome Alexander Shahbazi back to SEARCH. While a student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Alex conducted research on Arctic high seas fishing for the World Wildlife Fund, polar bear management for Polar Bears International, and co-production of knowledge for SEARCH. Since graduating, he founded Terra Virens Consulting…
SEARCH Highlights: How we're working together to share what we know
For Arctic Indigenous People, food is far more than just something to eat. Where most of America drives to grab the same groceries that can be found at supermarkets across the country, folks living in rural Alaskan villages like Kiana and Kotzebue regularly head out onto the land to hunt and forage for traditional foods.…
Once covered in meters-thick sea ice, the Central Arctic Ocean—an area the size of the Mediterranean at the top of our planet—is opening up for the first time in human history as climate change warms the Arctic. Categorized as “high seas” over which no country has jurisdiction, the Central Arctic Ocean is a recent center…
Sometimes, reading a good paper can give folks decent food for thought. Sometimes, it can spark a team to examine some of its fundamental objectives and strategies. In a recent SEARCH reading group, the latter outcome was realized. In discussing both Arctic: Traditional Knowledge, Livelihoods and Community Engagement Setting the Scene by Manrique de Lara…
Community perspectives on using solar geoengineering to limit the impacts of climate change were the topic of conversation in a recent SEARCH reading group. SEARCH members and Arctic researchers from Arizona State University gathered to discuss “Bog here, marshland there”: Tensions in co-producing scientific knowledge on solar geoengineering in the Arctic by Ilona Mettiäinen and…
SEARCH has been hosting regular meetings of Arctic minds for nearly two years. Through bi-weekly reading groups led by SEARCH executive director Athena Copenhaver, practitioners and community members from across the Arctic research world gather to discuss innovative, provocative, and novel Arctic literature. From papers on integrating Indigenous Knowledge with scientific forecasting to keep community…
Electric conversations are the norm for SEARCH’s Arctic Energy Synthesis Group. Zooming in from across the country, team members crackle with enthusiasm as meeting discussions bounce from sustainable power financing in rural Alaska to achieving equitable energy transitions for communities across the circumpolar north. The experts at work offer a taste of the diversity of…
When SEARCH came together in September 2021 with funding from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, we relied on our shared values to guide us into a new way of working together. We needed everyone’s observations and knowledge to be equitably included regardless of whether they were communicated in writing or orally. Mere…
To set the tone during our first all teams convening in Anchorage, Alaska, in June 2022, co-Principal Investigators Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer and Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf began day one by walking all SEARCH teams through the importance of a shared vision and values. After reading aloud and talking about each of the First Alaskans Institute’s shared…
From her childhood in Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island to a career bursting with advocacy and marine management, Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf’s life has been dedicated to Alaska’s oceans and coasts. Earlier this year, that dedication was recognized when the Alaska SeaLife Center presented Vera with the Walter J. and Ermalee Hickel Lifetime Achievement Award. Awarded…
In February 2023, principal investigator Brendan Kelly traveled to northwest Alaska, first to Kotzebue where he and SEARCH team member Cyrus Harris discussed the changing environment with representatives of the Native Village of Kotzebue, Maniilaq Corporation, and the Northwest Arctic Borough. After touring a program—co-produced by Cyrus, colleagues from Maniilaq, and a food scientist—that feeds…