News | Study of Environmental Arctic Change

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SEARCH @ AGU23: We’re Bringing Shared Understanding of Arctic Environmental Change to a Meeting Over 25,000 People Strong

8 December 2023

One of the country’s largest scientific gatherings starts next week (11-15 December 2023), and SEARCH is thrilled to be attending once again. The American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 2023 Fall Meeting—aptly abbreviated as AGU23—will see over 25,000 attendees from over 100 countries descend on San Francisco for a week of presentations, meetings, networking, and more. SEARCH…

Co-produced knowledge guides suggestions for the Alaska Energy Security Task Force

27 October 2023

SEARCH’s co-production teams convened in Anchorage earlier this month to advance policy-relevant understanding of environmental change in the Arctic. One working group is exploring equitable and sustainable energy policies for Alaska, and they used the Anchorage convening to co-produce and submit formal comments to the Alaska Energy Security Task Force.  With the public comment period…

SEARCH Syntheses Underway: Bringing together What We Know about Changes in the Arctic

11 August 2023

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…

SEARCH Highlights: How we're working together to share what we know

More Than Just a Book Club

21 August 2023

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…

To Geoengineer Or Not to Geoengineer? That Is the Question.

21 August 2023

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…

The More Minds, the Merrier

21 August 2023

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…

Flipping the Switch on Arctic Energy

15 August 2023

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…

How We Harvest Essential Knowledge

11 August 2023

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…

Laying the Groundwork for Coproduction: Sharing Vision & Values

10 August 2023

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…

Honoring Decades of Contributions to Alaska’s Oceans & Coasts

8 August 2023

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…

Subsistence, Sheefish, & Synthesis across Northwest Alaska

29 July 2023

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…

7+ Semesters of Graduate Student Research

26 July 2023

There’s a lot to do when you’re a full-time graduate student. Classes, projects, internships, networking, career development, and side jobs are but a handful of the things that can occupy your time. Sometimes, folks add collaborating with SEARCH to the mix. This past May, two of our Research Assistants graduated from the Middlebury Institute of…

Sooner or Later: Understanding the “When” of Sea Ice-Free Arctic Summer

26 July 2023

The vast Arctic Ocean at the top of our planet has been covered in sea ice longer than humans have been on Earth. Crucial habitat upon which Arctic ecosystems and people rely, that sea ice cover has historically remained even in the warmest summer months. With rising greenhouse gas emissions from around the world warming …