Journal
POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 40, Issue 1, Pages 47-71Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11111-018-0302-x
Keywords
Climate change; Indigenous peoples; Mixed methods; Reindeer herding; Cold spells; Variability
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Funding
- USNational Science Foundation
- Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet)
- US Environmental Protection Agency [FP-91733701-1]
- Swedish Vasterbotten County Council (VLL)
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Significant climate change in the Arctic has been observed by indigenous peoples and reported in scientific literature, but there has been little research comparing these two knowledge bases. In this study, Sami reindeer herder interviews and observational weather data were combined to provide a comprehensive description of climate changes in Northern Sweden. The interviewees described warmer winters, shorter snow seasons and cold periods, and increased temperature variability. Weather data supported three of these four observed changes; the only change not evident in the weather data was increased temperature variability. Winter temperatures increased, the number of days in cold periods was significantly reduced, and some stations displayed a 2 month-shorter snow cover season. Interviewees reported that these changes to the wintertime climate are significant, impact their identity, and threaten their livelihood. If consistency between human observations of changing weather patterns and the instrumental meteorological record is observed elsewhere, mixed methods research like this study can produce a clearer, more societally relevant understanding of how the climate is changing and the impacts of those changes on human well-being.
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