Climate change outcomes, like other disaster outcomes, are linked to historical inequities which unfold and build up over time. In Shishmaref, Alaska significant climate changes, linked to GHG emissions, make sea ice loss, permafrost thaw, larger storms and sea level rise risky and threatening to Arctic residents; but it is the long history of violence, genocide, and theft of Indigenous Arctic lands and ways of life that also shape the experiences of residents during this era of change. This talk will discuss real climate change justice as a radical departure from the histories of injustice between settler and Indigenous peoples. We will focus on where there have been successes in making inroads into climate justice, and where vulnerabilities and injustices are still woven into the fabric of policy and decision-making.

Organized by University of Maryland, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, & Climate and People Initiative

September 27th, 2018 at 3:00 PM

2113 Chincoteague

Bio: 

Elizabeth Marino is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sustainability at OSU-Cascades. She has worked for over a decade on repetitive flooding issues and climate change displacement, predominantly in rural Alaskan communities. Dr. Marino has also led research investigating tsunami preparedness among different communities of place and practice along the coast of Oregon. She continues to be interested in issues of local agency, decision-making, and risk perception in disaster and climate change scenarios.  She has also begun  work on identifying policy obstacles to relocation as a proactive form of adaptation and preparedness for storms, sea level rise, and hurricanes. Dr. Marino has worked with the Humbolt Forum in Berlin, the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard, and the United Nations University. She is an author in the forthcoming National Climate Assessment; and has recently been appointed as a US delegate of the Arctic Science Ministerial. Dr. Marino’s book, Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground: an ethnography of climate change in Shishmaref, Alaska was released in 2015.