North by 2020: A Forum to Explore Responses and Adaptation to Arctic Change

The 4th International Polar Year 2007-09 (IPY-4) highlighted a suite of interconnected transformations underway in the North: (1) major climate and environmental regime shifts; (2) sweeping effects of change on Northern populations and cultures; (3) expansion of global geopolitical and economic interests into the North; and (4) increasing interdependence between the Arctic region and global processes. Many of these factors have strong impacts in Alaska, which is experiencing some of the most drastic changes in terrestrial and ocean environments throughout the Arctic. We highlight activities and findings of North by 2020, a Forum for local and global perspectives on the North at the University of Alaska, as a means to explore, discuss, plan and prepare opportunities for sustainable development in a North experiencing rapid transformation. The Forum facilitates research and education across disciplinary boundaries to address the concerns surrounding Northern futures, engaging public, private, and government stakeholders. It is grouped into five themes (Indigenous Knowledge, Freshwater Systems, Marine Living Resources, Coastal Systems and Offshore Oil and Gas Development) and builds on the role of academia as honest broker of information and visions pertaining to adaptation and mitigation of Arctic change. Using the example of coastal and offshore oil and gas development, we illustrate some of the challenges and outcomes of the Forum. Activities focused on assessment and mitigation of environmental hazards (in particular during the resource exploration phase), and included a stakeholder workshop in Barrow, Alaska and visits by experts from other Arctic countries to explore differences and commonalities in addressing Northern change. Academia has a potentially important role to play in creating a setting that allows stakeholders to explore the solution space for mitigation and adaptation to Arctic change. While such involvement is not necessarily part of the traditional role of universities, it can help foster holistic, interdisciplinary approaches and remove some of the hurdles that may prevent effective communication among stakeholders. North by 2020 subscribed to a philosophy of pragmatic pluralism and we found that considerable value can be derived from building expert communities of practice to anticipate and respond to change.