Contrasting North American and European Perspectives on Arctic Climate Change

North Americans and Europeans view global climate change in similar ways, but with pronounced differences in their recognition of the need for action to mitigate and adapt to the consequences of climate change. Contrasting these hemispheric perspectives, following NSF Arctic Visiting Speaker visits to Norway and Portugal in 2008, is the focus of this presentation. Cultural and societal attributes account for differences in perspectives held by North Americans and Europeans on climate change. These include: community history and population density, their primary type of resource dependency, latitudinal proximity to the Arctic and related seasonality, frequency of extreme weather events; source of environmental information, gender, parental history, education type, primary belief system, main recreational activity, and primary mode of transport. Public attitudes about climate change also reflect the level and degree of action taken by their national and regional governments. These include reducing dependency on fossil fuels through increased efficiency in energy use, innovative building design, energy efficient transport systems, and alternative and renewable energy production. Changes at the national level in land use policy and practice in response to climate warming also foster public understanding of climate change issues and generate support for additional adaptive measures by government. In southern Europe, the American southwest, and interior Alaska, increased intensity of summer drought in recent years has lead to efforts to reduce hazards from wildfire. In Portugal, fire resistant native vegetation is being returned to landscapes that had been devoted to production of fire prone crops, such as eucalyptus and exotic pines for fiber production. Fire management is reducing build up of fuels in landscapes dominated by natural forests and shrub lands. Attitudes of university students toward climate change are also contrasted between energy exporting states and countries and those with no fossil fuel reserves, specifically Norway and Alaska, versus Portugal. Indigenous peoples living in the Arctic currently experiencing consequences of accelerated climate warming that are detrimental for their subsistence dependencies. They have experienced environmental changes in the past to which they have adapted, but they have grave concerns about their ability to adapt to the rapid changes driven by the climate warming that has occurred in recent decades.